My use of .."perception of RPI fans a elitist chumps" was
essentially for effect. If anyone was pissed off then they
know exactly how I feel when I see the word "inferior" in
reference to Army hockey. The Army team may not be as deep
or as good as any D-I team, but they are not "inferior".
They will be the underdog in every D-I game they play,
that's the way it is and that is acceptable. In any event, I
am sure all here on Hockey-L are as "normal" as fans can be,
including me. I would suspect that most fans would object to
the use of the word "inferior" to describe their team. I
know it's just a very few, and in this particular instance
it was essentially the Albany press that got my dander up
over the last two years.
 
I have since been informed that local press accounts of RPI
games with Army are similar to stories written about other
RPI losses and are not unique to Army. However, I was also
perturbed with last years account of RPI's win and
subsequent reference to that win in this years pre-game
hype.  Those accounts were in my mind a true fabrication of
the facts.
 
So, I do APOLOGIZE for generalizing about RPI fans when I
DID know it's the local media (is it Leonard, Croce,and
others) ,a couple of player comments (particularly Tim
Regan last year), and a few fans at the game last October. I
will not apologize however about my feelings for the use of
the word "inferior" in reference to Army hockey and West
Point.
 
Finally,
 
One Hockey-L'er who objected to "elitist chumps", said
something like...how can you say that.. you don't know me
....... Well he doesn't know me either and the multitude of
incidents and emotions that led to my response to the
comment in the original post.  The explanation to such would
take pages.  I will spare the List.
 
I will say that I am a sarcastic individual with a similar
sense of humor which of course does not come across too well
in the written word. This is especially true for someone
who took second semester freshman English five times.  More
importantly, I am emotionally close to West Point, not just
a fan.  This is strange since I detested the military when I
did my time(66-70).  In fact the military didn't like me
either.  Hey, the RPI fans do have something in common with
Army after all.  And No, I am not suffering from post war
traumatic syndrome or what ever it's called.
 
Back to hockey. 11-1, how can that possibly happen?
 
tom morrison
 
P.S.
 
Good luck to RPI and that is not a sarcastic thought.  In
fact I have known a senior forward on that team since he was
9 years old.  It seems to me he was even on a squirt
team that his father and I were operating at the time.:-)