> Some time last year, someone important commended RPI's great liberal-minded
> equally-opportunistic nature, having a woman driving the zamboni.  It turns
> out, it was not a woman, but a man with shoulder-length hair (he really doesn
> look like a woman, not even from the stands).  I guess the Fieldhouse accepte
> the praise without comment.
 
The driver was Brian Lutz, who does have long curly hair.  Someone commented
to one of the "important" people in the field house how nice it was that RPI
had employed a woman to drive the zamboni, and even though it wasn't a woman,
it got people thinking, so T.J. O'Dell (a good friend of mine, and the damn
best zamboni driver in the East) was put in charge of training two women.  I
remember being at the field house at nite, watching him patiently coaching
the new drivers, and seeing the zamboni being put thru manoveurs that even
racing cars don't do.
 
> Thus RPI was dragged, kicking and screaming, into the 90's, if for only one
> night.  :)
 
Yeah, finally, one of the new women drivers was given the opportunity to
wield her zamboni skills.  Her first and last nite.  It was the most
hilarious intermission I have ever been thru, however.  Around each turn,
she sent the zamboni hurling into the boards.  At each crash, the fans
applauded loudly.  Buddy Powers didn't find it so amusing, as he made sure
that we were back to male drivers at the following game.  But hey, it was
fun while it lasted, and a humorous point in RPI's "history".
 
---
Kenny Zalewski -- Information Technology Services at Rensselaer
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 83 Albright Court, Troy, NY, 12180
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