Today is the 5-year anniversary, or 5th birthday, of HOCKEY-L.
 
I have been asked to write a few words on the list's history.  But
asking me to write just a few words about hockey is like asking Rodney
Dangerfield whether he gets any respect.  The guy will do hours on the
subject.
 
HISTORY OF HOCKEY-L, THE COLLEGE HOCKEY DISCUSSION LIST
It's a little difficult to set the actual date for the birth of
HOCKEY-L, but after some consideration, I have set it at September 15,
1989.  During the year or so prior to that, there was an increasing
amount of college hockey talk on USENET's rec.sport.hockey.  Much of
it was between Keith Instone and myself, as we carried on what often
amounted to private conversations on the newsgroup. :-)
 
In the summer of 1989, Keith and I began discussing the idea of
creating a mailing list for college hockey, mainly to have a place
where college hockey talk would not be swamped by r.s.h's devotion to
pro hockey.  Also, since we were finding that it was easier and faster
to exchange scores and other information by email, a mailing list made
sense - often on newsgroups, you don't see a posting till several days
or weeks after it is made.
 
I was working at the time as a co-op at HP/Apollo in Chelmsford, MA,
while I was an undergrad at Merrimack.  Apollo had an easy facility for
setting up and running a mailing list, so I decided to do it from
there.  The mailing lists at Apollo were not really designed for
outside use and few lists had outside addresses, but I wasn't about to
let that stand in the way of progress. :-)
 
On September 8, 1989, I set up the list, then called "college_hockey".
Initially, Keith and I were the only ones on it.  We spent a week
working out the kinks and finding out which addresses worked from the
outside - some sites required it to be addressed with a semicolon, as
"college_hockey:@apollo.com".
 
When it looked like we were all set, I posted an announcement of the
list to r.s.h and began receiving subscribe requests almost
immediately.  That was on September 15, 1989; that's why I call that
the list's "birthday".
 
The first year was even more successful than we could have hoped.  It
seemed that many people learned of the list through word of mouth, as
well as my occasional reposting of the list announcement to USENET.
During that year, we quickly got interest from many of the DivI
schools as well as some DivII-III schools and also from people
interested in women's hockey.
 
I think it was in that timeframe that the groundwork was laid for many
of the things people have come to appreciate about HOCKEY-L.  There
was almost none of the reckless flaming and woofing that is prevalent
on USENET.  Along with the stats and scores, there was a lot of
discussion about controversial issues that still get discussed today -
but it seemed that everyone was gaining a real respect for other
programs and also learning a lot.  Also, the teamwork that we know
today was a factor right from the start; as people saw postings from
other parts of the country, they jumped in to give what information
they could about their own team or conference, and it benefitted us
all.
 
Towards the end of the 1989-90 season, my co-op/part-time period at
Apollo was almost over, and I was worried that there wouldn't be a way
to carry it over to the next season.  I asked the list for volunteers
to take it over, and fortunately, Wayne Smith offered to move the list
to Maine and to become its administrator, running it out of Maine's
LISTSERV and calling it "HOCKEY-L".  The transfer took place almost
right after the season ended, in April of 1990.
 
This was a huge advantage because for that year, I had to perform by
hand the tasks such as archiving of messages, additions/removals,
handling bounces, etc. even though the list was a true mirror and
anything anyone sent was automatically redirected as it is today.
LISTSERV provided the capability to do all of those things itself and
much more too.
 
I have said this many times before, but I don't believe HOCKEY-L would
be where it is today without the timeless dedication shown by Wayne
over the last four years.  I was seriously concerned back in 1990 that
this venture would fall by the wayside, but instead, HOCKEY-L has
grown to the point where not only fans consider it an invaluable
source of information, but so do coaches, SIDs, players, ADs, and
media.   That is all because of Wayne's devotion and belief that it
could work, a belief which apparently the rest of us shared.
 
I think that I first realized what the potential of this thing was
about 3-4 years ago when Merrimack coach Ron Anderson said to me,
"What is this college hockey mailing list?  Today I got a phone call
from a guy in <Wisconsin, Minnesota, I forget where> who said he was
reading all your comments on the computer and wanted to know more
about Merrimack."  I've lost track of the number of coaches, SIDs,
etc. who I have run into and who have told me how they came to find
out about the list.  Today, it seems that almost every DivI program
has someone (coach, SID) who reads the list or is at least aware of
what it is.  And the reception has been superb.
 
Again, I think Wayne deserves the credit for that.  I suppose another
person could have done an equally fine job, but to be honest, knowing
some of what Wayne has done behind the scenes to keep it running
smoothly, I have trouble conceiving of how anyone could have done it
better.
 
So at the risk of flooding Wayne's mailbox, I urge you to drop him a
line to let him know that you appreciate all he has done to make
HOCKEY-L a blinding success.  And while you're at it, give yourselves
a pat on the back too.  Because this really is a team effort, and all
the work Wayne puts in doesn't matter without the combined efforts of
everyone who posts a score, or a piece of information, or an opinion.
 
Happy 5th, HOCKEY-L, and many more. :-)
 
PS Let's also not forget that HOCKEY-L has to this point spawned two
successful lists in their own right, hockey3 (run by Pete Kester) and
OLYMPUCK (run by Charlie Slavin), and I expect more will follow as
there have been discussions about possible lists for women's hockey
and club.  And on a personal note, it was through HOCKEY-L that my
wife Heather and I met almost 3 years ago, but that is a completely
different story that could fill volumes (and maybe will someday :-)).
Let's just say that I still vehemently deny the rumors that I started
the list as a way to meet someone.  That was just a very nice and very
unexpected side effect. :-)
 
PPS Watch in a following message for the first real (non-test) message
ever sent to HOCKEY-L/college_hockey.
---                                                                   ---
Mike Machnik                                            [log in to unmask]
Cabletron Systems, Inc.                                    *HMM* 11/13/93
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