(I'm pulling this off the DIGEST, which I went to in prep. for the trip to
Providence, so forgive me if it may be a little outdated at the moment.)
 
John H wrote:
>First, for Leigh Torbin, some form of goal cheer is
>common throughout the CCHA.  Each team has a
>ritual, be it as simple as counting the number of
>goals and yelling "we want more!" or doing some
>form of more elaborate sieving, specifically targeting
>the opposing goaltender.
 
As with most rituals, there are always exceptions.  In the CCHA, the exception
is Michigan State.  We've never really gone in for the big "SIEVE" chants, ex-
cept for the tradition of throwing a sieve (or colander, or if you prefer the
Polish term, which my wife tends to use, "dushlock" [phoenetic spelling]) at
the opposing goal after the first MSU goal is scored.
 
If the crowd is in the right mood and our Superfan is here (no, not the guy in
the Green and White shorts with the "S" painted on his chest in White and the
rest of his body painted Green), they'll usually do a chorus of the "UGLY"
chant (if you haven't heard this one, E-mail me and I'll give you the lyrics)
and, should we win, the "Is that not the hockey rink?" chant.  Otherwise, we're
a pretty (read: too) tame crowd and getting tamer (and/or lamer) every year.
The Slapshots are worthless, and except for the guy in the Hagar the Horrible
hat and the Superfan, so is most of the rest of the crowd.  LA Lakers fans
and Dodgers fans have nothing on MSU fans arriving late and leaving early.
 
>At Michigan, almost every cheer throughout the game
>revolves around the words "sieve" and/or "suck".
 
That's funny, usually all of ours revolve around the word "State."  Oh, well,
to each his own... :-)
 
I wil give it to the Michigan fans, though.  They usually do have the more
original cheers and get a large part of the crowd into it.  I've always viewed
some of the others a
I've seen as merely copycats of Michigan.  (Don't get me wrong, here.  That
doesn't mean I still don't like Michigan fans as a species [certain notable
members excepted :-)] but they do have some originality.)  And I have some
fun with it myself.  Whenever Michigan happens to lose when I'm in attendance,
either to us or in most cases, LSSU, I'll yell and point "It's all your fault"
at the Michigan band.
 
On the way to Providence (actually, Seekonk, Mass. first)...
 
G. M. Finniss
Michigan State University
WVU '87, UTenn '92, MSU who the hell knows when?