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Dartmouth Athletic Director Asks Students Not to Throw Tennis Balls

By Chris Dilks

Among the stranger traditions in college hockey is that when Dartmouth scores their first goal of the game against Princeton, students throw tennis balls on the ice.

The tradition dates back to 1998 when a single Princeton student threw a tennis ball at a Dartmouth goalie after Princeton's first goal of the game. Since then, Dartmouth has retaliated by throwing hundreds of tennis balls onto the ice:

It's mostly a fun tradition that results in the occasional delay of game penalty. But this weekend, Dartmouth hosts Princeton in the first round of the ECAC playoffs. And Dartmouth athletic director Harry Sheehy is asking students to put the tennis ball tradition on hold, lest the Big Green risk a penalty in a crucial playoff game, even threatening to take away the students' free tickets if they do not comply: