On Sun, 11 Apr 1999, Larry Winer wrote:
 
> Just maybe there is one big time program that has a mission higher than
> importing Manitobans; Swedes; Finns; et al. This is the State Univiersity of
> Minnesota supported by and subsidized the taxpayers of  Minnesota. The
> Gophers play good competitive hockey and their policy of all Minnesotans has
> lead to the success of all the other college programs in Minnesota. This may
> come as a shock but there are colleges in Canada and they have teams-same for
> Finland et al. The NHL and D1 hockey would be stronger with more Americans in
> more parts of America.
>
The one part of Larry's post that is correct is that there are indeed
colleges (the term up here is university, college here means what junior
college means down there) playing hockey here.  One difference, IMHO, is
that the players up here are students first, players second.  My spouse
was an instructor at the University of Alberta for seven years.  That
school won the Canadian championship this year, and has won more CIAU
championships than any other school.  I can assure you that the hockey
team is not a revenue producer for the school.  The rink barely holds 2000
people and is rarely full.  Another difference is that the players tend to
be older than US students as they are often ex-junior players taking
advantage of their system of paying for the education of their players who
do not go pro.  My spouse will confirm that the hockey players got no
breaks when it came to work or grades.
 
The REAL problem with college sports in the US is that the description of
the players as student atheletes is too often a farce and a sham.  And
please don't write back about exceptions, they just prove the rule.
 
Arthur Berman [log in to unmask]
 
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