From the Sidelines: Hockey brings pride and fans to Yale

By David Goldenberg

Growing up in Alabama, there were only three athletic seasons I ever heard about: college football in the fall, recruiting in the winter, and of course spring training. Almost everyone in the state pledges allegiance to one of the powerhouse football programs--the Auburn Tigers or the Alabama Crimson Tide. Marriages have been destroyed and major business deals have been made--all on the sole basis of football loyalties.

Coming from such a background, I hoped to attend a college with a rich athletic tradition. I wanted the chance to come home and tell friends that my school had a better record than 'Bama and Auburn. I wanted to be able to cover my body in paint and dash out onto the field alongside thousands of screaming students in a mad rush to tear down the goal posts after a huge victory.

Instead, I came to Yale, where our greatest football moment in 1997 occurred after the season, when Pennsylvania forfeited its league games. The student section was virtually nonexistent during most home games, except for a handful of residential college flags surrounded by small groups of people trying to think of witty things to say about one another. During games, there were often more students drinking at the tailgates than cheering in the stands. Saddened by such apathy, I resigned myself to the fact that I would never see 70,000 fans pack the Yale Bowl.

I figured that the lack of athletic scholarships and the rigorous academic atmosphere served not only to drive promising athletes of all sports away from Yale, but even worse, filled Old Campus with nerds who have never thrown a spiral.

I made the erroneous assumption that if our big name sports teams--football and basketball--could not be competitive on a national level, then none of our teams could be. I thought that I would never witness a sellout of an athletic event in my four years here. Last Saturday evening, I was proven wrong.

I walked up Science Hill to Ingalls Rink to watch our men's hockey team take on Army. Approaching the front of The Whale, I noticed a large group of people crowded around the doors. Naturally, I assumed they were encircling a couple of fighting drunks, so I too hurried up to watch. When I got there, out of breath, I realized that all of these people were simply waiting on line to see the real event--the hockey game. Squeezing my way through the crowd, I finally managed to get into the building. Not only was every seat in the house taken, but there were dozens of standing fans, all waiting for some unwitting suckers to go to the bathroom so they could steal their seats.

While trying to find a good viewpoint from which to watch the game, I noticed several other things. Members of the women's hockey team were painting students' faces
and the pledges of the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity were running around, half-naked and blue. I am sure that if they stood next to each other long enough, the enormous white letters on their chests would have spelled something very important and supportive. Everyone in the rink was truly excited about the game.

They were excited for good reason. Yale's skaters out-played and outhustled the Army squad and ended up with three electrifying goals in the first period alone. At least that's what I think I saw; my only good views of the ice were gained by pushing little children out of the way. After checking the numbers--3,486 fans were in attendance--it seems there were as many people at this contest as there had been at the Yale-Penn football game earlier in the year.

I never thought that hockey could be a marquee sport. Sure, back in Alabama we do have a local professional team, but it is not as if anyone who attends the games actually cares if our team wins or loses. It is simply a novelty for most Southerners to see grown men skate around on a patch of ice. Once they get past that phase, all the fans want to see is a fight. The Birmingham Bulls do not disappoint, as they have led the East Coast Hockey League for the past three years in penalty minutes.

Yale hockey, however, is quite different. The Bulldogs are the front-runners in one of the dominant hockey leagues in the country, and have been nationally ranked in the top 10 for most of the season. They are exciting to watch, as evidenced by the multitude of fans that shows up at The Whale. The players could have taken athletic scholarships at other formidable hockey programs, but chose to come here because Yale has so much more to offer than athletics.

I know that if Alabama played Yale in football, Yale would be the victim of a cruel joke. But I am proud to say that if Alabama ever puts together a hockey team, Yale would demolish it.

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