How often do home fans insult fellow home fans?
 
This year I had the opportunity to witness Harvard-Cornell at Lynah=
 Rink in
Ithaca. As usual, Big Red fans (mostly students wearing the free=
 "Screw BU
and Harvard too" T-shirts) littered the ice during the introductions=
 by
tossing a ton of fish at the Harvard players. They then threw their
newspapers (which they pretend to read during visiting intros) onto=
 the
ice. Some even continued to hurl stuff during the national anthem.=
 Anyway,
during the five minutes or so it took to clean up the ice, the public
address announcer (Hockey-L's own Arthur Mintz) frequently issued=
 the
"Throw stuff again and Cornell gets a penalty" announcement, spoken=
 of
course more eloquently than the above paraphrasing.
 
The fans behaved themselves for one period, and the game was scoreless.=
 As
Harvard came out for the second period warmup, four or five more=
 fish were
tossed at the players. Goalie Tripp Tracy deftly stickhandled one
unfortunate creature over to the officials, who showed no hesitation=
 in
issuing the Cornell bench penalty. The Crimson scored on the power=
 play to
go up, 1-0, and the crowd berated their fellow Big Red fans responsible=
 for
the fish-throwing, standing and pointing "It's all your fault!" as=
 well as
shouting frequently heard Lynah vulgarities at the deviants in Section=
 8.
 
Incidentally, Harvard won the game, 2-1.
 
I have two questions:
 
1) Why is "Screw BU and Harvard too" so popular as a chant at Lynah?
 
2) Why are fans (at Cornell and elsewhere) permitted to throw stuff=
 on the
ice even the first time, especially when everyone knows it's going=
 to
occur? The danger is not so great in a player getting hit as it is=
 in
residue being left on the ice and causing a player to twist an ankle=
 or
knee. Didn't some school (UNH perhaps) once have a tradition of throwing
stuff on the ice that was curtailed when refs refused to tolerate=
 the first
offense with a mere warning?
 
=8BMike J. (Princeton =B992)
 
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"Sophomore dies in kiln explosion? Oh my God. I just talked to her=
 last
week. She was going to make me a pot."
 
          --Otter, "Animal House"
 
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