From the corner of my mind. Part I

I recently moved to the greater Washington, DC area for a mini-career change. It has been somewhat of a shocker for me because, while living in Boston for six years (four in school, 2 as an "adult") I had the chance to enjoy all that Boston has to offer in regards to sports. The better part of my college life (and to no ones surprise, my post-college life) was dedicated to following my schools Big Two sports teams, Men's Basketball and Men's Hockey. My guilty pleasure was attending the women's basketball games. I was usually on my own for those, although occasionally I convinced a friend or two to attend with me.

understandably, there are several dozen opportunities to catch live and professional sports (refer to previous review of the ABA game I attended). I haven't found the time to investigate all that is out there to offer. In addition, my current living situation situates me quite some way from DC. Soon I'll be moving closer, until then, I will reflect on old memories before I make new ones.

Inspired by a recent thread at a Boston University Hockey message board about the closing of BU's old arena, I've decided to document a few of my sports memories.

Part I: Hockey

During my college athletics experience I attended most, if not all, home hockey games starting in my freshman year. Initially, I only secondarily attended the Men's basketball games. The big "cash-getter" (as Tupac would say) was hockey. So while lining up for tickets on a frigid February night before the big rival shows up in Durham, North Carolina means you're waiting for basketball tickets. In Boston it means you are probably waiting for your chance at the prime Beanpot seats. (The Beanpot is an annual hockey tournament played on the first two Mondays of February between the four Division I hockey schools in Boston: Boston University, Harvard University, Northeastern University, and Boston College. Originally, the games took place at the old Boston Garden, it was then moved to the Fleet Center when it replaced the Garden.)

Boston has an historic college hockey history. Almost every school, middle, high and college, has some form of a interscholastic hockey team. In addition to the four previously mentioned Division I programs, there are an additional handful of Division I and Division III programs.

While I am still a season ticket holder, I don't get to attend many of the games because of the distance. So far this season, I've only seen one live and in person. I did get to a sports bar to check out the seasons first tilt against BC, but it just wasn't the same. Everyone else in the joint was watching the University of Maryland basketball bully some low-major. Here my roommate and I were watching college hockey. We got some interesting looks, to say the least.

I plan on attending the big tadoo this weekend when the historic Walter Brown Arena is retired as the home of Terrier Hockey. Following the final game in the old cage, the University will host its first event in the brand-spankin'-new Agganis Arena. (Tangential rant: For some reason it seems that I'm always a year or two late for large construction projects. My high school was completed remodeled and the bulk of the construction took place during my senior year, including one of the largest gyms in Upstate New York. My younger brother got to enjoy a completely different high school than I did. Now, BU opens up two multi-million dollar cool-as-hell athletics building and I moved to DC. Humbug. Ok, I'm done whining now.)

In fact, I'm trying to sort through them right now and I can't seem to slow down enough to write them. I'll give it a shot and go back and add more as I reflect. So I'll just write them, list style, as they come to me and when more come to me, I'll add them.

• My First college hockey game that didn't involved the thrashing of a Canadian school in an exhibition was a 6-4 loss to conference rival Providence college on Halloween night. This was the night I was introduced to our calling card: chanting "BC SUCKS" no matter what team was on the ice. I erroneously thought that everyone chanting "PC SUCKS", but a friendly upperclassman corrected me. What was I thinking.
• The very next game a 9-1 shellacking of Princeton.
• The 1999 Beanpot first round game. A 3-2 (OT) win against hated-rival Boston College. The game featured a flying-in-falling-down-and-away goal in overtime by Russ Bartlett. There is still nothing that can touch the feeling of beating BC in the Beanpot for the first time.
• foregoing the preparation for a Physics exam to attend the Beanpot final. While my grades would reflect, and my parents would agree, that this was a poor decision, I would never have missed that.
• My sophomore year, the 1999-2000 season, featured a cocky young net-minder named Ricky DiPietro (you see, when we saw him play, it was still Ricky) who lead the team to an undefeated record at home.
• Convincing a couple of friends from home to make the 3-hour Albany-to-Boston drive to see BU play the University of Denver over the Thanksgiving break.
• The second game of a weekend series with Maine featured a tremendous face-off game-tying goal by Dan Cavanaugh who, in celebration, jumped onto the boards to high-five fans.
• That same year at the Beanpot featured a final between hated rival Boston College. It was a typical grudge-match style game that featured a frenzy around the BU net that lead to DiPietro emerging from the pile and hurling the puck down the ice with his glove hand, Jai-Alai style.
• After an unexpected early exit from the Hockey East conference tourney (held annually at the Fleet Center), BU headed to Albany's Pepsi Arena for the national tournament regionals, and so did we. Four of us hitched a ride with a kid I knew from high school back to Albany, where we slept on the floor in my living room. The first game was a solid win over St. Cloud State. The second game turned out to be the longest college hockey game in NCAA tournament history and second longest college hockey game ever. Both goalies combined to save more shots than any two other goalies and DiPietro broke the single-game record. What was the equivalent of two-and-a-third hockey games later, BU lost on a well timed rebound goal. 124 minutes of hard-fought hockey. On another note, my friend and I made signs expounding the wonders of our superstar goalie that said: The Rick. The Peoples Goalie. Not only did our signs get a mention in a feature article written about the game at USCHO.com, our signs also appeared on an ESPN SportsCenter intro. How cool is that? As it turns out, it wouldn't be my last cameo on the world wide leader in sports.
• Senior year, road trip to Maine. Hockey in Maine is life. If you're not at the arena on Friday nights when there's a game, you're probably a loser. This is tough to pull off in a place like Orono, ME. Being a visiting fan in Alfond "Arena" is dangerous because Maine fans defend their turf like this was a redneck remake of The Warriors. Needless to say, to the chagrin of the Black Bear fans, BU came away with the win. The game featured the first and only butt-ending penalty I have ever seen, charged to Justin "Attitude Adjustment" Maiser.
• That same year a 9-6 beating by Maine. The game got chippy and chaos ensued. The game also featured a 20 minute delay while a linesmen was attended to for being cut in the abdomen with a skate. The game finished with one referee and one linesman, as if here needed to be any other reason for chaos.
• Winning the Beanpot back after losing it to BC junior year.
• Somewhere in there was a scrum of a game against the University of New Hampshire. Fox Sports New England was in town to show the game on TV and as a gift they handed out some sort of noise-maker to the fans. Well, as the game went on fights broke out on the ice, UNH players taunted BU fans, and the noise-makers turned into weapons. The story by USCHO Hockey East weekly columnist Dave Hendrickson explains things a bit better (refer to sections Bad Behavior Part I and II).
• First year after college, Hockey East tournament quarter finals, a raucous BU crowd invades Providence College's "The Coffin" and powers the team to a two game sweep.
• The Hockey East quarter final that year, 2 OT win over BC. #28 on the list of NCAAs longest hockey games.
• Second post-college season. Hockey East Championship game. Not a BU memory, but the seats were awesome. I sat four rows from the glass (my first time ever in the lower level) with my British friend to see Maine edge UMass in the fourth longest hockey game in NCAA history. I think I'm cursed. :)

That's my list, for now. Like I stated previously, this is an evolving document. If I remember something during a re-read, I will add it.

Next Up:

Part II: Men's Basketball moments