Several hundreds of fans welcomed home the NCAA Hockey Champions Sunday
afternoon at the Marquette airport.  The team exited the small charter
plane to limo's which were escorted back to Marquette.  The 12 mile
drive was lined with congradulation signs and several more hundred
cheering fans.  Once the team arrived at the Lakeview Arena to unload
their equipment several more hundreds of fans dressed in green and gold
chanted on the victors.
 
This is quite amazing since Lakeview Arena seats 4000 or so and there
must have been at least 1000+ Wildcat fans in st. paul who had not
returned to Marquette as of the teams arrival.
 
A rally is planned for this thursday afternoon at Northern and the
hockey banquet location had been moved from the university to the
Lakeview Arena in order to accomodate the huge demand for seats.
 
Th town is truly excited about this team and you can feel the pride.
Keep in mind that the population of Marquette (the largest city in the
Upper Peninsula) is about 25 thousand counting the university (6
thousand or so).  The Finnish people are a proud people and this
championship makes them proud.
 
I have read that ESPN will show the game this Thursday.  Does anyone
have the time and are they going to show the whole thing?  I heard that
the commentators favored BU but then I heard that from people here in
Marquette.
 
As a side note.....I went out of my way to determine what end of the
Civic Arena Northern would shoot at twice knowing darn well the third
period strength of the team (four strong lines help here) only to
witness 13 of 15 goals scored at the other end!!!
 
More later.
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||| mailrus!sharkey!lopez!duke |||      Norther Michigan WildCat Hockey
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