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Yale Bulldog Hockey Maples

Four Norway Maple trees (Acer platanus) grew in front of Ingalls Rink, The Whale, on Prospect Street. Two of these trees date to the 1960s, soon after the construction of the rink was completed in 1958. In 2011 the Bulldogs won the ECAC tournament and for the first time in it's history received a #1 seed going into the NCAA tournament. That same month (April 2011) the trees in front of the Whale were removed as part of the Prospect Street renovation in preparation for construction of the two new colleges. In 2013 the Bulldogs went into the tournament again, this time as underdogs, but they beat the top three seeds and won the NCAA Division I Championship title with a victory over crosstown rival Quinnipiac 4-0. Although Yale played the first college hockey game in 1896 against Johns Hopkins, this was only their second appearance in the Frozen Four (the other was in 1952) and their first National Championship. The next day t-shirts on campus declared the achievement:

For God, For Country, Four Zero!

Bulldog Hockey Maples