The student section at Friday night’s men’s hockey game was filled with gold T-shirts, but with such misguided spirit, it might as well have been empty.
The game was tied for a majority of the time and went into overtime. One would think that in exciting conditions like these, our student section would be on their feet chanting and screaming, but no. I heard our traditional cheers only a few times throughout the duration of the game.
Only when it was time to ridicule the other team did the crowd turn up the volume. And not only toward the other team, but the guest pep band as well.
As the game went on, students sporting their game-day gold T-shirts repeatedly mocked the band at any chance they could. The band isn’t the one on the ice, folks. Boo the opponents on the ice, not the people in the stands.
The only coping mechanism that my fellow Bobcats could find when they were supposed to be rooting for our team was to completely bash the poor members of the pep band with embarrassing chants.
When did chanting “YOU’RE STILL VIRGINS!” become okay? Do we really need to demoralize a dozen college students playing instruments when we should be rooting for our home team?
Maybe I’m thinking this because I wasn’t in the middle of the crowd, and I know that there’s nothing wrong with a little friendly competition and rivalry between teams–but our fans spent far more time making fun of the band then actually cheering for our own team.
As I looked around I saw at least three groups of people just pointing and laughing at the band. Did you go to the game to make fun of the other school’s band or actually watch the game?
As a fan I was not only disappointed but embarrassed for our school. Is this how we want to represent ourselves? I really don’t think so.
For those of you that actually follow the game schedule, the Yale-Quinnipiac game is Feb. 18. The arena will be packed, as it should, but maybe this time we’ll come with a little more respect and excitement for our team actually playing and care a little less about the background music.
Anonymous • Feb 9, 2011 at 2:05 pm
Fantastic article. You said everything I was thinking the entire time. By insulting their band you are only hurting our school’s image. They were here to support their team as we should have been doing for our own, not being immature toward people who did nothing to deserve it.