As usual, Mike has written a good article. It is unfortunate that
rivalries such as this come and go. Two things made the Merrimack-Lowell
unique - the close proximity of the two schools and the fact that they both
year in and year out during the late 70's & early 80's were the top schools
in their league (ECAC East) and Division II. With the departure of Lowell to
Hockey East, things were never the same. Perhaps, contributing to the
decline in the rivalry was a  demographic change in the Merrimack College
student body during that time. Merrimack was originally founded as a
"commuter college." Until the early 80's, the majority of the students came
from the Merrimack Valley area. Since then, the majority of students are now
residents and come from a wider geographic area.
        An earlier rivalry that lasted longer but was no less important in
the hockey history of Merrimack was Merrimack -Bowdoin. This rivalry began
in the late fifties  and continued until Merrimack joined Hockey East. The
record stands at 25-24-3 with Merrimack winning the series by one game. For
many years, each school would schedule alumni events at the other's school
to coincide with the game which contributed to the rivalry and interest.
Although the rivalry never reached the level that the state police were
called in (to the best of my knowledge), I'm sure many miss that one special
game. -Nick Chapman (Merrimack '71).
 
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