This Day in Hockey History – February 26, 1900 – Ivy Rivalry

(Photo: Harvard-Yale Hockey Game at Madison Square Garden in 2014, U.S. Department of State from United States, via Wikimedia Commons)

Not many can claim a rivalry as old as Harvard and Yale. Theirs dates back to an 1852 crew race on Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire. On February 26, 1900, as the New York Tribune reported, “Yale and Harvard, long time traditional rivals on field and stream, met for the first time in their history in a hockey game.”

The first Harvard-Yale hockey game took place at St. Nicholas Rink in New York City. Beginning at 8:30 pm, it lasted for two twenty-minute halves. Instead of selling tickets, only invited guests of the two teams and the St. Nicholas Skating Club were allowed to attend. Of the almost 2,000 spectators in black-tie, reportedly about 1,500 of them were “women friends of Yale and Harvard undergraduates and gray-haired graduates.”

Newspaper recaps compared the two teams. The New York Times stated, “The Harvard players were heavier, but the excellent team work of the New Haven men told the story and, despite the fierce rushes of their opponents, kept the Crimson players’ score down.” According to the New York Tribune, “The teams were very evenly matched.” However, the paper, clearly biased for Yale, went on to claim, “Harvard’s team work was slightly inferior to Yale’s, and the men with one exception were only of ordinary speed.” In addition, Harvard had two big disadvantages in that they were used to playing outside (rather than in a rink) and they only had “ordinary clamp” skates (rather than “specially prepared hockey skates”). The one compliment the Tribune had for them was that the “Cambridge forwards played an aggressive game, and constantly used body checking and stick work to excellent effect.” Overall, the Tribune described, “The game was one of the most exciting ever played at the rink, and stands unsurpassed among intercollegiate matches.”

The scoring certainly went back and forth, tying up three times. The Harvard Crimsons got on the board first but two goals by the Yale Bulldogs followed. In the second half, Harvard came back with two more goals. Then, according to the Boston Globe, New Haven rallied “with a typical Yale rush” and “scored three goals in succession so quick that the boys from Cambridge were completely knocked out of their stride.” Harvard managed one last goal in the final 40 seconds. Yale came away with a 5-4 victory. The Globe summarized, “It was the first time the two colleges had met on the ice and Yale’s unbeaten hockey team upset what for the best part of the game looked like a good thing for the Harvard boys.”

Although Yale won their first and only game in 1900, Harvard then won their only matchup in 1901. The two school teams played each other three times in 1902 with Yale sweeping them all. Between their first hockey game in 1900 and November 2018, Harvard and Yale played each other 259 times. Of those, Harvard has the definite lead, having won 145 games (and lost 92 and tied 22). These hockey games are only a fraction of the over 3,000 times in about 40 sports in which Harvard and Yale have competed against each other.

 Additional Sources:

• http://archives.yalealumnimagazine.com/issues/03_02/old_yale.html
• https://www.gocrimson.com/General/releases/20151117
• “Yale’s Game,” Boston Globe, 27 Feb. 1900, p. 4.
• “Yale Hockey Team Wins,” New York Times, 27 Feb. 1900, p. 8.
• “Hockey: Yale Downs the Crimson in a Fast Game by the Score of 5 to 4,” New York Tribune, 27 Feb. 1900, p. 8.