Steve Christopher writes:
>I'm a recent employee of Northern Michigan University and thus a new
>and enthusiastic Wildcat hockey fan.  I'm really enjoying becoming
>reacquainted with collegiate hockey (was an undergraduate at Ohio
>University in the early 60's when the Bobcats played hockey with the
>likes of Ohio State and Bowling Green--was that the CCHA in those
>days, too?).
 
The CCHA has been around since 1971-72, when it included Ohio, Ohio State,
St Louis, and Bowling Green.  Ohio was in the CCHA through 1972-73; they
had been a DivI Independent from 1958-59 through 1970-71.  What happened
to them?
 
>As far as cheers go, I think the "Sieve" cheer doesn't deserve the
>name "cheer."  It's taunting, pure and simple, and usually not
>deserved, given that it's chanted with great orchestration by the
>cheerleaders, accompanied by the band, after EVERY home goal.  In
>baseball you usually give the opposing pitcher a hand, if anything,
>if he gets knocked out by your team.  Taunting is real low class.
>I wish this great game weren't marred by it.
 
Not every school has cheerleaders and not every school has a band, so it is
not always orchestrated.  And believe it or not, these cheers are actually
appreciated by most players.  Quote - "It makes me want to get out and get
that goal right back so that our fans can yell at them."
 
I don't think the sieve cheer is taunting.  Maybe that's because I've heard
it so much that I rarely even notice it any more, but I see it as just the
fans having fun.  Were it something that players considered to be taunting,
I would agree, but I have never known a netminder who was seriously
bothered by it.
 
I agree that is often not "deserved", but people who know the game know who
is responsible for the goal.  Likewise, the goalie knows if the goal was
his fault.  One amusing thing is that some fans really believe that yelling
these things will make a difference.  For the most part, not only do they not
make a difference, the players don't even hear cheers like "sieve".
 
Players have a sense of humor, too.  They appreciate even when opposing fans
come up with original cheers.  One team had a song you might consider
tasteless sung at them by the opposing fans one night.  The players thought
it was so funny, they went around the rest of the road trip singing it to
each other!
 
I know LaGrand has a sense of humor, and I bet he and his teammates got quite
a laugh out of some of the chants.  That pun was intended, btw. :-)
 
Also btw, just so you know I am not exonerating Merrimack fans because I
work with the team, back in the early-to-middle '80s Merrimack had some of
the rowdiest fans in the country who were quite tasteless at times.  The
school cracked down on this and now they're pretty tame by DivI standards.
I was also pretty amazed at the originality they showed at the BC game.
 
>I take it the goalie to whom reference about "Gambler" cheers was
>recently made has been in some sort of gambling trouble.  That's
>real classy too--like once when a basketball team I followed had a
>player who had been in trouble on a drug charge and the fans of an
>opposing team threw little bags of "drugs" at him when he was
>introduced.
 
As I said at the start of my previous message, I think that the two situations
cannot be equated.  LaGrand was not in trouble on the scope of, say, a Pete
Rose.  The rumor is that he (and other former BC players) may have
placed *a* bet or several bets that someone on the outside found out about,
and so there was no choice but to report the incident.  Had LaGrand been in
the same type of trouble that Rich Burchill was, who I gave as an example
of what I considered classless behavior on the part of fans, then I would
agree with you, i.e. if LaGrand had an addiction to gambling.
 
I see it as being similar to when myself or a friend does something that's
embarrassing and endures a certain amount of verbal "abuse" about it for
a while.  I don't take it seriously when it happens to me.  Most fans look
at it that way, too, although of course they are not close friends with the
opposing player.  But there are some fans who do go too far.  At the USA-BU
game, I happened to be sitting near some BU fans who were talking about
how last season they had gotten David Emma's phone number from BC information
and were calling him - and not to wish him good luck.
 
>This list is great.  I really enjoy reading the items.  Just had to
>get the above off my chest.
 
I'm glad you enjoy the list...I disagree with you and think you might be
taking it a little too seriously, but of course I respect your right to feel
that way.  There is a fine line sometimes between fun and tastelessness,
though, so I can certainly see where you are coming from.
 
 
- mike