New Haven, Conn., November 30.-- With a meeting in Lampson Lyceum this afternoon at 5 o'clock the University hockey season officially opened. Coach C. L. Wanamaker, Captain L. M. Noble, Manager C. H. Walker and Dr. E. J. Behan, newly appointed Freshman coach, spoke.

This will be the first year that hockey has been considered as a major sport at Yale and as such it will be on an equal standing with the present four major sports.

Hockey Has Made Rapid Strides

Hockey has developed with such rapid strides throughout the East that it is now considered the football of winter sports, and because of its new importance it is doubtful if even the arena now under construction will be large enough to accommodate its followers.

The outlook for the coming season is not one of the best owing to the fact that players for the last two years have been afforded only a limited opportunity for practice, and consequently a strong squad of veterans has not been developed. The teams, being forced to seek practice facilities out of town have been placed at a disadvantage. However, in spite of this lack of veterans, with Captain L. M. Noble, J. T. M. Frey, J. A. Wheelock, and R. F. Vaughan as a nucleus there is good material on which to build. In addition R. W. Lapham and R. C. Knight, both ineligible last year, and several of the 1929. Freshman stars, including Captain R. C. Cady, J. C. Brady, P. Curtis, and E. Manville, will help in forming a successful squad.

Arena Should be Ready in January

It is expected, furthermore, that the Arena, which is now rapidly nearing completion, will be ready for practice purposes by the first part of January. Until then the hockey squad will make two practice trips a week to Springfield, the first trip being by bus tomorrow afternoon. During the Christmas vacation the team will practice on the Hobey Baker Memorial Rink at Princeton where it will be the guest for several days both before and after Christmas, of the Princeton Athletic Association.

Schedule is Difficult.

This year's schedule as announced today by Manager Walker, despite its limitation in the number of games, is one of the hardest that a Yale hockey team has ever faced. The Eli team will play McGill in the Madison Square Garden in New York. Thursday evening December 30, in the first game of the season. Monday night before College reopens after the Christmas recess. Yale will face the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Springfield and Notre Dame in New York the following Saturday evening January S.

The 1930 hockey squad will be coached this year by Dr. E. J. Behan, who graduated from McGill in 1918 after having played for five years on the hockey team. He was captain of the team in 1917-1918. For the season of 1919-1920 he was president of the International Hockey Union of Canada. Dr Behan has also played several games with the New Haven Bears.

Practice for Freshmen will not start until after the Christmas vacation.