Saturday, I woke up around 11, packed, and checked out of my room.
I discovered that I had no voice left at all, but I got back
about 1/2 of it by game time.
HANGING OUT
-----------
The bus had taken people on a shopping trip to a discount mall,
but I wasn't even awake when they left.... we were talking about
going downtown and being tourists (seeing "the egg" and stuff
like that), but we needed to put our stuff on the bus, since it
was leaving right after the game... so we hung out, and I talked
to various people in the lobby and bar...
Another RPI person (not the one who had been there Friday,
predicting Pierre) at the hospitality table told me there was absolutely
no way McConaghy would ref the championship game. He didn't say
he was terrible, just that he was inexperienced, not the top ref,
and would call a lot of 3-on-3 (well, he was half-right :-). I
pass this on not because it proves anything about the ref, just
letting you know what we were talking about that afternoon...
MESSAGE FROM CAROL
------------------
Sometime either late Friday nite or during the morning Saturday
(I don't remember), I got a message from Carol that people were
meeting at RPI at 1pm.... but I didn't make it...
WHERE'S MY TICKET !?!?!
---------------------
I was amused that the RPI folks at the hospitality table had a sign up,
looking to buy some tickets. Lots of other people came by, looking for
tickets as well.
The word was that a woman from the Wisconsin party (I think she works
in the UW ticket office) had the extra MSU tickets, and would be in the
lobby at 12:00, selling them for MSU. This is when the rumor got
started that the Michigan people had left, with their tickets, instead
of turning them over to someone to try and sell for them.
I was smiling at the RPI "Tickets?" sign when I suddenly realized *I
DIDN'T HAVE MY TICKET!!* I rushed to the room where my bags were stored
(I had alrady checked out), dumped them out, and didn't find it. I then
borrowed the room key and went to look I had been sitting on the bed
when I emptied the desk drawer out, and remember putting some stuff in
my knapsack... I stripped the bed (it hadn't been made yet, but the
housekeeping cart was in the room) and searched frantically... NO LUCK.
Then, the maid returned, and I asked her if she had seen the ticket.
Yes, she had it. I was relieved....
DINNER
------
The bus returned, we loaded our stuff on, and took off by taxi for a
3:30 pm reservation at Lombardi's (??), a great family-run Italian
restaurant on the corner of Madison and Pearl (just down the street
from the place where we had the hockey-l dinner). We had two taxis,
plus a group in a car. Someone, despite leaving at different times and
taking different routes, we arrived almost all at the same time.
Dinner was great. I strongly recommed the place to anyone with an
apatite for Italian food.
Paul had a borrowed trombone with him, and played the bud song in the
street as we danced and waved red flags. Pictures were taken of us, the
restaurant, and the "Madison" street (ave?) sign.
We then walked up the block to the Irish bar we had been to on Thursday
night. We had a few beers and walked towards to Knick...
AT THE GAME
-----------
[I won't comment much on the game itself, it isn't worth it at this
point.]
It seemed like a lot more Badger fans had made it to the championship
game... I know a lot of people got in their car as soon as Thursday's
game ended, or flew out Saturday morning.
The band had moved again, this time just a little bit towards the end,
in the upper section. The NC$$ doesn't allow any banners to be hung at
the games (but you can hold them up if you want) except for the band.
The band had a home-made banner that read "Duanes' World" (for goalie
Duane Derksen).
Championship pins were sold out, but they had new shirts, with LSSU and
Wisconsin on a black background. I was debating that shirt or the white
shirt with all four team names, when I asked someone in ine what she
thought. She had a young boy in tow, and said "black -- you'll just get
the other one dirty" and I followed her advice.
NEW CONVERTS
------------
A nice couple, not wearing any red, sat in the row in front of us. We
talked to them, and it turned out they were from Albany, and just came
to see a hockey game. They quickly became Wisconsin fans, and we taught
them all the little details of the cheers. They had a good time and
said they might come to Milwaukee next year.
"GO -- RED" & "COUNT SCORE"
--------------------------
Since I had almost no voice left, I was glad to again help Phil with
the "GO RED" and "COUNT SCORE" signs. I also waved my red Wisconsin
flag a lot....
I had brought two hats to the game -- for some reason, when I was done
packing, I ended up with both hats (my new red "Its A Great Day for
Hockey -- Bob Johnson" hat and a white one that the travel agency gave
us, which said "Six is Nice on Albany Ice" -- one of the two slogans
being used for the hope of Wisconsin winning its 6th NCAA
Championship).
ZENT GETS A HAT TRICK and DAVID ALMOST GETS KICKED OUT
------------------------------------------------------
My hat omen was correct -- Jason Zent got a hat trick. I had decided
that if a Badger got a hat trick I would throw my red "Its A Great Day
For Hockey" hat... and I tried. Fortunatly, my hat throwing arm is no
good, and my hat only made it to the 2nd row, near the bench.
I went down the aisle to try and either get the hat or get the guy who
got it to toss it on the ice (play was still stopped) when a security
guard asked me if my hat was on the ice. I told him, no, it hadn't made
it. He said if it did, I'd be thrown out. I was surprised, but since
there had been some discussion on the net about it, I wasn't shocked.
Fortunatly, my hat hadn't made it, and I was prudent and didn't argue
(sometimes I can be real bad about arguing against arbitrary authority
when I think I've been wronged). Phil, Marylou, Ron, Sue and Mike were
all pretending they didn't know me at this point...
As a side note, several Badgers were signalling to the crowd to throw
hats when Zent got his hat trick. As we discussed a few months ago,
there was a home game when someone (Balkovec?) got a hat trick and not
one hat was thrown....
I made hand signals to the young man (not wearing red, but he did have
a bucky sticker on) who had my hat, and went out the the main hallway
and down the next aisle to recover it. The aisle went right to the
corner of the Badger bench, and the glass there left a 1 foot gap,
where another security guard was standing. I gave the guard my hat, and
asked him to "give it to the bench." He looked at me like I was crazy.
I repeated my request, he looked dumbfounded, and someone (wearing
street clothes) standing behind him leaned over and said "Got It" and
took it to the players.
AFTER THE GAME
--------------
Most of the Badger fans stuck around after the game for the awards
ceremony. I was surprised at how quickly many of the LSSU fans left --
their band seemed to pack up as soon as the game ended. Maybe they had
a party to get to :-)
When LSSU skated past the Badger section with the trophy, a reasonable
number of us applauded. They played hard, and won.
After the awards ceremony, the Badgers skated over and saluted the
Wisconsin fans and band. The band continued the tradition of playing
after the game, win or lose. They did several songs, including the bud
song and "Varsity" (the alma mater) a few times. We then left,
disapointed but in reasonable spirits, to find the bus.
We rode back to the hotel (to drop off the people who had flown out,
and get one last stationary bathroom) before the long trip home. People
were grumbling, joking a little about the ref, talking about next year,
and generally trying not to be too low. We didn't see the team, who
must have been very low, and as we saw, angry.
On the way to the hotel, I was talking to some players' parents, and
told them to thanks their kids for entertaining us, and doing so well,
despite the loss. After all, we (the fans) only have to watch the games
-- the players have to play (and work hard getting ready).
THE TRIP HOME
-------------
The trip home was uneventful. Mostly we talked about things other than
the game. At a rest stop, we met the other busses, and everyone kinda
grumbled, but, like us, didn't want to dwell on it.
==============================================================================
Thus ends my first trip to the NC$$ Phinal Phour. I hope you enjoyed
rading it (I got mail from some of you asking where the last two days
were!) as much as I enjoyed the trip and writing it up.
Several people have already starting talking about next year's tourney
in Milwaukee. I'll be there, and I hope all of you can be there as
well. I'll leave Milwaukee logistics to people who know the city better
than I do, but I'll help out with hosting the hockey-l gang. I also
have some ideas that I will pass on to the organizing committee... (if
you have any ideas of what off-ice things the hosts can do to make your
visit to the tourney even better, let me know and I'll pass them on).
I'd like to mention here that the Kick is a great place to see a hockey
game (but the seats and rows between them are a little narrow -- I
banged by shins too many times!) and the RPI folks did a great job with
the hospitality tables and everything else!!!
And of course, the hockey-l dinner, buttons, and ceramic dalmation were great!
--david
--------
david parter university of wisconsin -- madison
[log in to unmask] computer sciences department
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