>        To echo RPI players, bandmembers, fans, and alums the world over
>since the dawn of Division 1 hockey :
>
>                We don't like you either.
>
>        If you understood the sanctity of ice hockey at my institute, the
>ruthlessness with which our loyalties are cherished, or the importance of
>the Freakout in any engineer's February, you would have expected the
>treatment you got Saturday night.  It was rude, yes.  But I won't apologize
>for the band.
 
First of all, don't ever title your message Big Red Band unless you're
referring to Cornell.  But anyway, I was at the RPI-Cornell game over
winter break, but our band was not there, so there was no competition.
 
I WAS treated like shit by some other fans, however, and that I expected.
We treat them like shit when they come to Lynah, so I was honored to
receive the same treatment.
 
>        They are frenzied, Greg.  They will honor your pansy (excuse me,
>"ivy") notions of etiquette in YOUR arena.  But in the Fieldhouse, at the
>Freakout, all they care about is being the biggest, the loudest, and winning.
>If you don't like it, don't come.
 
Of course it is one thing to treat fans like shit....but you always respect
the visiting band.  If the Brown account is true, then I think the RPI band
is a disgrace to the league.  Sure you can yell all you want when the other
band is playing, make fun of them, do what you want....
 
But there are unwritten RULES of hockey that even the craziest band (here I
think of the REAL Big Red Band) follows during each game
 
You ALWAYS stop playing at the earliest possible moment once the puck is
dropped.  No exceptions.  period.
 
And once the other band starts playing, you don't interrupt...especially if
you made an agreement before the game.
 
I hope the RPI band comes up this weekend, because I know our band will
give them the hell they deserve.
 
-Mike Greenberg
Cornell '97