In defense of Army (no pun intended):
 
They *can't* recruit athletes; they have congressionally mandated admissions
standards, and every applicant must meet those standards; if any happen to
be exceptional athletes in any sport, that's gravy.
 
Their student body is truly national; each Representative gets only so many
slots for members of his/her district; Senators get slots, too.  This means
that the distribution of students at any service Academy is fairly close to
the distribution of people within the United States (point being, you only
get so many kids from Minnesota, Michigan, Maine, Massachusetts, etc., then
you have to hope those are your hockey players and not your basketball or
football or lacrosse players, because then you have to get your hockey
players from Georgia, Oklahoma, Idaho, etc)
 
So, I don't thing that Army should be affiliated with a conference because
    1) they're "national" and not "regional", and
    2) they'd not be competitive in the D-1 conference
 
Not a pretty statement, but with specialization in athletics, I think it's
an unavoidable conclusion.
 
Steve G
-------------
Original Text
From [log in to unmask] (The College Hockey Discussion List), on
4/9/96 11:18 PM:
Rob Zielinski wrote:
>Quoted from the USA Today College Hockey web site
>(http://www.usatoday.com/sports/hockey/shc/shcthob1.htm)
>
>"The 1996 Hobey Baker Memorial Award is presented by the Decathlon
>Athletic Club of Bloomington, Minn., along with the U.S. Army. Bonin
>was selected as the 1996 recipient by the vote of an 18-member
>selection committee, comprised of college coaches, sports
>journalists and professional scouts."
>
>I had never heard that the U.S. Army was in any way involved in the
>Hobey Baker award.  From what I can gather they are a "presenter" of
>the 1996 award.  Does anyone have any more information about this?
 
I wondered what that general was doing congratulating Bonin on the clip I
saw, also the banner behind the podium at the ceremony.
 
Couldn't the committee find a better sponsor than some school who doesn't
even field a squad willing to affiliate with a hockey conference ?
 
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