[The project demo went well, so now I can resume the story....]
MEETING MOMS
------------
On the ride down to the Knick for the MSU-LSSU semifinal, I was
introduced to Mrs. Kurtz and Mrs. Francisco, mothers of Brett (21) and
Jason (13). Both are seniors. Mrs. Kurtz said that the boys really
wanted to win it.... and the underclassmen, who haven't been to a final
four, didn't know how to act and were getting really nervous. Brett (a
comm arts major and really funny guy) and Jason, she said, decided to
break the tension by staging a shaving cream fight on the team bus that
morning.
At the souvenir counter, I was asking for the Wisconsin shirt and
the woman next to me said "Hi, I'm Mrs. Maco" -- Maco Balkovec's
mom (#24). She and the Macdonalds and someone else flew in from
Toronto (or was that flew *to * Toronto and then drove?)
MSU-LSSU
--------
The WCHA's best ref, Greg Shepard, was the offical for a very
boring game. The Wisconsin fans had fun getting a feel for the
Knick, buying souvenirs, and seeing two other teams play. I
found it difficult to get into the game, since it wasn't my team
and I was tired from the bus ride.
The band was given tickets to the game if they wanted, but told
(for some unknown reason) that they had to figure out a ride on
their own. I don't know the exact details, but our tour and the
band's trip were intertwined a couple of ways. The same bus
company did both trips, and we used their bus and the onw we came
on to take everyone (bus trip + plane trip) to the Knick. There
was room for the band, but they had not been told... but mostly
they were asleep (but might not have been had they known).
HOCKEY-L Meets
--------------
Between periods, I met the hockey-l gang at the intersection of
sections 101 and 130. The first person I saw was Pam, wearing a
Minnesota Jersey, but I asked if she was Carol, since I didn't
remember anyone's self-description and Carol stuck in my mind as
one of the organizers of the dinner.
We all introduced ourselves, got our Hockey-l Phinal Phour buttons,
and agreed to meet at the same spot to walk to dinner, since
some enterprising hockey-lers (I don't remember who) had actually
scouted the area and already knew the route.
SOUVENIRS
---------
The red "Wisconsin" version of the NCAA Hockey Championship
T-Shirt sold out by the start of the second period of the
MSU-LSSU game. Rumor #1 is that they printed more for Saturday.
Rumor #2 is that USAir had sent half the shipment to Syracuse
instead...
I bought the T-shirt and the tournament pin but was running low on
cash so I didn't buy the program and pin for Rich (later I got
him a program, but the pins were sold out).
HOCKEY-L Dinner
---------------
We met as planned, and walked to the Fountain Too for all you can
eat Pizza and Wings. Carol and Tony and I don't know who else did
a great job putting together the dinner. The food was good, the
beer was good, and the company was great. I will now show how bad
I am with names... I talked to John from RPI and someone and Tony
at my table.
I asked Tony how the official scoring is done (Mike
was at the other end of the room, in case you ware wondering why
I didn't ask him :-). Tony gave me his copies of the first period
MSU-LSSU scorecard, shot chart, the media line sheets, and the Wisconsin
post-season media guide (I already have a regular Wisconsin media
guide. The post-season guide is a xerox booklet updating what
happened in the WCHA and NCAA playoffs, with tidbits about each
player, etc.). The shot chart was the most interesting to me, but
my friends in red enjoyed looking at the media guide later.
I then talked to Jim (Love?) and some others from UNH. We had a
very interesting talk about the tournament, and college hockey in
general.
I then said hello again and bye to everyone, but first we took a
Hockey-L picture. I think Mike never made it into the picture,
but I'm not sure. I also don't know who has it, but someone said
something about scanning it and making it ftp-able.
BADGER HUDDLE
-------------
The Wisconsin Alumni Club sponsored a "Badger Huddle" at the Hilton,
for anyeone and everyone wearing red. I went over there (with a
friendly tour guide, but once again I forgot who!). I arrived as it was
breaking up (the hockey-l dinner was more important), but I hear the
beer was expendive anyway.
Basically, it was a pep rally with the Band, beer, food, balloons, and
a good time. Everyone followed the bad over to the Knick for the game
with Michigan.
....
more later,
--david
--------
david parter university of wisconsin -- madison
[log in to unmask] computer sciences department
|
