ECAC Hockey Video of the Week: Dartmouth Makes It Rain... With Tennis Balls

This is a tradition I haven't heard much about. Supposedly, when Dartmouth plays Princeton in Hanover the Big Green fans throw tennis balls on to the ice after Dartmouth's first goal.


Chad Hollis' article from The Dartmouth on November 4, 2011 gives us some better insight into the tradition:

My favorite Dartmouth athletics ritual occurs when the men’s hockey team plays Princeton University at Thompson Arena. For freshmen who do not know, it is a time-honored tradition to throw tennis balls onto the ice after Dartmouth scores its first goal against Princeton. Fans are strongly encouraged, but not required, to aim directly for Princeton players — bonus points for the goalie.

For the past three years, I have blindly followed tradition and enthusiastically participated in this annual event. With the game coming up on Saturday, I decided to figure out once and for all how and why this tradition started.

According to lore, Princeton fans used to shower the ice with tennis balls after the first goal of every game. Sometime in the mid-1990s, Princeton’s head coach managed to abolish the tradition in New Jersey. In response, Dartmouth fans decided to adopt the abandoned practice as their own. Every year since, students have smuggled tennis balls into the game and thrown them onto the ice after the first Big Green goal.

This somewhat underwhelming history proves that traditions do not always stem from an influential event. Dartmouth students pelt Princeton players with tennis balls simply because it is a fun and unifying experience. At Dartmouth, we love tradition because it makes us feel like we are part of something bigger. No one gets truly hurt and no one suffers, so let the students have their fun.

Over the years, the College and the Eastern College Athletic Conference have attempted to stifle this ritual. The ECAC mandates that Dartmouth be charged with a two-minute “delay of game” penalty if students continue to throw tennis balls. But this only fuels the fire. Every year, officials give Dartmouth the penalty, and it riles up the crowd even more. The noise in Thompson is deafening after the balls are released.

Here are two videos of the great Dartmouth tradition:

In this year's game, it looks like there were no tennis balls thrown on the ice after Dartmouth's first goal, but they were thrown after their second, third, and fifth goals. Luckily for the Big Green, the Tigers did not capitalize on any of the Delay of Game penalties on their way to a 5-3 victory. [Box Score]

Update: According to the Dartmouth SID, "They did throw after the 1st goal but were allowed. PIMs came after 2-5 despite the team (Keenan) asking fans to stop"

The same thing seemed to happen the year before where the fans didn't throw the tennis balls after the first goal, but did after the second, third, and fourth goals. But, once again, the Tigers didn't capitalize and the Big Green won 4-1. [Box Score]

In the 2009-10 season, the fans threw the tennis balls on the ice after Dartmouth's first goal, but the Big Green ended up losing the game. [Box Score]