Yale sports: Not just a Miracle on Ice

With solid performances in '97-'98, from hockey to fencing, the future for Bulldog athletics is bright.

The year was 1952. General Dwight D. Eisenhower was seeking the Republican nomination for President. Joe DiMaggio had just retired after his Yankees enjoyed their third of five straight championships. The Detroit Red Wings had captured the Stanley Cup. Yale was an all-male school, boasting fewer than 10 sports, playing a makeshift schedule of national powers and New England rivals. The best of these squads was the hockey team, a scrappy squad that set a school record for wins en route to an appearance in the NCAA tournament.

Some things change, some things stay the same.

Forty-six years later, President Eisenhower is long dead, the Red Wings have claimed another Stanley Cup, and the Bronx Bombers are dominant again. Yale is a vastly different place, boasting a student body that is 50 percent female and an athletic scene that is greatly expanded. The Ivy League was officially formed in 1958, and Yale has been tied to it ever since, cementing those New England rivalries and drifting slowly away from national competitiveness. Despite the differences, one thing remains the same--the men's ice hockey team is the best in school history, a scrappy squad that set a record for wins in a season (23), captured Yale's first ECAC title, and earned a trip to the NCAA championships for the first time since 1952.

The hockey team's resurgence was the highlight of a year that may, to future generations, mark the turning point in the history of Yale athletics. Although only two other Eli squads won an Ivy title (women's fencing, for the third consecutive year, and women's golf, for the second time in a row), 1997-98 marked a return to competitive play for a number of Yale's teams, including the men's soccer, tennis, and basketball teams. This past year also marked the introduction of new coaches to the football, field hockey, and women's ice hockey and crew teams. Although Yale did not fare well in its biggest games, losing especially tough contests to Harvard in The Game, Princeton in basketball, and Dartmouth in women's lacrosse and soccer, the Elis showed that they are ready to challenge for Ivy titles on a regular basis.

Men's hockey: the icing on top of Yale's cake

Coach Tim Taylor's skating Bulldogs enjoyed the most prominent success of the '97-'98 athletic year. The Blue had been selected to finish 10th out of 12 teams in the preseason ECAC coaches' poll, a ranking that seemed justified. Yale had made the ECAC playoffs the year before, but that was the team's first ECAC playoff appearance in four years, and the Bulldogs were only two years removed from a 23-loss season. Goaltender Alex Westlund, SM '99, was taking on the full-time goalie responsibilities after platooning for his first two seasons. Although the defense was deep, led by senior captain and NHL prospect Ray Giroux, BK '98, the forward positions were young, with only one senior returning and a number of freshmen and sophomores expected to get significant minutes.

In November, Eli fans got the first sign that the '97-'98 season was going to be special. The Bulldogs were heading to Cambridge to play Harvard--a team they had not beaten on the road since 1979--sporting a 3-1 record that included a win over defending ECAC champion Clarkson. Coming off a tough overtime loss to Brown, Yale was expected to lose at Bright Hockey Center. Instead, Westlund saved 25 of 26 shots and Jeff Hamilton, SM '00, scored the winning goal as Yale sailed to a 3-1 victory.

Boosted by the surprising win over the despised Crimson, the Bulldogs embarked on a 13-1 streak in ECAC play that left the squad in first place with a six-point cushion and an automatic NCAA bid. Highlighting the Elis' run was a weekend road sweep of both Cornell and Colgate, and the first Yale win at Vermont in 11 years. Westlund, Hamilton, and Giroux all played critical roles in the Blue's push to the top of the conference, but it was the important contributions from unexpected sources that made the difference. Seniors Matt Cumming, JE '98, and Darryl Jones, PC '98, provided experienced leadership and scoring punch, totaling 54 points between them. The biggest effort may have come from rookie winger Ben Stafford, BR '01, who totaled nine goals and 21 points while playing important third-period minutes. Without the depth provided by young players like Stafford, the Elis wouldn't have had the firepower to survive the long season.

A mid-season skid allowed Clarkson to move within one point of Yale with two games to play. Needing two road wins to secure the ECAC title, the Bulldogs came through in the clutch. Westlund made 47 saves over the two games, as Yale topped Union, 4-2, and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 3-1, for the top seed in the ECAC tournament and a bid to the NCAAs.

Yale faced a tough St. Lawrence team in the ECAC quarterfinals. The Elis scored game-tying goals in the last minute of both Games 1 and 2 of the series before slamming the door on SLU in Game 3 with a 4-1 victory. The Bulldogs then traveled to Lake Placid, NY, for the ECAC semifinals. After taking a quick, 1-0 lead over Princeton in the semifinal match, Yale lost Hamilton for the season to a shoulder injury and then the game to the Tigers, 2-1. Without its top scorer and lacking in energy, Yale was whipped by Harvard in the consolation game, 4-1. The losses cost the team a chance at a bye in one of the NCAA regionals, and the Elis were shipped to Ann Arbor, Mich., as the fifth-seed in the West. Yale came out firing against fourth-seed Ohio State, but the Elis couldn't find the net and the season ended in a disappointing 4-0 loss.

The early exit from the NCAA round robin did nothing to dampen the euphoria over Yale's success in 1997-'98. Coach Taylor was awarded the national Coach of the Year award by the of American Hockey Coaches Association, as well as his third ECAC Coach of the Year award. Westlund won the Ken Dryden award as the ECAC's top goalie, and was named a second-team All-America, along with Hamilton. Giroux, who will leave Yale and enter the Philadelphia Flyers minor league system, was named a first-team All-America and one of 10 finalists for the Hobey Baker Award, given to the top player in college hockey.

A year of resurgence and upsets

The overwhelming celebrity of the hockey team overshadowed the impressive accomplishments of the fencing squad. The women fencers dominated the league, running up a 5-0 record and claiming a third straight Ivy title. Meanwhile, Ayo Griffin, SM '00, won the national championship in the men's foil. It was Yale's first-ever individual national title in fencing.

Among the other bright spots for Yale were the women's volleyball and lacrosse teams and the men's basketball and soccer gangs. The volleyball team finished third in the Ivy League and then pulled a stunning, 3-0 upset of Harvard in the Ivy League tournament before succumbing to Dartmouth in the tournament semifinals. The women's lacrosse team also finished third in Ivy play, and the team's 12-4 record earned it a ranking of 13th in the nation. Meanwhile, the men's soccer team finished one game behind league champion Brown, a huge and impressive turnaround from just three years ago when the soccer team lost a school-record 12 straight games. The men's basketball team had its first .500 season in Ivy play since 1992, going 7-7 and placing third behind perennial league powerhouses Princeton and Pennsylvania.

Looking forward to the fall, Yale should expect almost every team to contend for a league title. Recruiting in most every sport has been excellent, especially for the moribund gridders, who are coming off a woeful 1-9, 0-7 Ivy season, one of the worst in Yale's long football history. However, new coach Jack Siedlecki has assembled a top group of freshmen, and the experienced group of upperclassmen, many of whom will be returning after missing last season due to injury, should be much improved. With the shining example of the Ivy-champion hockey team bright in everyone's memory, the football team will have plenty of motivation to attempt its own thrilling comeback, adding another laurel to the growing wreath of Yale athletics.

Photo of Jeff Hamilton, SM '00, by Julia Tiernan.

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