ITHACA, N.Y. — The men's hockey team announced Thursday that it will wear special jerseys for its regular-season home opener, which is against Niagara at 7 p.m. Saturday. The jerseys will be auctioned off at a later date with proceeds going to a mission and service trip to the Dominican Republic led by Mike Schafer, the Jay R. Bloom '77 Head Coach of Men's Hockey, with current players and members of the Ithaca community.
 
In addition to a special design, the jerseys will feature name plates of the greatest Cornell hockey player to have ever donned that particular number according to the player that currently wears it.
 
"It's a unique project, because it gives the players a sense of upholding tradition by researching all of the previous players to wear their numbers," Schafer said. "Plus we'll auction off the jerseys and it will help perform community service when we return to the Dominican Republic this summer."
 
Proceeds from the jersey auction will go toward the Big Red's fourth service trip through The Portal de Belén Foundation. The Cornell hockey program has already made trips in 2009, 2012 and 2014, which included the construction of a multi-purpose building used for adult and child instruction, community gatherings, church services, and hurricane refuge. A pictorial recap of the 2014 event, which included current Big Red players Christian Hilbrich, John Knisley, Gavin Stoick and Teemu Tiitinen, can be found at http://cornellbigred.com/documents/2014/7/9/dominican_wrap.pdf?id=6115.
 
While the jerseys will feature familiar colors, the top and bottom thirds of the jerseys are red with a thick horizontal white stripe across the middle. The name plate is in white lettering, while the numbering on the back is red on top of the white striping. The jerseys will be worn again later this season, and auction details will be finalized at a later date.
 
In addition to the jerseys currently worn by the 29 members of the team, there will also be jerseys for the auction of two retired numbers — #1 Ken Dryden and #25 Joe Nieuwendyk — and two players who are the only ones to wear their respective numbers — #33 Andy Iles and #35 Mike Garman. Junior goaltender Mitch Gillam will wear his own name plate on his #32, since he is also the only player in program history to wear the number.
 
Cornell opens its season Friday at Niagara before returning to Ithaca for Saturday's rematch against the Purple Eagles.

NAME PLATES ON SPECIAL JERSEYS (current player in parentheses)
1 - Ken Dryden (number retired)
2 - Dan Ratushny (Brendan Smith)
3 - Walt Stanowski (Reece Willcox)
4 - Gordon Lowe (Alex Rauter)
5 - Pete Shier (Matthew Nuttle)
6 - Douglas Murray (Holden Anderson)
7 - Doug Ferguson (Jake Weidner)
8 - Ryan Vesce (Gavin Stoick)
9 - Pete Tufford (Christian Hilbrich)
10 - Brian Campbell (Beau Starrett)
11 - Doug Derraugh (Eric Freschi)
12 - David Ferguson (John Knisley)
14 - Dan Lodboa (Mitch Vanderlaan)
15 - Colin Greening (Trevor Yates)
16 - Brian Cornell (Matt Buckles)
17 - Brian Ferlin (Anthony Angello)
18 - Mike Iggulden (Jared Fiegl)
19 - Chris Abbott (Teemu Tiitinen)
20 - Roy Kerling (Dan Wedman)
21 - Kent Manderville (Dwyer Tschantz)
22 - Dave Burke (Chad Otterman)
23 - Steve Inglehart (Trent Shore)
24 - Matt Moulson (Ryan Bliss)
25 - Joe Nieuwendyk (retired number)
26 - Topher Scott (Jeff Kubiak)
27 - Blake Gallagher (Patrick McCarron)
28 - Jim Gibson (Luc Lalor)
29 - Byron Bitz (Alec McCrea)
30 - Ben Scrivens (Ryan Coon)
31 - David LeNeveu (Hayden Stewart)
32 - Mitch Gillam*
33 - Andy Iles
35 - Michael Garman
* - junior goaltender Mitch Gillam will wear his own name plate on his #32, since he is also the only player in program history to wear the number