To think it all started on a frozen pond.

In 1896, Brown and Harvard duked it out on a frozen pond in a friendly game of ice polo.

The pond has melted by now (the modern indoor ice rink has long since replaced it), but as Ivy League hockey nears the 100th anniversary of the first Brown-Harvard ice duel, what was then a friendly game of ice polo has emerged as one of the most successful NCAA programs in the Ivies.

"Our history goes way back to when they were playing on a lake," Cornell Coach Brian McCutcheon says.

Ever since Dartmouth won the first Ivy title in 1934, the league--currently made up of six teams (Brown, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton and Yale)--has had its share of success. Success, unlike football and basketball, that has consistently reached a national level.

Take Cornell, for example. The Big Red won the Ivy title from 1966 to 1973. During that span, the Ithacans appeared in the NCAA Tournament six times, capturing the national title in 1967 (a 4-1 win over Boston University) and in 1970 (a 6-4 victory over Clarkson).

Harvard is now the example many league coaches point to when talking about Ivy League hockey. The Crimson has earned a reputation as one of the best teams in college hockey during the 1980s. Harvard, which has won seven straight Ivy titles since 1982, has made six NCAA appearances, including three trips to the Final Four in the '80s.

Theories of why the Ivy League has been so successful very. But one word tends to stand out: tradition.

"It is a traditionally New England sport," says Herb Hammond, former Brown coach and current Brown assistant athletic director. "Ivy League schools were the first to have rinks."

"First of all, there is a tradition," Yale Coach Tim Taylor says. "We were among the earliest teams to play hockey in the country."

"There are a number of sports in which we've been traditionally successful," Jeffrey H. Orleans, executive director of the council of Ivy Group Presidents says. "We offer athletes a history of success in those sports."

But for all the tradition the Ivy League has weaved into its hockey program, other factors exist. Factors such as the academic aura of the schools and their abilility to draw quality student-athletes.

"Certainly our academic reputation attracts the premier athlete," Dartmouth Coach Brian Mason says. "It is a strong athlete, who is certainly committed to academics."

"The biggest reason I could think of would be the strength of the schools," Harvard Associate Coach Ronn Tomassoni says. "There have been some pretty good student athletes that happen to play hockey."

Yet is the success of Ivy League hockey equivalent to the success of other schools in other sports? Say, Oklahoma in football, or North Carolina in basketball? In other words, how "national" is college hockey?