Of the two, I suspect UMass-Dartmouth caught on quicker than UMass-Lowell,
both were renamed I think in the late '80s (UML was University of Lowell,
UMD was Southeastern Massachusetts University - so it went from SMU to
UMD!)
I know when I left Boston in '95 it was still virtually universal to refer
to the Hockey East school in Lowell as simply "Lowell" (or maybe even the
Lowell Chiefs!) than as UMass-Lowell (and eventually the UMass-Lowell
RiverHawks). 'Course we called them the Fighting Package Handlers because
their old rink was across the street from the big UPS facility and UPS had
about half the advertising time during games. But maybe "Fighting" was a
mistake?
The rant about abbreviations reminds me of a cheer that I suspect was a
Harvard original (as these sorts of cheers often are): "Hey UMass, why are
you called UMass? Because you can't spell University, or because you
can't spell Massachusetts?"
BTW, calling it "Cape Cod" would imply that there's another Cape that's as
important, and of course there isn't...it's the Cape, everything else
needs a modifier. ;-P
Mike
Moller Edward N wrote:
> Everybody in Massachusetts refers to the University of
> Massachusetts-Amherst simply as Umass. Never Massachusetts. Very
> rarely do people say Umass-Amherst. If you say Amherst by itself they
> think you are referring to Amherst College. But we do say Umass-Lowell,
> Umass-Boston, and Umass-Dartmouth.
>
> Besides dropping our R's, Massachusetts is big on abbreviations. When
> speaking we rarely say the full word if it's several syllables. For
> example, I live in Needham, Mass, not Needham, Massachusetts. Other
> examples:
> Comm Ave
> Mass Ave (nobody says avenue)
> BU
> BC
> JP (for Jamaica Plain)
> Mass Pike (never I-90)
> The Cape (which is not to be confused with Cape Ann) (why can't
> we just say Cape Cod?)
> The T
> MIT
> UNH
> Uconn
> URI
> UVM
> Exceptions to the rule: Northeastern, Washington Street
>
> Of course Boston has a downtown, but it doesn't have an uptown or a
> midtown.
>
> That's it for me. I'm off to the University of Massachusetts - Amherst
> Minutemen versus the Boston University Terriers hockey game at Harry
> Agganis Arena, located on Commonwealth Avenue.
>
>
> ________
> Edward N. Moller
> Controller and Assistant Treasurer
> Mount Ida College
> 777 Dedham Street
> Newton, MA 02459-3323
> Tel 617-928-4515
> Fax 617-928-4581
> [log in to unmask]
>
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