Two weekends ago, 12 good friends and I, all die-hard Engineers hockey fans, made the long haul up to the North Country to see our team take on Clarkson University (sucks) and St. Lawrence University. That four-hour road trip proved to be quite a bonding experience, mostly due to the eventful ride home (that you may have read about in the Poly last week). After watching the men’s team break out of its slump with a 6-3 drubbing of St. Lawrence, I was excited to see a loud, packed Houston Field House the following weekend, with the Engineers facing two ranked ECAC teams, and the Big Red Freakout! occurring on Saturday. The energy of the crowd this past weekend, however, was quite disappointing.
At Friday’s game against Quinnipiac University, turnout was rather low (just over 2,900 in a 5,000+ seat arena). I expected a nice turnout due to the inducting of Frank Chiarelli ’55—one of RPI hockey’s most impressive players, who still holds many Division I college hockey records—into the Hockey Ring of Honor, but attributed the low turnout to the poor weather. While the crowd was into the game early on, as we fell behind in the third period, the now-expected early walk to the exits began. This was made most prominent by one particular fraternity, whose early exit made myself and others question whether it attended solely to receive its community service award.
The Big Red Freakout! proved no different in the fans’ desertion of the team before the game had ended. While the team was getting simply outplayed by a strong Princeton Tigers squad, there is no reason for home fans to begin a verbal bombardment of our own players. They know their efforts are not enough; they don’t need those who are supposed to be there supporting them calling them “bums” and screaming to “Put in Neubert.” Think about how they feel having their fellow students act this way towards them. Perhaps had those who chose to boo the Engineers instead got behind them and cheered for a comeback, the outcome could have been different. Yes, I know it is difficult to find something to cheer about when your team is getting shut out, but there is never reason to lose faith.
The Engineers have seven games left in the regular season, three of which are at home. I encourage all of you to come out, stay the whole game, and cheer them on. A hostile environment for visiting teams always provides an edge. I have had season tickets all four years at RPI, and I look forward to each weekend’s home series, as they are a way for me to scream out my frustrations from the week. Come join me this Friday as the men take on Dartmouth College, and again the weekend of February 22–23 against St. Lawrence and Clarkson (still sucks). We’ve won games with eight seconds left before; there is never a reason to give up hope. I hope to see you all there.
As I’m sure I’ve angered some of you with this column, feel free to contact me via e-mail at uc@rpi.edu or on AIM at TheUCPresident with any hate mail or anything else you may have on your mind. The UC is here to help.
