Oh, the Superfans.
They wear mustard colored cheap t-shirts with burgundy writing, either given out or sold by their bookstore. Maybe 2% of them own hockey jerseys. And if the hockey team is playing at the same time as their football or basketball team, they magically dissapear.
Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the Boston College Superfans.
The Superfans, or Stuperfans, or whatever you wish to refer to them as, are oft-complained about. I really don’t dislike them, I’m just amazed at their…indifference? Lack of jerseys? Bandwagon jumping? Pep band’s rendition of Ridin’ Dirty by Chamillionaire? (You have not lived until you’ve heard a tuba blast out the first few lines of that song. Really. It’s made my Beanpot the last two years.)
The Superfans have little to cheer about this weekend, as their men’s hockey team lost their national championship rematch with Notre Dame this weekend, 4-1 (that one goal being scored with the man with bionic arms, aka Brock Bradford, aka the player who was neck and neck with the FWNICM in goal scoring in Hockey East a week ago, before FWNICM fell back into his “instead of scoring, I’ll just assist on every goal instead” phase) and, very shockingly, lost this afternoon to usually-downtrodden Maine, 2-1. Hooray, Maine’s Bananas the Bear has something to smile about this evening! The Superfans do not.
The Superfans have even more to fret about, after this characterization of them was offered up this afternoon by HockeyBuzz.com writer Jule Robenhymer:
The SuperFans from BC…I’m not sure how you can call yourself super because you were no where near it during Friday night’s game. Relatively quiet for most of the game, there was even one student section that wasn’t even standing or clapping AND on more than one occasion you allowed the large contingency of ND fans chants of “Let’s Go I-rish!” to go unanswered – what is up with that?? The band was good and I thought it was great that they marched around the concourse before taking their spots during pre-game, but other than that…what a lazy effort on your part…
Wow, Julie. Wow. I mean, all of us other Hockey East fans think it, but you just went out there and said it. Called the Superfans out. I imagine the Superfans are already out in full force against her quote, but the damage has been done. The Superfans have been called out as lazy. I am eager to see how they respond, if at all.
In other college hockey news, a fair number of Boston University hockey fans made the trip down jammed packed route 495 to the Tsongas Arena Friday night to take in the BU-UML game. This game will forever be known as the “World’s Craziest Hockey Game.”
A colleague who couldn’t make the trip e-mailed me after the game to ask me what the heck happened, given that the last he had checked in with one of us, BU was losing 3-1. I struggled to summarize it, before just typing out on my Blackberry: “We stunk for two periods, UML was better, then they sat back in the last three minutes and we actually decided to play, and then scored three goals.” There is no other way one could summarize that game. We all had thought it was over late in the third, but unlike last year, BU has the speed and endurance to stay in the game when other teams are fading.
What was notable about this game was the lack of penalties in comparison with the other Hockey East games this season. This was the first game this season I have seen where most of the game was played five-on-five. There were no penalties at all in the first period, and it wasn’t until 8 minutes into the second period. Even when the refs weren’t given a choice after a few fights, they handed out pretty lenient penalties. For example,at the top of the third period, I was certain that an extended and very rough fight between BU’s Colin Wilson and UML’s Ben Holmstrom would result in a game misconduct or at least a five minute major. But no – despite helmets flying off and the officials struggling to stop the fight, both players were only handed two minute minors for roughing.
Another notable item was that UML superstar goalie Carter Hutton came out for the second period, was warming up by skating forward in front of the goal, and slipped and fell flat on his behind. Hutton is about as tall as two Jeff Lergs, so that was a whole lotta goalie falling down. He quickly got back up, and looked as if he was laughing. Hutton played the whole second, but didn’t start the third, leading me to announce a faux injury report to my seatmates: “Hutton, pride, out 4-6 weeks.” The next morning we learned it was an ankle injury. Hutton is up there with Theissen in my “scary goaltenders in Hockey East” list after the first two periods he played. Sure, he’s not the best goalie in Hockey East, but he played a great game Friday night, and it won’t be fun to face him in the future.
Last but not least from Friday’s game, the most interesting non-hockey related aspect of this game had to have been the official Tsongas Arena shopping cart. During the second intermission “Chuck-a-Puck” contest, we spotted this out on the ice:
The Tsongas Arena Shopping Cart
If you look near the net, you see a shopping cart. It was a red accented shopping cart that obviously belonged to some store at some point. My partner-in-crime turned to me and said, “Do you think they made some poor intern steal a shopping cart? ‘Hey, it would be great to have a shopping cart for the Chuck-a-Puck. Go get us a shopping cart from the grocery store. Never mind that it’s kind of stealing.”
I am sure the Tsongas Arena obtained the cart legally, and I’m impressed that they thought of it. It definitely attempted to make cleaning up quicker, although it really didn’t because people were having too much fun rolling it across the ice.
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Lastly, here’s my routine plug for my Examiner Boston work. I have a piece on the reduced season ticket prices for the Boston Blazers here: Due to an uncertain economy, Boston Blazers cut season ticket prices. I know many of you don’t care much about lacrosse, but think of it as a “The More You Know” moment. Picture an NBC celebrity telling you that the more you inform yourself about pro lacrosse, the better the world will be. Dah-dah-dah-dummmmm. Cue the peacock.
And if you do care about lacrosse, and you played or still play lacrosse and hockey at the same time, email me at the address in the sidebar. I despartely need interview subjects for one of my forthcoming Examiner pieces. it’s four questions via e-mail, and I will be super happy to hear from you.
Hey Kat… of course I had to follow you to your blog.. I wish I were able to make the trip to Lowell last week! Unfortunately, working two jobs really worked against that, but I went nuts when I heard what happened!
You’ll get very little argument from me about the quality & noise level from BC fans but I do take issue with two things you said.
1) ‘bandwagon’ – actually, ‘bandwagon’ fans would pack the arena once basking in the glow of a national title; this has not happened. if anything, it’s an almost oddly admirable lack of bandwagonness. The team wins, but people still don’t really care.
2) ‘the fans magically disappear if there’s a basketball game’ – I’ll give you football, which is by far #1 here, but hockey is definitely #2 amongst the students… hoops team has very little support and the hoop diehards often complain about hockey ‘draining’ fans from the program.
actually, 2a) I still don’t really get what the big deal is over ‘owning a jersey’. Woopdee-doo? I own one, because I like to wear it when I play recreationally, but I’m not sure it makes me a ‘better fan.’
Aside from that, i mean, you’re right. It’s a pretty placid crowd at BC for all sports, although the student section for football has been very good the past few years.
That’s just the way it is unfortunately. I don’t like it, but I’d rather have a good team and quiet fans than the reverse and anyone who says otherwise is lying.
Go Eagles.