I must come to the defense of the school I love here in Ann Arbor, Much can be said about the actions of the fans at Yost, and being a student in section R (center ice, bench side) I have seen and heard pretty much everything that has gone on in our arena. The C-YA cheer has gotten quite out of hand, that is a given, but I can think of no other cheer or general shouting ritual which is even close to as bad as this mix of obscenities. The only times people's cheers get even close to out of hand is just general shouting at referees or certain thugs of other teams by a select group of interspersed loud mouths who are consistently frowned upon by those around them following their remarks. The majority of us watch the games and shout encouragement at our own players, occasionally barking at the refs or joshing at an opposing player by deriving something funny from his last name. I do not believe that the majority of michigan fans can be characterized as "abrasive." I also believe that should one remove all un-affiliated people from uofm sporting events, the wolverine faithful (alums and students) would still pack the big house and Yost because most of them can't get tickets because of those un-affiliated ticket holders (not that they're unappreciated). So except for a select few, we michigan hockey fans are not heathans, and it is true that we have been known (on occasion) to root for our cross state rivals when they aren't playing us, no matter what the sport (ohio state however....). It is unfortunate however that we will have to against them in one of our toughest weekends of the year this week! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ____ ____ |_ \ / _| Ross Hammersley <[log in to unmask]> | \ \ / / | University of Michigan '98 "Wind is free, use it" | |\ \/ /| | _| | \ / | |_ MICHIGAN HOCKEY 6PTS AWAY FROM CLINCHING CCHA 1ST |__| \/ |__| MICHIGAN B-BALL LOSES SEESAW WITH WIS. 70-65 Go Blue! AMERICAS CUP'95 A^3 BEATS CONNOR, SYD'95 BEATS FRA95 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- "All of nature is within us and we are part of all nature" -Chief White Cloud