During Christmas break of 1894–95, Yale University student Malcolm Greene Chace, later known as the "father of hockey in the United States,"[3] invited Alexander Meiklejohn, along with a team of men from Yale, Brown, Harvard, and Columbia to tour Canada with the goal of learning the Canadian game of ice hockey, which differed from the game of ice polo normally played by American college students.

[5][6][7] Cornell's history with ice hockey begins at the close of the 19th century, with the first organized game being played in March 1900 against the University of Buffalo.

That was perhaps just as well as Cornell played four games over a three-year period, with each match being held at the St. Nicholas Rink in New York City, and was then mothballed for two years.

This ended up being a rather poor arrangement since the ice hockey team would have to rely on good weather for their games until the second half of the century.

In 1909 Talbot Hunter arrived to be the first full-time head coach for the Big Red and was able to lead the ice hockey team to a perfect 10–0 record in 1910–11 with none of the games played in Ithaca.

Talbot would leave after 1912 but after one win in two seasons he returned as joint ice hockey, lacrosse and soccer coach, heading the squads for two years before moving on.

While the Big Red wouldn't win many more games over the succeeding three seasons head coach Paul Patten slowly rebuilt the program until it was a respectable squad.

[7] In November 1966 the Cornell faithful were able to get their first taste of Ken Dryden, a goaltender who had made waves on the freshman team the year before, and were overjoyed when the Big Red got off to an 11–0 start.

After two extra periods neither Dryden nor his counterpart had relinquished another goal and the head coaches for both squads agreed to declare the game a draw with both teams claiming the championship.

The following weekend senior David Quarrie was in net for Cornell's first defeat of the season but the 3–4 home loss to Yale lit a fire under the Big Red.

Cornell would not lose another game at the Lynah Rink until February 1972, setting a record that stands today of 63 consecutive home wins.

[7] The Big Red, led by Dryden, Mike Doran, Harry Orr and Doug Ferguson dominated their competition the rest of the year, surrendering only 12 goals in the next 11 games (all victories) finishing the regular season with a 22–1–1 record.

The Big Red met BU in the ECAC championship game for their much-awaited rematch but this time no overtime was needed as Cornell took the title 4–3.

Despite the championship win Boston University received the top eastern seed and were able to play 15–14–1 Michigan State while Cornell was forced to take on the best team in the west, North Dakota.

Cornell was able to defeat the powerful but low-scoring[15] Fighting Sioux in a nail-biter, winning 1–0 before meeting Boston University for the third time in the championship game.

[7] When Dryden graduated in 1969, leaving Cornell without the best player in program history, the Big Red were expected to take a step back but team captains Dick Bertrand, Dan Lodboa and John Hughes weren't about to let that happen.

While Bullock did his job the rest of the Clarkson team couldn't and Cornell claimed its fourth consecutive ECAC tournament championship (a record they hold with Boston University).

The stellar individual performance allowed Cornell to win the game 6–4, claim their second national title, and post the first (and only, as of 2020) undefeated and untied championship season in NCAA Division I history.

After the undefeated season Ned Harkness left the school to take over the Detroit Red Wings, becoming the first college coach to jump directly into the NHL.

[16] The Big Red hardly lost a step under their new bench boss, going 22–5 in his first season but Cornell faltered in the conference playoffs and finished in fourth place, missing the NCAA tournament for the first time in five years.

Though the NCAA had expanded the tournament to 8 teams for that season and discarded the assumed bids for conference runners-up, Cornell had a strong enough record to warrant a #3 seed and get a rematch against Northern Michigan.

The next season saw Cornell produce a losing record and miss the ECAC playoff for the first time since 1964 soon thereafter Bertrand resigned and turned over head coaching duties to his assistant Lou Reycroft.

McCutcheon was able to get Cornell back to a winning record and keep them there for five seasons but could only manage to reach one NCAA tournament and one conference championship game in that time.

Cornell would continue to produce good results under Schafer for the next several years, winning both conference titles in 2005 with David McKee breaking Ken Dryden's team record for lowest single-season save percentage (.947).

The following year the team finished as ECAC tournament runners-up and though they failed to make it out of the regionals they did play in the longest scoreless tie in NCAA history.