From Tim McIntosh's posting of the WCHA guidelines for PA announcers:
 
>2. DO NOT ANNOUNCE THE NAMES OF THE REFEREES OF LINESMAN.
 
Why the hell not?  Does the WCHA wish its officials to be anonymous?  Is the
league embarrassed by them?  Is this some kind of referee protection program?
1/2 :-)
 
Although ideally it shouldn't matter who is officiating a college hockey game,
I think that the names of the referees and linesman can be a useful bit of
information to the fans, since in some cases they might then know what they
are likely to see.  For example, when I hear Tim McConaghy's name, I know the
game will probably be called inconsistently from period to period, and
probably even from shift to shift.  When I hear "Marty McDonough", I expect
there will be more than a few extracurricular things let go.  When I hear
"Pierre Belanger", I know there's no telling what's going to happen, but it's
almost guaranteed to be unusual.  And so forth.
 
I guess what I'm trying to say (in typical roundabout fashion :-) is that I
think the officials' names *should* be announced at the beginning of the game,
along with the teams' starting lineups.
--
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