On Tue, 23 Apr 1996, Dave Hendrickson wrote:
 
> JohnH wrote:
> > I'm making an effort to drop the Amherst from UMass
> > because that's what the good folks at UMass seem to prefer.
>
> Hey, John, stop making the effort.  Folks at UMass-Lowell *want* UMass-Amherst
> to stay exactly that.  Calling them "UMass" gives a token of legitimacy to
> their chants of "We're the *real* UMass" at UML-UMA games.  Hockey East has
> deferred to Lowell in this regard, calling the two schools "Mass-Lowell" and
> "Mass-Amherst" despite requests out of Amherst to be called "UMass".
 
        Funny, I don't think I ever heard people on CBS call us
"UMass-Amherst" during the Final Four. Ditto for ESPN, ABC, etc. Even in
hockey, I'll point out that the Globe uses just "UMass" in its game
sumaries, abbreviating the two schools as "UM" and "UML" in the scoring
summary when they face each other. Every organization in the world has it
right except for some nit-wits in Lowell.
        The fact of the matter is that the Amherst campus is the "main"
branch of the university system, with over 22,000 students as opposed to
a handful of thousands at the others. Having been to four of the five
campuses at one point or another I'll attest that it has the best
facilities, faculty and clearly the most money pumped into it. In all
other states that have such a branch of the system, that branch is
identified athletically by just the state name, even when they compete in
the same league. I've yet to hear a Duluth person bitch about it not
being Minnesota-Twin Cities. Funny, I don't hear much on this list about the
"UMTC Gophers."
        Personally I won't even consider this insestulent whining by
Lowell fans and administrators in general (nothing personal Dave, I mean
Lowell people, not specifically you, you're a good guy in my book) until
Lowell actually puts the word "UMass" somewhere visible on its uniform. It
really ticks me off that they insist on this campus being referred to as
UMass-Amherst, when they do not acknoledge their membership in the state
U system on their sweaters. The UMass sweaters meanwhile use the exact
same logo that appears on the uniforms of every one of our other 29
varsity teams, none of which are ever referred to as "Amherst." To us
Amherst is that D3 school across town that wears purple and goes by the
moniker "Lord Jeffs."
        I respect the hell out of Bruce Crowder, sticking up so
passionatly for the Amherst thing. He's a tremendous coach and a great guy
away from the rink, but he takes it too far sometimes. I completely
disagree with him. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts legislature
identifies the Amherst campus as the main branch of the state university
system, while Lowell, Boston, Dartmouth and Worcester are identified as
"satellite campuses." As such, UMass-Amherst deserves the respect of
having the location dropped from the title. Across the nation, from
Florida"-Gainesville" to Idaho"-Moscow" this is the case.
        I wonder what Calipari thinks about all this.
        Although it pains me to see the name used, at least those of us
in Amherst can at least take comfort in knowing that being called
"UMass-Amherst" by Jim Seavey and Co. couldn't stop us from winning the
UMass Alumni Cup in only our second D1 year :-))))))))
 
A very passionate
Leigh
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Just a partial disclaimer on this one, because for the most part this IS
the opinion of my various employers.
 
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