RPI & Union @ Brown & Yale (1/29, 1/30)

[Pappy89]

Re: RPI & Union @ Brown & Yale (1/29, 1/30)

I'm with Waite21 and rpi82 on this one. My first college hockey game was @ HFH. I played intramural hockey in the HFH. I played with the Pep Band on the risers behind the goal @ HFH. My graduation ceremony was in the HFH. My daughter's accepted student's weekend opening ceremony was in the HFH. Plus, there were rock concerts and professional sports there before my time. The school spirit in the late 80's was tremendous, plus I have the memory and hearing loss from 5000 freakout horns (the are not called vuvuzalas in my house) in 1987. Are there better and newer hockey rinks in college hockey? Sure. But there is more to the HFH than the structure. It will always mean as much to me as any other building on campus.

 

[LTsatch]

Re: RPI & Union @ Brown & Yale (1/29, 1/30)

I like Ingalls and rated it highly on my list. However, it feels as if someone wanted to design a trendy building first and a hockey arena second. To me, HFH is a hockey barn in the most affectionate sense of the term. I associate it with hockey tradition (although I've only been going there 40 of its 60+ years), not architectural awards. In fact, if they could come up with a plan to finish the east end in a manner similar to the west (wrap stands around the corners and build a new press box or, better yet, an elevated bandstand where the stage used to be), I hope it lasts far beyond my lifetime.

You do realize that that Ingalls was constructed in 1959? The word trendy did not even exist. I think the terms "one of a kind" or unique might be more apt. You can use those terms for HFH as well, because the building was not designed for hockey. We all love our home rinks, we have no choice.

 

[John Cloninger RPI 96]

Re: RPI & Union @ Brown & Yale (1/29, 1/30)

Ingalls was built between 1953 and 1958. according to Wikipedia. So that probably ranks it in the top quarter of ECAC rinks in age.

HFH has gone through a number of renovations, most notably the support beams/pillars being removed in (I think) the 70s or 80s. Weren't the support pillars the reason for hockey line in the first place? Another renovation was the removal of Section 1, to make way for Queen Shirley's "luxury box". The place isn't exactly an engineering marvel (pun intended), but has stood the test of time in its retrofits. I was one of the last classes to have graduated in that building, May 17th 1996.

On a trip to Clarkson about 15 years ago, I got to see Walker Arena. It was one of the first years of Clarkson in Cheel. Walker was funny...they had laid down astro-turf where the ice was, and there were kids playing baseball/tee-ball on it.

I will agree with the poster that said Cheel and Quinnipiac lack personality. Dartmouth has the "waffle roof". For personality, I think Appleton and Hobey Baker definitely have it.

And also speaking of odd ice sheet sizes, I recall Vermont being 200x90...leaning toward Olympic size. Reminds me of when they had the Winter Olympics in Vancouver (2010), which was a total shame that they played on (NHL) 200x85 instead of the Olympic standard of 200x100. The difference in width changes the game if you ask me.

 

[DrDemento]

Re: RPI & Union @ Brown & Yale (1/29, 1/30)

How many here can remember the strippers at the HFH (whether you want to or not) for Grand Marshall Week? I know Ralph and I do, others??

 

[LTsatch]

Re: RPI & Union @ Brown & Yale (1/29, 1/30)

How many here can remember the strippers at the HFH (whether you want to or not) for Grand Marshall Week? I know Ralph and I do, others??

Strippers! Best rink ever!

 

[rsfs04]

Re: RPI & Union @ Brown & Yale (1/29, 1/30)

I've been to six ECAC rinks: HFH, Appleton, Cheel, TD Bank Sports Center, Bright, and Messa. I'll be adding Meehan and Ingalls this weekend.

If I had to rank the rinks, purely on how I like the arena, it'd go Appleton, HFH, TD Bank, Bright, Messa, Cheel. Appleton with the wooden seats and the wrap-around concourse was just an absolute classic hockey barn. Cheel was the opposite, a boring new-ish rink attached to a student union.

And as a poster mentioned earlier, walking into the Houston Field House literally feels like I'm arriving at home. Lots of memories from school in there. Not a perfect rink, but it's ours.

 

[Ralph Baer]

Re: RPI & Union @ Brown & Yale (1/29, 1/30)

How many here can remember the strippers at the HFH (whether you want to or not) for Grand Marshall Week? I know Ralph and I do, others??

I remember that well. Outside in the parking lot between the HFH and BARH if it was warm, inside if not. They didn't strip that much -- to g-string and pasties, and some were not good looking at all.

The free beer, even though it was swill, was also memorable.

Too bad that RPI becoming more coed and the legal drinking age being raised to 21 more or less ended all of that.

 

[engineerhockeyfan]

Re: RPI & Union @ Brown & Yale (1/29, 1/30)

I have been to HFH, Ingalls, TD Bank arena, Hobey Baker, Bright, Bentley (Rink doesn't deserve a name). and West Point both the old and new buildings.
Each one has its own special nuances. Naturally I have a special feeling for HFH. The old West Point building was a classic.
I agree that TD Bank arena has no character, but it is the best lit and there is not a bad seat in the house.
Hobey, Bright and Ingalls all have a character all there own.
Bentley was nothing more than a practice rink, but the students told me that they were in the process of building a rink on their campus. That is a good thing for all concerned.

 

[rpi82]

Re: RPI & Union @ Brown & Yale (1/29, 1/30)

I remember that well. Outside in the parking lot between the HFH and BARH if it was warm, inside if not. They didn't strip that much -- to g-string and pasties, and some were not good looking at all.

The free beer, even though it was swill, was also memorable.

Too bad that RPI becoming more coed and the legal drinking age being raised to 21 more or less ended all of that.

Strippers in a parking lot seems more than a bit tacky. They were gone by the late 70s but they still had the blue movies when I was a freshman. Oddly, I don't remember seeing them after that year. Did they stop it then or perhaps it was primarily a freshman experience?

Obviously everyone tends to like their own rink. While I like Ingalls, I found the emphasis on the roof interesting. I once went to a Patriots-Falcons game at the Georgia Dome. Perhaps it was the blowout score, but I found myself more interested in the roof design (a series of concentric rings starting with the outside wall, each supporting vertical supports from which were hung the next ring at a higher elevation - so the net effect was to hang the roof "up" from the top of the wall). As an engineer at heart it was fascinating but it really didn't say "football stadium" to me. A roof, padded seats, artificial grass and clean uniforms in winter made it more of an architectural wonder. That's a little bit how I feel about Ingalls - beautiful building and it's one of my favorites, but it's not a hockey barn.

Comparing the old arenas in Boston and New York to the new ones is similar in many ways. TD Garden is a fine building and, in terms of facilities and services, superior to Boston Garden in every way. However, it's sterile and while it lacks the obstructed view seats of the old Garden, it has nothing to compare with the magnificent view from the first row of the old Garden's balcony and the character of the old place. Similarly, the new MSG has a spectacular roof, ironically enough, but I remember speaking to older Rangers fans that spoke longingly for the days in the old Garden. To each their own..........

 

[Ralph Baer]

Re: RPI & Union @ Brown & Yale (1/29, 1/30)

Strippers in a parking lot seems more than a bit tacky. They were gone by the late 70s but they still had the blue movies when I was a freshman. Oddly, I don't remember seeing them after that year. Did they stop it then or perhaps it was primarily a freshman experience?

The whole thing was pretty tacky, I don't recall blue movies being shown while I was an undergrad (spring 1965 through 1968). I didn't go while I was a grad student because of a possible conflict of interest since I was teaching freshman and sophomore math courses at the time.

 

[lugnut92]

Re: RPI & Union @ Brown & Yale (1/29, 1/30)

The Pep Band still has "strippers" during Freakout!, but that's more to reference Slap Shot.

 

[DeepRed72]

Re: RPI & Union @ Brown & Yale (1/29, 1/30)

How many here can remember the strippers at the HFH (whether you want to or not) for Grand Marshall Week? I know Ralph and I do, others??

I recall them at the Armory not the HFH and they also presented the movie "I am Curious Blue." Or was it Curious Yellow? My memory seems a bit foggy but perhaps that was because not that much blood was reaching my brain.

 

[DeepRed72]

Re: RPI & Union @ Brown & Yale (1/29, 1/30)

Having moved to the comparative college hockey wasteland that is Pennsylvania shortly after graduation, I can't claim to have seen games in as many arenas as a number of other posters. I've only seen three of the other arenas currently used for ECAC games - Baker, Lynah, and Starr - and I've only seen Lynah and Starr from the outside.

I can, however, claim to have seen ECAC games in two other arenas - Class of '23 Rink and Schneider Arena - both of those during the 1970's, before Penn abandoned the sport and Providence defected to Hockey East.

Objectively, Class of '23 and Schneider are (or were) probably better places to watch games than the Field House.

However, I can't pretend to be objective. The first hockey game I ever saw was at the RPI Field House (not yet named for Livingston Houston) when my father took me to a game around 1960. And I have many memories, not all of them hockey-related, of the building during the years I was a student. (I'll never forget taking a final exam for a spring semester freshman humanities course on the floor of the Field House - while workers were applying a fresh coat of paint to the concrete steps in the stands. I about passed out from the paint fumes.)

I don't make the trip to Troy very often, but when I do, as soon as I walk through the door of the Field House, I feel that I am home. No other hockey arena will ever give me that feeling. That's why it's always going to be # 1 for me.

I had his wife, affectionately known as "Ma" Houston, for Calculus II. That was in 1968-69, I believe she was Emeritus status at that time. Geez I must have luckily missed getting Ralph as a professor as his first year as a grad student was my Freshman year.

 

[DeepRed72]

Re: RPI & Union @ Brown & Yale (1/29, 1/30)

Should we add to the list of ECAC rinks, the Lake Placid Herb Brooks Arena, the Knickerbocker/Pepsi/Times Union Center, the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, Boston/Matthews Arena and the old North Station Boston Garden since they all hosted the ECAC playoff final four (or five for a few years) at one time or anther? I've been to Placid, Times Union and Boston Garden but not Atlantic City or Matthews.

 

[lugnut92]

Re: RPI & Union @ Brown & Yale (1/29, 1/30)

Should we add to the list of ECAC rinks, the Lake Placid Herb Brooks Arena, the Knickerbocker/Pepsi/Times Union Center, the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City and the old North Station Boston Garden to the list of ECAC rinks since they all hosted the ECAC playoff final four? I've been to all except Atlantic City.

I've only been to Herb Brooks and the TUC. Never had a reason to go to Boardwalk Hall and Boston Garden stopped hosting the tournament before I was born (and was demolished 11 years before my first college hockey game). Herb Brooks is nice I guess, though it would be entirely generic if it weren't for the events of 1980, and the TUC is kind of an outdated AHL rink. If I had to rank them in my other list, they'd both probably be in the bottom half, though above Starr, Cheel, and Messa.

 

[DeepRed72]

Re: RPI & Union @ Brown & Yale (1/29, 1/30)

I've only been to Herb Brooks and the TUC. Never had a reason to go to Boardwalk Hall and Boston Garden stopped hosting the tournament before I was born (and was demolished 11 years before my first college hockey game). Herb Brooks is nice I guess, though it would be entirely generic if it weren't for the events of 1980, and the TUC is kind of an outdated AHL rink. If I had to rank them in my other list, they'd both probably be in the bottom half, though above Starr, Cheel, and Messa.

You responded before I realized I had left out Matthews. Ever been there?

 

[lugnut92]

Re: RPI & Union @ Brown & Yale (1/29, 1/30)

You responded before I realized I had left out Matthews. Ever been there?

I have. Northeastern hosted the women's team my sophomore year, and the Pep Band made the day trip to play for the game. The rink was basically empty and RPI got tuned up, so I don't really have an opinion of the rink. It seemed kind of small and cramped, but what can you really expect of a 100+ year old rink?

 

[engineerhockeyfan]

Re: RPI & Union @ Brown & Yale (1/29, 1/30)

Strippers in a parking lot seems more than a bit tacky. They were gone by the late 70s but they still had the blue movies when I was a freshman. Oddly, I don't remember seeing them after that year. Did they stop it then or perhaps it was primarily a freshman experience?

Obviously everyone tends to like their own rink. While I like Ingalls, I found the emphasis on the roof interesting. I once went to a Patriots-Falcons game at the Georgia Dome. Perhaps it was the blowout score, but I found myself more interested in the roof design (a series of concentric rings starting with the outside wall, each supporting vertical supports from which were hung the next ring at a higher elevation - so the net effect was to hang the roof "up" from the top of the wall). As an engineer at heart it was fascinating but it really didn't say "football stadium" to me. A roof, padded seats, artificial grass and clean uniforms in winter made it more of an architectural wonder. That's a little bit how I feel about Ingalls - beautiful building and it's one of my favorites, but it's not a hockey barn.

Comparing the old arenas in Boston and New York to the new ones is similar in many ways. TD Garden is a fine building and, in terms of facilities and services, superior to Boston Garden in every way. However, it's sterile and while it lacks the obstructed view seats of the old Garden, it has nothing to compare with the magnificent view from the first row of the old Garden's balcony and the character of the old place. Similarly, the new MSG has a spectacular roof, ironically enough, but I remember speaking to older Rangers fans that spoke longingly for the days in the old Garden. To each their own..........

I spent many a Sunday night in the front row of the end balcony at old MSG ($2,00). They were the best seats as they gave a perfect unobstructed view of the ice. And even though it was the balcony it was close enough to clearly see the players faces. Even the goalies. Of course this was before goalie masks and helmets. Old time hockey.

 

[Ralph Baer]

Re: RPI & Union @ Brown & Yale (1/29, 1/30)

I had his wife, affectionately known as "Ma" Houston, for Calculus II. That was in 1968-69, I believe she was Emeritus status at that time. Geez I must have luckily missed getting Ralph as a professor as his first year as a grad student was my Freshman year.

I was a TA, not a professor. I am pretty sure I asked you if I taught any courses which you took when you started posting. I taught a lot of classes primarily taken by RPI '72 your freshman and sophomore years.

 

[DrDemento]

Re: RPI & Union @ Brown & Yale (1/29, 1/30)

I remember that well. Outside in the parking lot between the HFH and BARH if it was warm, inside if not. They didn't strip that much -- to g-string and pasties, and some were not good looking at all.

The free beer, even though it was swill, was also memorable.

Too bad that RPI becoming more coed and the legal drinking age being raised to 21 more or less ended all of that.

Not sure what ended it RB but i only saw them in the HFH and never out in the parking lot. Not many were exactly great looking but there were a few. It was raucous with all the free beer and a lot of fun at least from 1963-1966. I guess it would not be politically correct these days.