Yale Bulldogs women's ice hockey Yale Bulldogs women's ice hockey Yale University women's ice hockey (YWIH) is an NCAA Division I varsity ice hockey program at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. One of the oldest varsity women's ice hockey programs in the country, Yale women's ice hockey dates back to 1975. Beginning as a club sport, the program gained varsity team status in 1977–78. Yale competes in the ECAC Hockey League (ECACHL), along with Ivy League foes Harvard, Princeton, Cornell, Dartmouth and Brown. Both the Yale men's and women's ice-hockey teams play at Ingalls Rink, also known as "The Whale". YWIH participates in Bulldog
Southern Ivy conference originated during the 1950s. Harvie Branscomb, then-chancellor at Vanderbilt University, originally attempted to establish a rivalry between Vanderbilt and traditional Ivy League schools to foster relationships with academically-oriented schools. The school followed through on this effort and played a game against Yale in October 1948. However, after the Vanderbilt Commodores shut out the Yale Bulldogs, 35-0, Yale said they no longer wanted to play Vanderbilt. This caused Branscomb to call a meeting with the presidents of other Southern private universities in the late 1950s—Southern Methodist University (SMU), Rice University, Duke University and Tulane University— where Branscomb suggested they try