someone posted about ohio states fans and brought up bowling green's fans
in the process.
 
i can't talk about other ccha rinks -- i've only been to BGSU Ice Arena and
Joe Louis Arena -- but i feel like i know BG fans. I am one, after all :-).
 
I don't think Bowling Green fans are going to the games to see blood any
more than any other CCHA fans are. For one thing, they aren't getting it --
this is the CCHA, after all, not "Slapshot."
 
That's not to say BG fans are particularly sophisticated. They probably hit
the CCHA average. There are loads of
underclassmen from the farms and suburban working-class families of ohio who
have no clue about hockey. They cheer the big hits, and when the light behind
the opponent's goal goes on.
 
But my experience was that students learned what icing, roughing and a penalty
shot was after a couple of years. Seniors still cheered the big hits,
but they also had the sense to yell for a penalty shot when a Falcon got
dragged down on a breakway. People have been watching hockey in Bowling Green
for years, and the old fans share with the new.
 
That aside, the core of it was this: Bowling Green fans didn't go to watch
hockey or fighting or anything else. They went to see a winner.
 
For years, Falcon icers were the only jocks that could beat up on a Big 10
or Ivy League school. Bowling Green is a relatively young, working
class sort of school, and I think many fans boost their self-esteem
vicariously through their icers. I did and I probably still do.
 
This identity crisis came out in a certain meanness in many BG fans, I
think. In my trips to CCHA finals at The Joe, my fellow fans seemed to set
themselves apart. Hell, I was there cursing with them, yelling about pompous
asses on the opposite side of the ice. And when Bowling Green
lost, that was it until next year, unless you are into tractor pulls or
that sort of thing.
 
Nasty or no, BG loved its heroes. Fans
would show up an hour early and storm into the arena like it was a Cincinnati
Who concert. They had a pet cheer for every situation, and dragged newspapers
in to read as opposing line ups were introduced. After the initial gasp at
an opposing goal, they would stand up and cheer on their heroes.
 
Today's students can update me on the fans. I hear enthusiasm fell of a bit
during the last couple of years. Hockey was bad, football was great. A
new ticket to self respect, maybe -- heck they almost beat Ohio State two years
ago.
 
But when I was there Bowling Green fans were great. Not all students of the
game, but great, great fans. BGSU Ice Arena was a fun place to watch hockey
then.
 
John Kohlstrand
Bowling Green '92
 
--
The Chronicle. Elyria, Ohio, USA                John Kohlstrand, staff writer
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    ``Techno is like Detroit -- a complete mistake.''  --Derrick May
I don't speak for them.  They don't speak for me.  It's an existential thing.