On November 12, 1991, HOCKEY-L founder Mike Machnik posted a message about
college hockey polls.  The final sentence was, "The polls are nice as a
conversation piece, but then so is a ceramic dalmatian."

You can research this and other stuff in the HOCKEY-L archives at
http://lists.maine.edu  For instance, you can discover that Bill Fenwick was
the first to use the term "Phinal Phour" on January 8, 1992.  Mike first
described pairwise rankings on January 9. 1996.

-- Erik

On Tue, 29 Mar 2005, Doug Peterson wrote:

> If I recall correctly, the ceramic dalmation was a reference to the term
> "woof" which meant overly promoting your own team (or conference in
> this case.)  "We're the best.  We're better than you. blah blah blah."
>
> Now that I am recalling it, the ceramic dalmation was featured prominently
> in the Hockey-L NC$$ Phinal Phour buttons Carol used to make.  To be
> honest, I don't recall if the ceramic dalmation ever existed in truth or if
> s/he was only an abstract concept, the Hockey-L equivalent of the Easter
> Bunny or some such thing.
>
> Doug
>
> On 29 Mar 2005 at 15:22, Anthony J. Buffa wrote:
>
> Remind me Doug. I got on the list in early 1994 just after the
> dalmation and have never really heard a lucid explanation .... maybe
> the list would like to hear it? At least I would.
>
> Thanks.
>
> Tony
>
> ======
>
> Doug Peterson wrote:
>
> >And we could have probably used a return of the ceramic dalmation
> >(did I get that right?) in this discussion.  Carol, any idea where it
> >went to?
> >
> >Doug Peterson
> >
> >
> >
> >
>