History:
Lynah Rink, turning 50 years old in 2007, is the home of Big Red hockey. The rink, which was dedicated April 6, 1957, was named in honor of the late James Lynah (class of 1905), director of athletics at Cornell from 1935-43.
Cornell began sponsoring a hockey team in 1900-01. All the Big Red's home games were played on the university's outdoor rink at Beebe Lake until the 1947-48 season when a series of abnormally mild winters left the team on "thin ice" at Beebe, causing Cornell to drop its hockey program entirely. Fortunately, the construction of Lynah Rink gave the team a new home, enabling Cornell to resume ice hockey as a varsity sport for the 1957-58 season.
Lynah has received a facelift or two since its inaugural game on March 21, 1957, between the N.Y. Rangers of the NHL and the Rochester Americans of the AHL. During the summer of 2006, the rink underwent a 16,700 square foot expansion that added new locker rooms, coaches offices, study lounges, new athletic training space and the addition of approximately 450 new seats. Prior to the expansion of the support space, the university spent nearly $1 million in renovations to Lynah in the summer of 2000, replacing the rink floor, drainage system, frost protection and refrigeration piping, as well as adding new boards and seamless glass.
