The 1896–97 Columbia men's ice hockey season was the inaugural season of play for the program. Columbia University became just the third American university to support an ice hockey team.
A year after Yale played the first intercollegiate game against Johns Hopkins, Columbia organized their own team and found that it had sufficient interest to support two full teams.[1] The team played two practice games in December in order to get their feet wet and help the novice players learn the game.
Note: Columbia University adopted the Lion as its mascot in 1910.[2]
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