Rob Holmes writes:
>One other note, supposedly because of all the new names and faces on the
>Badgers this year, Coach Sauer is allowing the names of the players to appear
>on the back of their home jerseys.
 
Now this is something that I have always thought all teams should do.
At least until Len Ceglarski retired at BC, I believe Hockey East was
the only conference to have all of its teams place names on home *and*
away jerseys.  I do not think it was required, but I seem to remember
hearing that in the early years, when the league was crying for
recognition amongst the established conferences, a very keen attention
was paid to ways in which HE could get more publicity.  One of these
ways was to put names on the jerseys so that fans would know the
players (from both teams) better.
 
When Steve Cedorchuk took over at BC and the jerseys were changed, the
names suddenly disappeared from the BC jerseys.  As a result, I gradually
knew fewer of the players from BC than any of the other HE teams.  I
think this severely hurt the ability of the BC program to establish
a connection with fans outside of BC, because no one knew who the
players were.  It will be interesting to see what Jerry York does now,
including whether or not BC will make yet another uniform style change.
 
One of the arguments I have heard (second-hand) by coaches who refuse
to allow names on the jerseys is that "we're a *team*."  I don't buy
that as a reason.  Your opponent is no less a team than you are, just
because their names appear on their jerseys.  IMO, the names are there
out of courtesy to your fans, the opposing fans, and the media - and
because you want to see your program's popularity grow, and one of the
ways to make it grow is to help the fans identify with your players.
 
If a player is selfish, he is going to be that way whether you put his
name on his back or not.  There are also other ways to demonstrate your
desire to have your team play together that are better and more
meaningful than this.
 
And since I mentioned the media, it is absolutely true that when
Merrimack is playing an opponent without names, mistakes are more
likely to occur during our broadcasts and it is more difficult to
identify with the players.  I like to try to pay attention to who is
playing well for both teams and recall specific plays as examples, but
if the opponent doesn't have names, it's not as easy to recall plays
and connect them with specific players.
 
I understand that some players may be the targets of verbal abuse from
opposing fans while on the road and that leaving the names off might
be intended to make it more difficult for hecklers to personalize the
abuse.  But I am sure everyone here will agree that through the
programs, PA announcements, or word of mouth, if someone wants to find
out who a player is for purpose of heckling him, leaving the names off
is not going to be a hindrance.  And players should learn to ignore
the fans anyway, it is a part of the game.
 
So please, let's have more teams go with the names, home *and* away...
it's one of the little things that, in the end, is for the good of the
game.
---                                                                   ---
Mike Machnik                                            [log in to unmask]
Cabletron Systems, Inc.                                    *HMM* 11/13/93
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