The ceremonial start to the 2009 Red Hot Hockey game. Cornelliana With Red Hot Hockey, Annual MSG Tradition Keeps Sizzling Stories You May Like Clueless About Watching Football? Pro Alum Will Help You Fake it On a Glorious Fall Weekend, Cornellians Come Home Once Upon a Time, Beebe Was a Wonderland for Frozen Fun Generations of Lynah Faithful will descend on Midtown Manhattan for the annual Thanksgiving weekend showdown on ice Check out our hockey-themed crossword puzzle by master constructor Fred Piscop ’70! By Lindsay Lennon For Big Red hockey fans—and many other Cornellians throughout the NYC metro area—it’s a Thanksgiving tradition on par with turkey and pumpkin pie: a festive weekend game in legendary Madison Square Garden. On Saturday, November 25, the fabled arena will host Red Hot Hockey, the spirited game that brings thousands of Lynah Faithful to Midtown every other year. For many alumni, the annual MSG game is a family affair. Unlike the Frozen Apple—the other biennial game in MSG, in which Cornell faces off against varying opponents—Red Hot Hockey always pits the Big Red against the same team: Boston University. (Past Frozen Apple opponents have included Yale, Harvard, Michigan, and Penn State; most recently, in 2022, it was the UConn Huskies.) “It brings a wide swath of Cornellians and multiple generations of Lynah Faithful together,” says Scott Pesner ’87, vice president of the Cornell Hockey Association, which promotes and supports Big Red men’s hockey. “When you have 10,000 alumni and their families and friends in one arena, it really is an amazing experience.” Despite the different titles, Red Hot Hockey and the Frozen Apple have intertwined roots. Stories You May Like Clueless About Watching Football? Pro Alum Will Help You Fake it On a Glorious Fall Weekend, Cornellians Come Home After longtime hockey rivals Cornell and B.U. were split into different leagues in the 1980s—ECAC and Hockey East, respectively—they seldom got to face each other. The friendly foes rekindled their rivalry in 2007 with the introduction of Red Hot Hockey, drawing a sold-out crowd to MSG. CORNELL VS. BOSTON Saturday, November 25 Madison Square Garden Doors open: 6:30 p.m. Puck drops: 8 p.m. Event registration: click here (Among the 18,000 attendees at that debut game were hockey royalty: members of the U.S.'s 1980 Olympic championship team, winners of the "Miracle on Ice" against the Soviet Union.) The Frozen Apple tradition began in 2012; that game is held in even-numbered years, with Red Hot Hockey continuing in odd-numbered ones. Tickets to this year's game are available through Cornell Athletics, and more than two dozen classes are offering block seating (a few blocks have already sold out). Holiday on Ice While the MSG events are decidedly New York-centric, Pesner notes, they also inspire Cornellians from far beyond the metro area to incorporate the game into their holiday travels. “It brings classes and clubs together; a lot of alumni bring their children,” says Pesner. “Current students get to see that they’re part of a longer history—not just the Lynah Faithful, but a larger Cornell community. There’s a lot of pride when you walk in and out of Madison Square Garden and everyone is wearing Cornell red.” Top: The ceremonial start to the 2009 Red Hot Hockey game. All photos by Cornell University photographers. Published on October 27, 2023 Leave a Comment Cancel replyOnce your comment is approved, your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *Comment * Name * Class Year Email * Save my name, email, and class year in this browser for the next time I comment. Δ Other stories You may like Alumni Alum Launches First Smithsonian Museum Dedicated to Women Chime In Remember Applying to College? Now It’s Your Kids’ Turn Campus & Beyond Bridge Project Connects Student Engineers with ’80s Alumni