It's tough to write a eulogy for someone you had disparaged, but I guess I'll
try anyway.  Although I thought he embodied the less-than-adequate broadcasting
style which seems to be the hallmark of tv coverage of the college game, I have
to profess a genuine sadness to his untimely demise.  College hockey has lost a
friend, not to mention a great family man, and the result is a feeling of
emptiness that won't be replaced for a while.  46 is much to young to leave us
critics, and the disorienting feeling is not one to savor.
 
The NY Post (Phil Mushnick) pointed out the new sensitivity of sports bro
broadcasting.  While Mees was a founding father of ESPN, the network only saw
fit to mention his death at 6:55 pm, come 25 minutes into its daily Sportscenter
edition.  Preceding the mention included Yanks-White Sox highlights, Twins-A's
highlights, a report that Heath Shuler would start in this weekend's Redskins/Ben/
Bengals preseason game, the last on the Chuck Knoblauch contract situation, PatR
Riley's salary cap headcaps, even two day old footage of the Astros/Expos brawl.
Someone these stories pale in comparison with the news that one of ESPN's o
original anchors had died.
 
ESPN explained that SportsCenter's audience increases at 7:00 so the network
held the story until then to reach the largest audience.  Swell, let's make
Mees' death a ratings event.  The cynicism that such a statement engenders is
inescapable.  Tom Mees doesn't deserve to be trivialized.  He deserves to be
remembered as one who sought to share his love of hockey, the college and
professional game, to an ignorant world.  To quote Phil Mushnick directly, "For
heaven's sake, Tom Mees deserved better than that from his own."  One hopes that
college hockey will find another friend to help Bob Norton extoll the game.
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Brian Morris                      RPI Engineers--The New Beginning
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