> > Anyone else
> >have any Zamboni accident stories?
> >
> In response to Andrew's request for Zamboni accident stories, I would
> like to offer the following slightly-edited version of an article I
> wrote that first appeared in the Ithaca Times on February 2, 1984. In
> the intervening 6 1/2 seasons, I still haven't come across anything to
> compare with the mess described in this article.
I ALMOST posted this story (well, not such a well-told version of it, but my
own experience at the same event), because I was at this game, too.
To offer my perspective, I must provide some background. I was in the Brown
Band. We skated between two periods at (usually) three home games PER YEAR.
The periods were extended 5 minutes for our shows.
> Shortly a tow truck appeared, backed onto the ice, and took the
> stricken vehicle away. Enter the backup Zamboni, a gasping, clunking
> wreck that had been original equipment when Meehan Auditorium was
> dedicated in 1962, but which had not been used in about ten years.
I remember talking to Brown AD John Perry at the time. Brown owned a newer
model backup Zamboni, but it was over at Providence College because their main
one had broken and their backup was also about 20 years old. Thus, it took two
breakdowns to cause the problem.
> One trip around the ice convinced any remaining doubters that this would
> indeed be a long night...
No kidding. That thing spewed nasty diesel vapors (how come they don't have
electric Zambonis anyhow?) It had an exhaust on the top that kicked the fumes
right over the boards into our faces.
> At the end of the period, a linesman blocked Cornell's players from
> leaving their bench until Brown's team had departed. The benches at
> Meehan are side by side, and the players enter and leave through a
> common walkway. Coach Lou Reycroft took exception to the linesman's
> unannounced action and shoved him, earning a bench penalty. Then it was
> time for Brown's band to delay things further with a ten-minute skating
> "show", indefensible in light of the long delay in starting the game.
I disagree, as you might guess. The show was 7 minutes, and the period was
extended 5 minutes. People take college hockey WAY too seriously. On the
other hand, I went to Brown, where we could hardly take the hockey team
seriously without endangering our sanity.
I'd guess that there was a relationship between the band show and the
linesman's actions. The entry at Meehan was spastic to begin with, and they
made the band come past the locker rooms and out the entry for the show. Maybe
the linesman thought there would be a clash between the band and the teams and
held Cornell because of that. In fact, it just delayed our entry onto the ice.
> The janitor and the backup Zamboni reappeared, slammed into the end
> boards, and clunked and gasped their way around the rink for what we
> thought would be the last time. Then the blade on the Zamboni broke and
> gouged a hole in the ice that stretched from the penalty box halfway to
> the Cornell goal.
I can still remember the sound. Imagine someone scraping their fingernails on a
blackboard so hard that they dig into the slate of the board itself.
> No way a game like this could end on a routine goal. At 12:16
> (that's 16 minutes past midnight, not twelve minutes and 16 seconds into
> the ten-minute overtime)...
Just in time to head over to "The Gate" for a pizza...
Imagine how the band felt, since we showed up for skating games about an hour in
advance and were expected to entertain the crowd during all the "dead time".
It's the only time we came close to going through every single piece in our
repetoire (about 80 pieces!). Serious lip wipeout from that experience.
Matthew Merzbacher ARPA: [log in to unmask]
Moo - Moo Moo UUCP: ...!{uunet|rutgers|ucbvax}!cs.ucla.edu!matthew
FILMNET:...!jaws%exorcist!matthew@arachnophobia
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