The Grim Reaper legacy

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The opening game of the 1982-83 hockey season was held on Halloween weekend. That year, members of a cheering section that would become the Corner Crew fan club came to the game straight from a Halloween party wearing their costumes. Steve Schultz’s costume happened to be the Grim Reaper, and he incorporated that into his cheers and taunts of the opposing goalie.

Shortly after their arrival in the second period, RIT erased a two-goal deficit and eventually won the game. The next night, when RIT again trailed in the second period, other fans joked that it was because Schultz was not in costume. So during the second intermission, Schultz ran across campus to the dorms, donned the Grim Reaper costume, and shortly after his return, RIT scored the game-tying and game-winning goals.

A tradition was born. Schultz wore the costume through the rest of his undergraduate and graduate career, nearly eight years.

Schultz and his wife, Vicki, are providing a key gift of $1 million for a new ice hockey arena. Read more about that on pages 4 and 5.

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