(And as for the setting, the vast Baker 200: \u201cMy last memory of this was an exam, and that didn\u2019t go well\u2014so hopefully this goes a lot better than that.\u201d)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Schafer\u2019s hourlong speech\u2014accompanied by some slides and short videos, but delivered extemporaneously\u2014was a huge hit with the standing-room-only crowd, which numbered about 500 in the lecture hall and another 100 watching on Zoom in an overflow space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI just moved all my stuff from my office: championship rings, coach of the year awards,\u201d Schafer noted at one point. \u201cDo you know where they are? Where my wife put all my awards from college: in a bin in the basement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nTo really think about what you\u2019d say in your last lecture\u2014and try to piece that all together with all the different things that you try to teach your players throughout the course of a 40-year career\u2014is kind of intimidating.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
His overarching message: that the journey matters more than the destination\u2014and that winning games or awards is ultimately far less important than building character. “If you find the wisdom to know the difference between what you can and can\u2019t control,” he told his audience toward the end of his remarks, “you\u2019ll live a happier life.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The following are excerpts from Schafer\u2019s lecture, which included words of wisdom on a range of topics, from leadership to modern manhood. (Quotes have been lightly edited and condensed.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the crucial role of university athletics:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cLynah Rink combines students, faculty, townspeople, and alumni\u2014all in one place. When you guys go to Lynah, it\u2019s probably not because you know a lot about hockey. It\u2019s to cheer on your school and have pride. When you see 14,000 Cornellians in Madison Square Garden dressed in red, you see the importance of athletics. It brings that school spirit. Studying chemistry in Baker Lab doesn\u2019t drive that bus.\u201d [He laughs.]<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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On his background:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cI\u2019m the youngest in a family of nine. Our home was 900 square feet. I was what Cornell embodies: I was the first generation. How many people here are the first generation in your family to go to college? Hands up! [Many hands rise.]<\/em> That\u2019s crazy, right?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nOn what motivates him:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cI say to our team all the time: you either love to win or you hate to lose, but there\u2019s always something that really motivates you. For me, it was my mother, who told me, \u2018You could never go to college.\u2019 Okay\u2014I\u2019ll show you. My motivation is to prove people wrong\u2014to prove that I can do it. Always has been, and always will be. And I tried for our team to embody that a little bit\u2014to have an underdog mentality.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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On his early hockey career:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cI left home when I was 17 and played junior hockey, and that\u2019s when I realized that sports were a bit of a cutthroat living, because lots of guys got cut from our team and traded. I didn\u2019t know if I was going to be able to stay there and survive\u2014whether I was going to get sent back to my hometown and have to work in the factory, like my five brothers did. And then I got into Cornell.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nWhen you see 14,000 Cornellians in Madison Square Garden dressed in red, you see the importance of athletics. It brings that school spirit.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
On his introduction to the Hill:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cI still remember being on North Campus and listening to all these kids talk about their achievements, and seeing how smart they were. And I was like, \u2018Oh, my God, I don\u2019t belong here.\u2019 I came from a really small town, and I learned so much by talking to other people from across the world. It opened my eyes up, for a kind-of-redneck guy from Durham, Ontario.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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On his early days as an assistant coach:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cI spent four years here, and then I knew I needed to leave. I needed a change. I needed a challenge. I needed to go somewhere else and learn from someone different. I went to Kalamazoo, Michigan, and I was there for five years. Western Michigan just won the [2025] national title in hockey. It was kind of bittersweet, because I was wishing we were there to beat them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On his return as head coach in 1995:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cI was 32 years old. Okay, now I got the job. What do I do? And for me, it was pretty easy: I was going to build a culture\u2014everything that I grew up learning, a work ethic.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On a key lesson from his dad:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cI remember going home my freshman year thinking I was pretty hot, playing hockey at a Division I school, going to college. I was exhausted, and my dad woke me up at 6:30 in the morning: \u2018Let\u2019s go. We\u2019re putting up a snow fence.\u2019 And for the next eight hours I\u2019m in the snow, putting in a fence. I\u2019m like, \u2018Oh, I\u2019d better get that degree.\u2019 But his work ethic was tremendous\u2014he worked three jobs\u2014and that\u2019s a lot of what I based our teams on: \u2018We are going to outwork you in every situation.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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On instilling team culture:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cI told our guys at my first meeting. \u2018I want you to work hard, but I want you to encourage each other. I want you to take care of each other.\u2019 So we\u2019re running the stadium steps and they\u2019re starting to drop, but there\u2019s not one guy helping anybody else. So I\u2019m like, \u2018Again, let\u2019s go.\u2019 It took them a long time to figure it out. But as soon as one guy helped another guy, we were done; that was the start of our culture. We were going to outwork everybody, but we were going to be tight as a hockey team. That is still one of the pillars of our program.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On promoting a \u201cgrowth mindset\u201d:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cEverybody wants to win a national championship, to win a game, to be financially successful, to be happy in their job. But applaud the process rather than the result; praise effort, not talent. We have nothing in our room that says anything about players of the week, players of the month, All-Americans. We never bring it up, because all I want to do is praise effort.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nI told our guys at my first meeting. \u2018I want you to work hard, but I want you to encourage each other. I want you to take care of each other.\u2019\u00a0We were going to outwork everybody, but we were going to be tight as a hockey team.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
On a positive vision of manhood:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201c\u2018Being a man\u2019 is always about material things, conquests, to be as rich as you can, and have power, right? Go for the money, have success\u2014but what are you going to do with it? Are you going to use it wisely and be a strong person in your community? Are you going to help others? Those are things we talk about with our guys. Being emotional, being vulnerable; we have a retreat where we talk about the person that you respect most in the world, the worst and best days of your life. To see young men break down and cry\u2014it\u2019s powerful.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the primacy of trust:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s in everything you do. If your players don\u2019t trust you, if you\u2019re not trusted as a boss, if you\u2019re not trusted as a husband\u2014what kind of relationships do you have? I\u2019m a very vengeful person. [He laughs.] <\/em>What I mean by that is, you break my trust, it\u2019s over. I wish I was a better person than that, but I\u2019m not. I\u2019m 62, I\u2019m retiring, and probably not changing. Trust is the most important thing in my relationship with anybody in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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On the value of selflessness:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cHow many guys walk into my office: \u2018I\u2019m really struggling. I\u2019m going to blow this. I\u2019m not playing.\u2019 I\u2019m like, \u2018Hey, why don\u2019t you get away from the \u201cI\u201d and ask other guys how they\u2019re feeling? Can you do something for them? Give them a ride home?\u2019 Being a lot less selfish and more selfless\u2014that\u2019s the key to mental health and longevity in any job or in life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nIf your players don\u2019t trust you, if you\u2019re not trusted as a boss, if you\u2019re not trusted as a husband\u2014what kind of relationships do you have?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
On leadership:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cSomeone\u2019s always gonna be unhappy with a decision you make\u2014with the starting lineup, who plays, who doesn\u2019t play. So in my position as a leader, I always thought: make the right decision and live with it, because then you can put your head down to sleep at night. Don\u2019t question yourself. Don\u2019t worry about the person that\u2019s mad. Just worry about making the right decision.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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On why confrontation is not only positive, but essential:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cThe number-one thing in leadership is confrontation. Most people hate it. They avoid it, and that undermines team-building. Confrontation is key to being a great leader, because a leader is a conduit to accountability. What I mean by that is: ‘I didn\u2019t fire you; you got yourself fired. I didn\u2019t cut you; you cut yourself. You\u2019re not doing your job. You\u2019re not being productive. I\u2019m just the bearer of bad news.’ Leaders have to make those tough decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On what it means to be mentally tough:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cMentally tough people welcome challenges; if I fail, I get back up. Don\u2019t worry about being judged and pleasing people. Don\u2019t resent other people\u2019s success. Do what makes you happy. Don\u2019t expect immediate results. A lot of kids feel they\u2019re owed something; mentally tough people don\u2019t feel that way. They don\u2019t feel like they should be the first-line left-winger. They don\u2019t feel they should be on a power play. They just figure, \u2018If I work hard, I will get that promotion.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Published April 29, 2025<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As Mike Schafer \u201986 prepares to retire, a packed house takes in his life lessons\u2014on topics from team culture to mental toughness<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":51066,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"alumni_hub_syml_posts":[50010,32249,45975],"footnotes":""},"categories":[227],"tags":[],"cornell_year_post":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-51064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-beyond"],"yoast_head":"\n
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