By Joe Gladziszewski

ITHACA, N.Y. — Photographs capture moments and the most notable photographs in team sports involve championship celebrations and trophy presentations. Such images illustrate the realization of achievement. But if pictures are worth a thousand words or more, a championship photo taken at the Onondaga County War Memorial in March of 1967 featuring Cornell men's ice hockey coach Ned Harkness and captains Murray Deathe and Dave Ferguson accepting the NCAA Championship trophy is somewhat misleading. The story associated with that moment isn't a culmination. It's a story of progression and improvement, and of the standard that Cornell hockey holds to this very day.

The 1966-67 Cornell hockey championship team is honored and celebrated this weekend. The Big Red won the university's first national championship in hockey 50 years ago, but the story of that season begins four years earlier, and it begins with head coach Ned Harkness.

Ned Harkness took over as head coach for hockey at Cornell for the 1963-64 season. After a successful 14-year tenure at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute that included leading RPI to the 1954 NCAA title, Harkness came to Ithaca's East Hill and immediately set out to raise Cornell's standing in college hockey and make the Big Red a national championship contender.

The head coach wasn't the only notable newcomer to the campus. An incoming freshman class of hockey players that numbered around a dozen began its four-year matriculation at Cornell. While Harkness led the varsity team in its 1963-64 season to a 12-10-1 record following decades of mostly losing seasons, the group of freshmen started to realize that things were changing for Cornell hockey and they would be a big part of it.

"Everybody would say, particularly our class, we always thought the best year that Ned had as a coach was the year that we were freshmen. That was his first year and he had basically two lines, three defensemen and a goalie, and went 12-10 and beat RPI once and he worked that team. We used to watch them as freshmen practicing and we were scared to death," Murray Deathe '67 said.

In that era, the freshman team competed on its own, separate from varsity. The coaching philosophy of Harkness and training demanded of his players in both hockey and lacrosse required the best of every man.

"His philosophy at RPI, Cornell, wherever he went was the same," said Tom Harkness, son of Ned. "You gave 110 percent with everything, that included lacrosse. Whatever sport you played for Ned, it was 110 and he gave 110 for his kids. He'd go right through the brick wall for his kids and they did the same for him."

A changing attitude and prominent group of freshmen that included Deathe and Paul Althouse, along with standout players such as Mike Doran and Harry Orr started to build camaraderie on and off the ice. Goaltender David Quarrie was a part of the group, as were Bob Ferguson and Bob Kinaswich. Bob Ferguson's older brothers, twins Dave and Doug Ferguson, were in classes on campus but didn't participate in the freshman team's season 1963-64 season. They joined the rest of the class as sophomores on the varsity in the following campaign.

"I remember the first road trip we had was up to St. Lawrence," Paul Althouse '67 recalled of the start of the group's college hockey careers. "As freshmen we didn't know much about St. Lawrence except that they were very strong in hockey. We went up there and we beat them. That set the tone that there was something special going on with the hockey program at Cornell."

'Everyone was keenly interested'
The Class of 1967 monitored how Harkness worked with his varsity players, and saw the improvement on the ice and the growing support of the campus and the community as Cornell hockey became the place to be in town.

That group moved up and joined the varsity for the 1964-65 season. Bolstered by the addition of the Ferguson twins and led by upperclass players such as Ed Sauer, Murray Stephen, Ron Lampman, and Errol McKibbon, the group set out to prove that the improvement of Cornell hockey in Harkness's first year as head coach was no fluke.

The prior year's 12-10-1 record fell just one win short of the school record for single-season victories established in a 13-5 campaign in 1961-62. That win mark was shattered when the 1964-65 Big Red went 19-7 with a 7-3 record in Ivy League play and a 13-5 mark in ECAC competition.

Those victories helped declare Cornell's rising presence among the nation's best hockey teams, but one of the most impactful parts of that season was a January night at Lynah Rink, when the University of Michigan visited and came away with a 7-1 victory. Michigan was the defending national champion. The Wolverines won the title in 1964, which was their seventh national title in the previous 17 years. Their level of play showed Cornell what it aspired to be.

At the same time, Cornell hockey's popularity increased. Loyal followers jammed Lynah Rink and traveled to games across the region. Students lined up for season passes and fans supported the Big Red at holiday and postseason events at Madison Square Garden and the Boston Garden.

"It was amazing, quite frankly. This will happen with any university and any program. If you get the reputation of being good and being able to compete and make your university proud, it increases the interest of the university but also the people of the town. Word got around very quickly that Cornell was going to be a prominent player in hockey," Althouse said.

"The interest grew, and that was only natural because we were improving. I think that everybody thought, 'This group has a chance at winning a national championship.'" With that in the back of the mind at the university and with the citizens of Ithaca, all of those hockey supporters, everyone was keenly interested."

Cornell embarked on the 1965-66 season with higher goals in mind. The Big Red won the annual ECAC Holiday Festival at Madison Square Garden with a 3-1 victory over Colgate and 5-2 triumph against St. Lawrence. Another mid-season test against a Western power exposed the team to the traditional strength of those programs. Harkness arranged for a two-game series at the University of Denver, the three-time national champions led by legendary coach Murray Armstrong. As opposed to the previous year's defeat by Michigan on home ice, Cornell played a pair of closer games at Denver over the turn of the New Year. The eight-day trip again illustrated that Cornell was making progress and strengthened the team's rapport.

After returning from Denver, Cornell won 13 of its next 14 games, with the lone defeat coming in overtime at Harvard. The Big Red again set a school record for wins with a 22-5 mark. Cornell made it to the finals of the ECAC Tournament at the Boston Garden and fell to Clarkson.

The usual practice at that time was to select the top-two Eastern and Western hockey programs to compete in the four-team national championship tournament. Due to a dispute between the NCAA and the Ivy League, Cornell was not in consideration for selection to the 1966 event. Clarkson ended up finishing as NCAA runner-up to Michigan State.

Putting it all together
Headed into its senior season, the Class of 1967 had confidence in its improved standing in the college hockey world, talent at different positions on the ice, and the coaching of Harkness. They also had a rising sophomore class of standout players to bolster the 1966-67 roster. The Class of 1969 featured future All-Americans like Pete Tufford, Bruce Pattison, Brian Cornell, and — of course — goaltender Ken Dryden.

The established senior leaders welcomed the group to Cornell one year earlier, and now had the opportunity to compete alongside each other every day in practice and on the ice against rival institutions. The likes of Mike Doran welcomed and mentored younger players.

"We had a solid group of freshmen, and we were pretty close. I think it was the meshing of us with a senior class," Tufford said. "There wasn't any pressure. There wasn't any taking of sides and you needed to do this and you needed to do that. Ned was the coach and we all followed along. We all wanted to win and came out to win."

That philosophy came from the top, as Harkness held each player accountable and demanded the best of each in practice and in games.

"Everybody did their part," Tom Harkness said. "Whatever position you played, whether it was the first line, second line, defense, goaltender. Everybody who played for Dad did their part and knew what their role was. Nobody was the key guy or the standout guy and everybody did everything they could."

The 1966-67 Cornell team set out on a milestone season in dominant fashion. The Big Red won the first 11 games of the year. They defended the ECAC Holiday Tournament title with wins over Northeastern and defending national champion Michigan State. On three consecutive nights in late December, Cornell beat Northeastern and Harvard and then tied Boston University in the Boston Arena Christmas Tournament. Cornell and BU were declared co-champions after two overtime periods left the game deadlocked 3-3.

The team's only loss of the year came in the subsequent game, a 4-3 overtime setback against Yale. Cornell responded with two wins over Colgate and a win against Brown by a combined total score of 24-3 in those games.

Even when things were going well, Harkness had a way of pushing the team to do more.

"Ned hated to lose and did whatever it took to win. He'd make up any kind of story. If we beat a team a month ago by five goals, he'd come up with some story about they played somebody, and then they played somebody else and they only lost by two. That was his way of getting us going," Pete Tufford '69 said. "He was a fierce competitor. During practices, he would get a little feisty. He knew how to get the players who were not producing to produce. He knew who to pat on the back and who to get feisty with. That was his thing."

Cornell won its final 11 games of the regular season, battered Brown 11-2 in an ECAC quarterfinal at Lynah, and blitzed Boston College 12-2 in the ECAC semifinals at the Boston Garden. The ECAC Championship was the second meeting of the season between Cornell and Boston University. Cornell won 4-3 and captured the school's first Eastern title.

East meets West — and East's big rematch
Cornell was selected to participate in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in school history. As a bonus, the 1967 championship took place in Syracuse. The Big Red were the geographically-based home team for the event that also included North Dakota, Michigan State, and Boston University.

The Big Red had familiarity with Michigan State and Boston University from regular-season meetings, but the semifinal opponent for Cornell was North Dakota.

"I don't recall that we knew that much about North Dakota and I'm not sure what they knew about us, but we hoped that they were more fearful of us than we were of them," Tufford said.

It was the first-ever meeting between the proud hockey programs and featured a goaltending matchup for the ages. Dryden backstopped the Big Red against North Dakota's Mike Curran. Deathe, a senior captain on the eventual champions, called it the toughest game of the season. A late first-period goal from Walt "Skip" Stanowski gave Cornell the lead.

Boston University defeated Michigan State 4-2 in the other semifinal to set up the title-game matchup.

"That was the third time that we played BU. We played them at their rink and that was our tie. Then we beat them in the ECAC championship. We weren't overly confident, but we also knew they were getting a little frustrated with Dryden. He was our ace in the hole," Deathe said. "We were pretty confident that we should win if we played well, and Ned made sure that we played well."

Cornell came out flying and took the lead just 1:26 into the first period. Bobby Kinasewich scored on assists from Deathe and Stanowski. With 1:05 remaining in the first period, Stanowski scored a power-play goal assisted by Dave Ferguson and Harry Orr.

A power-play goal by Doug Ferguson, assisted by Dave Ferguson, stretched Cornell's lead to 3-0 in the second period. BU scored 12 seconds later to pull within 3-1. The only goal of the third period was scored by Cornell's Bob McGuinn on assists from Ted Coviello and Stanowski. Dryden made 32 saves.

Cornell won its first NCAA Championship in its first-ever appearance in the national tournament. The legendary 1966-67 team finished with a 27-1-1 record. It also proved Cornell's place among the elite programs in college hockey. Cornell returned to the national tournament in 1968 (third place) and 1969 (second place). That, of course, led to the undefeated, untied 29-0-0 national championship team of 1970.

Four years of improvement, strong relationships between teammates, and outstanding leadership from a legendary head coach yielded the ultimate result in March of 1967. The growth in the team's popularity and standard for national success stands to this very day. After 50 years, the impact of that achievement still resonates within Lynah Rink.