Here's the article I was working on last weekend for US College Hockey Magazine. Rather than covering the games themselves, I was asked to write about the fans and the overall atmosphere. Thanks to everybody that I talked to - Kathleen and I had a great time meeting you. -begin article It's been over 48 hours now, and I still can't get the Michigan Fight Song out of my head. Other than that, the Other Final Four (tm) festivities in Cincinnati were a delight - the games, the atmosphere, and most of all, the fans. I spent a great deal of time last weekend hanging out with self-described college hockey "Get-a-Lifers", the folks from the HOCKEY-L internet discussion list. Once a year they come together to see college hockey crown its national champion. But the games are a means, not an end. The real fun for these fans is interacting face-to-face with other people who have as much of a passion for the sport as they do. Most of the stories I hear from the HOCKEY-L people are similar to mine. Except for this one magical weekend when I'm surrounded by other college hockey fans, I'm a minority - I get strange looks when I wear a college hockey jersey ("What team is THAT?"), or when I try to explain that guys like Jim Carey didn't come "out of nowhere". I use to search in vain for news, ANY news about what was going on. I used to wonder if I was the only one who thought it strange that the CNN sports ticker sees fit to report the results of every single Division I basketball game but don't include the NCAA hockey tournament results. When I discovered the college hockey resources on the internet, it was quite a revelation. There were thousands of other people around the country with a real passion for the sport, and not just in places you'd expect like Boston and St. Paul. I "met" people from California, Virginia and Texas - mostly folks who had developed a love of the sport during college but had moved away for some minor reason, like a job or family. Like me, they were amazed and delighted to learn about the wealth of places they could go for information. I first learned about the magazine you're holding right now through someone on the internet. A social highlight for the HOCKEY-L people is the annual dinner that takes place between the semifinal games on Thursday. Here you'll see things like Wisconsin folks with plastic cheese wedges on their heads breaking bread with people wearing Minnesota gopher ears. Carol White from Minnesota has been the chief organizer for many of these affairs. The usual first order of business each year for Carol is to distribute buttons to the participants identifying them as HOCKEY-L people, since many have never met face to face. The plan has always been to send out a mail note with a specific meeting spot at the arena where Carol would sell the buttons for a dollar each to cover her costs. Then, for the rest of the week, the HOCKEY-L contingent could spot each other. Former Notre Dame head coach Ric Shafer was seen sporting one at the 1992 championships. This year, it didn't quite work out. "A guy from the NCAA stopped me and said I couldn't sell anything inside the arena," said Carol. "I tried to explain, but it didn't do any good. That's why a lot of us spell NCAA as 'NC$$'." We had to wait until the dinner to get our buttons. Some people have set up their own meetings, however. Mike Machnik, one of the founders of HOCKEY-L and a former radio color announcer for Merrimack, happened to strike up an email conversation with Heather Neely, who at the time was the Student Manager at Division III Plattsburgh State (NY). "He sent me a note congratulating me on Plattsburgh's national championship," said Heather. "And also to ask if she was related to Cam," said Mike. One thing led to another, and they were married about a year and a half later. They say they plan on attending the championships (jokingly referred to on HOCKEY-L as the "Phinal Phour" to avoid copyright infringement with the basketball tournament) every year, and will bring the family when the time comes. Folks told me that events like this make them realize the people on the other side of the rink are just like them - they just happen to root for different teams. And their love of the sport surpasses their devotion to a single team. "For years I just knew about my team," said Tony Biscardi, a BU alum. "Now I have a perspective that goes beyond just that. I can form real opinions about things like who deserves the Hobey because I have information beyond just the players I get to see all the time." And boy, do these fans do have access to information. As mentioned, Ric Shafer was a member of HOCKEY-L, and the group was among the first to hear of his resignation when he personally sent out an email announcement. Maine's Shawn Walsh and Colorado College's Don Lucia have also responded to questions or opinions brought up by the internet hockey community by sending messages to HOCKEY-L. The group has their own poll, voted weekly by HOCKEY-L members, which I would put up against the USA Today or WMEB polls any day. Also, if you want to know who's in the tournament a day before the announcement, just log on. The HOCKEY-L folks calculate their own RPI (which, unlike the NCAA, they publish weekly) , as well as keep tabs on the other criteria used to select and seed the teams. While I've concentrated on the HOCKEY-L group, I'm sure that similar things were going on all over Cincinnati last weekend. You could feel the camaraderie all around you. I came away with the sense that even though the sport continues to grow, it's still small enough, intimate enough, where everyone knows each other, and more importantly, respects each other. "A lot of it is because of were we come from," said Lucia on Thursday after a hard fought Colorado College victory over Vermont in double overtime. "A lot of us come from hard-working families and it's a small, tight fraternity. Every time you compete, there's a lot of respect." One of the most popular items for discussion among fans I talked to was the pros and cons of the sport becoming more popular, which is most assuredly is. At the Hobey Baker presentation, which was filled to overflow capacity, Minnesota coach Doug Woog said, "I'm pleased and amazed with the turnout. When Rob Stauber won this (in 1988) there were about nine people in the room." Tony Biscardi later said, "Look at me. I'm an average fan, a regular guy. Yet I can go to the Hobey Baker presentation and get tickets for the national championship. Isn't that great?" Yes and no. It's great for people like Tony and myself, but what about the folks who, due to lack of interest by most of the media, get drowned in the basketball hype and never know about such things? But at they same time, how much bigger can college hockey become before the hype gets in the way and the players and coaches and the events themselves become removed from the average fan? Thoughts to ponder, since the day will most certainly come when the problem will have to be dealt with - just look at the new Nike "swish" on the Michigan jerseys. In the meantime, as fans, savor the ability to still get up close and personal to greatest sport on earth, played by young men and women who do it mostly out of love and respect for the game. "This is what sports is all about," said Michigan coach Red Berenson seconds after his team won the national championship. "The enthusiasm of these kids giving everything they've got." Maybe that Fight Song isn't so bad after all. -end of article Chris Lerch US College Hockey Magazine HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey; send information to [log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.