Notes from the "Fan Fair" on Friday:
 
Those of you who did not attend the "Fan Fair" in Providence over the
weekend should be thankful -- what a waste!  There were a few things for
kids (and most of those involved spending more money to take part, even
after paying an admission fee!)  There was virtually nothing for adults
except some promotional booths and a small "College Hockey Museum"
display that showed the history of the NCAA Championships and had pictures
and videos from some teams.  They had the Beanpot trophy and the Hobey
Baker trophy (at least up to about an hour before the presentation, when
they took it away for the ceremony.)  The most interesting elements were
the sample jerseys from all the teams (I haven't seen every team yet, so
I got to see what some of the western uniforms look like) and a map of the
U.S. and southern Canada with little pins showing where the players on the
4 semi-finalist teams came from.  You really notice the regional nature
of the sport when you see this -- a massive cluster around Minnesota and
Massachusetts, a healthy set from Michigan, a few from various Canadian
provinces, and not much else.
 
We were there for the "first public Hobey Baker award presentation", along
with a lot of Maine fans (rooting for Chris Imes) and a scattered presence
from other teams.  You didn't miss much here, either.  The ceremony was
a brief television video of the 10 candidates, sponsored by some hockey
equipment manufacturer, followed by the announcement of the winner.  Buddy
Powers, the BGSU coach, said about 5 sentences, then turned it over to
Brian Holzinger, who made a nice, simple acceptance speech and then posed
for pictures.  The only interesting element of the whole thing was the
Holzinger family, when one of them held up a poster with two pictures, one
of Brian labelled "Hobey Baker winner 1995", and one of a baby, labelled
"Hobey Baker winner 2115".  (I'm not sure whose baby it was, but the last
name was not Holzinger; Brian's sister's kid, maybe?)  After a few minutes
of pictures, Brian was moved to a conference room on the 5th floor for a
press conference and questions; this was open to MEDIA ONLY.  So much for
the "public" presentation of the award.
 
I did get to say hello to Len Ceglarski (former Clarkson and BC coach) and
talk for a few minutes; he said he had heard good things about Marty
Reasoner, the BC-bound player from Deerfield Academy.
 
I also talked briefly with Bob DeGregorio, AD at Merrimack and Hockey East
Commissioner.  He was happy to have an all-HE final, of course, and told
us that the referees for the final would be from HE.  They probably would
have been the ECAC crew except that Hearn was still injured from Thursday
night's game (he missed the 3rd period of the BU-Minn. game.)  Bob expressed
great displeasure with the officiating in the overtimes in the Maine-Mich.
game, not at all happy that they put the whistles away despite some obvious
penalties.  I don't know if he doesn't care for the WCHA refs anyway, but
he was very happy that Shepherd and crew would not be handling the finals.
 
From what I could tell, the Fan Fair was very sparsely attended (rightfully
so) and downtown Providence was mostly deserted on Friday, at least by
Phinal Phour fans.  (or should that be Phinal Phour phans??)  I don't know
what the normal economic impact of a championship is, but I gave my two
cents to the college kid who was conducting a survey on behalf of the NC$$
anyway.  Providence itself was pleasant, the games were good, I got to
see some of my fellow Hockey-L friends, so overall I had a good time.
I would have met more of you Hockey-L folks at the dinner between semis
except for the overtime delay and the fact that we had to head over to the
hotel to check-in before the 2nd game.  To those I met, it was nice to
see you, and to those I didn't, maybe next time.
 
Congratulations to all the teams.  Intellectually I'm happy that BU won, as
I thought they were the best team, but some of their fans were a little too
obnoxious (not the Hockey-L ones, though).  I didn't expect anything
different, as I was wearing a BC hat all weekend, but when a guy in his
40's gets in my face and starts yelling "BC sucks", well, ....  One of the
reasons I enjoy participating on Hockey-L is that I get lots of information
and that I deal (mostly) with knowledgable fans who appreciate all the
teams, not just their own.  Out among the greater fan base, though, things
get a little irrational.  That's life.  Now I'm looking forward to some
post-season discussions of hockey matters and not having to wade through
100+ messages per day. :-)
---------------                              ----------------------
Rick McAdoo                                  [log in to unmask]
BC will return!                              GO EAGLES!