Well, it was an interesting evening at the Field House less than 24 hours
after a-whallopin the Crimson. The Annual Freakout + Brown U visiting +
their breaking our 19 game winning streak in '92 with a Tie and a Victory
against us + our beating Harvard the night before + free Freakout gifts =
FUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
THE BOX SCORE:
Brown 1 1 0
RPI 1 2 2 (I Think)
Penalties- 82 minutes total (down from 204 minutes in 1991's Freakout game
between Brown and RPI). Malinowski remains God of the Penalty issuing.
REF REPORT: Noeth and Melanson did both games at RPI this weekend. They
made some good calls, missed some obvious calls and confused me on the
rest. I'll be generous here:
Friday Saturday
NOETH 5/10 6/10 11/20 total on the weekend
MELANSON 5/10 6/10 11/20 " " " "
FIGHTS_ Some good skirmishes, but nothing spectacular. C'mon guys, this is
BROWN at the FREAKOUT. Nothing on the ice was better than a 3/10, if that.
HOWEVER- for Coach Gaudet repeatedly screamin at the ref for the last 6-7
minutes of the 2nd period causing play stoppages to grow longer and the
crowd to get more and more irate (See "THE FANS"), he gets a 6/10!
THE FANS: Not as wild as Friday night, but still up there overall. The
BIG story- major action off the ice at this game folks: After the second
period, about 100 fans congregated by the ramp where the visiting team
leaves the ice, walks in front of Section 12, and into their locker room's
hallway. (The 100 is IN ADDITION TO the sold-out section 12!) Obscenities
flared all around. Then gaudet finally left the ice after bitchin at the
ref (as usual.....zzzzzzz...)The crowd got louder, myself definitely
included (that video definitely needs a "Parental Advisory" label!!), and
then Gaudet finally turned into the locker room gangway on the side of
section 12 and out of my sight, so I turned the camera off. At that point,
I've heard two different stories on what happened next. 1. Some fans sitting
in Section 12 spit on the Brown U coach, and/or 2. (the version from the
SUNDAY TROY RECORD) someone threw an orange and it kloked Bob Gaudet in the
Back of the head. The RECORD went on to say that there was a verbal exchange
and Bob contemplated throwing the orange back but didn't, and said later
that playing in the field house was "fun" (I kid you not, and Bob's coaching
record in the Field House is something like 0-8-0!!!!) Anyway, back to my
eyewitness viewpoint, I was walking away when i noticed some commotion and
turned around and noticed almost all 60-70 members of the Pep Band looking
in the direction of aforememtioned confrontation. I then saw about two or
three Public Safety (Hazard?) officers pulling a few people from the stands
for quick exits, much to the chagrin of the hundreds of fans who were
booing and yelling shit like "F*****G Fascist Pigs", etc. Then it was over.
EPILOGUE: Though I wouldn't get into anything more than a shouting match
with an opponent at worst, aw hell I'll rate this confrontation too. Since
it's perhaps the most exciting off-ice action I've experienced since Army's
Rob Riley taking a swing at me after my "Stop crying, you moron" yell on
December 1, 1990, I'll give this a 7/10 rating, which eclipses most of what
I've seen on the ice!
THROWING THINGS/FREAKOUT SOUVENIER: This year's souvenier was a "clapper",
which was a vinyl cushion shaped object inlaid with soft foam filler and had
a sleeve to stick a hand in. You then struck the padded side flat-on with
yer other hand, thus amplifying your clapping. It was the second best
souvenier I've seen at the Freakouts I've been to, the first being the 1991
Megaphones, of course!!! They also made great projectiles at the end of the
game, which brings me to another point. I address this to everyone,
especially the throwing-things-on- the-ice discussion thread members on
Hockey-L: What about unloading things on the ice AFTER the game, as RPI does
at the Freakouts now, it seems. Though I am also against stoppage of play by
throwing crap on the ice, but I find the issue pointless after the game
ends. For the first time ever, I threw something myself- this being an
empty air horn canister, after everyone left the ice after the game. I would
estimate 200-400 clappers and other things on the ice. Looked good on video.
Also: someone was showering the Brown team as they left the rink with those
string things that you shoot out of aerosol cans. Any comments?
NOISE/FREAKOUT SOUVENIER PART 2: It was pretty loud verbally, but perhaps the
beating of Harvard the night before strained a few more vocal cords. The
clappers definitely helped, and a few more air horns besides my own were
there. QUESTION: At YOUR rinks, how's the air horn situation? Someone said
that it's against the rules, but cmon, the issues hokey. It's in to stop
littering the ice during a game nowadays. I haven't even heard of a noise
WARNING in FIVE YEARS! No one seemed to mind. Anyway, at the freakout I
expended two canisters on the horn to bring the canister total to three for
the weekend, and the season (Dear EPA, There's a little less ozone over
Troy! Sorry! -HH1) TO THE FANS: BRING YOUR AIR HORNS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Try this: Everytime you feel the urge to flip off someone or throw something
on the ice, vent those urges by blasting an airhorn at the visiting bench
or ref or offending opposing player, etc. It's more effective!!!!!!!!!!!
NOTE TO RPI: A good place to get those compact air horns and their refills
is Cahill's in downtown Troy, across from the Atrium on 4th Street. Tell 'em
the tall guy sent you. Get set for Feb.26-27!
PEP BANDS: This weekend, the Pep Band was loud, at full strength and
awesome, admittedly a far cry from three weeks ago. I've got to hand it to
you guys/gals, you've come a long way in a few weeks! Keep up the good work!
The highlight- the annual striptease where a member of the band (female)
wears a dozen or more sets of thermal underwear, etc. and strips to the last
set of clothes. Done in the last six years by "Anne", someone else did it
this year, someone I don't know. As for the small Brown band in section 1,
they didn't have a prayer of a chance against 5000+ RPI fans!!
CHEERS/QUOTES/SIGNS: From the home office in sunny (but subzero degrees
Fahrenheit) Troy, NY, the top 5 cheers quotes and signs as heard in the
Field House Saturday night.
5. "IF IT'S BROWN, FLUSH IT DOWN!"- My banner, posted behind the RPI bench.
This is also the most common anti-Brown cheer in the Field House. My
girlfriend told me that at the end of the second period, while I was
watching the section 12 action, one of the refssaw the sign and had a good
laugh as he left the rink.
4. "&#@%$#**&!!!!!!!" - Coach Gaudet at the refs. He was pissed for a
good portion of the second period, to which the fans replied ",#&,##&@",
"*****#@&&%!!!!!" and "&*$@##!!!!!!!!!" and gave him the Tropicana
treatment!!
3. The silence of the SWARM!!!!!! The Swarm is making a comeback! Or at
least I hope. I'll let you in on this - I'm the guy with the cheaply made
SWARM mask! Saturday night, the real swarm was at the Field House but was
hidden behind section1 posing with kids for photo opportunities. (BTW-
is this superstition or what? Since the vigilante Swarm entered the Field
House this weekend, we have beaten two teams that had already beaten us
this season by a combined 11-5 score!!)
2. "Playing in the field house is fun. The fans are really behind the team!"
-Coach Gaudet of Brown to the Troy Record, after being pelted by an orange
thrown by an RPI fan.
and finally:
1. "WHAT'S THE COLOR OF DOG SHIT??!! BROWN!!!!!! BROWN!!!!!!!!" -RPI fans
in unison in the last few minutes of the game. This was loud and must have
been heard by the radio audience- can anyone back me up on this? Either this
or the "Oh, SHIT!" cheer when we just miss a goal, I heard on the WNYT "Big
Board Sports" program's game clip, when the audio is VIRTUALLY ZERO LEVEL!!
THE FANS PART 2: COMPOSITION AND SOCIAL INTERACTION: A lot of alumni and
students. I introduced two of my friends (one of whom is a brother from Xi
Rho, Jeremy) to the wonderful world of Engineers hockey at this game. I met
some old friends/current alumni at this game too. The good social atmosphere
was carried over into the Apre-Hockey nightlife, when a lot of fans (100's)
packed downtown bars, etc. On the flip side, during a questionable penalty
call when virtually everyone on the student side was standing and cheering,
myself included, this guy behind me, who I think is married to an assistant
trainer for the Engineers or has other ties with the team's training staff
decided he wanted to sit and KEEP ME SEATED TOO, so he grabs my shoulder and
pushes me down. In addition, the assistant trainer who sits there too tried
her best but nevertheless failed to dissuade me from donning my SWARM
"costume". Where the hell are these people's fan spirit?
The Standings: Jeremy- You should be happy that we beat brown. Now you are
higher since Clarkson is now higher in the standings. It is also very likely
that we will have home ice to Brown in the ECAC playoff quarterfinals if the
standings do not change drastically from now on. FUN!!!!!!!
THE TOP THREE BROWN-RPI GAME FANTASIES:
3. Rematch of Brown at RPI in the ECAC Q-finals, with RPI sweeping.
2. ECAC Finals- Brown 0, RPI 10, 205 penalty minutes
1. NCAA Finals- Brown 0, RPI 11, 305 penalty minutes with at least three
disallowed Brown goals, and the championship game in the Knick at Albany
attended by 5000 RPI fans and 4999 Brown fans amongst others and evenly
blended seat-wise. Now what do you think would happen????? Reply to me
with your responses and I'll print the best (or worst, depending on point
of view) ones next week!!!
EPILOGUE: Awesome weekend. Simply put. If I think of anything else, I'll
send another post. Until then, bye bye!
-HH1 (affectionately known by all those who love me as "REV")
PS_ Jeremy, consider this to be MOST of my ACGKHM submission. A little
addendum will be sent a little later.
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