On Hockey: Out With Fan Vulgarity in College Hockey

It happens every Friday and Saturday night, in college hockey rinks from Alabama to Alaska.

The other team’s tough guy thinks he’s got the ref looking the other way and lines up your top scorer for the friendliest of gestures: a two-hander to the back. But as the surging stick sends the unsuspecting star tumbling forward, an orange-banded arm shoots into the air.

Two minutes. Cross-checking.

Naturally, the cheap-shot artist deserves to be chastised. So as he embarks on the slow skate to the sin bin, the home crowd rejoices in a slow, mocking crescendo.

“Aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh...”

Door opens.

“AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH...”

He sits.

“SEE YA!”

If you’re at Lynah Rink, home to the Cornell Big Red and some of the best fans in college hockey, the “SEE YA!” is followed with a collective curse from the student section:

“ ...A-—hole!”

If yo-u’re at Yost Ice Arena, home to the Michigan Wolverines and some of the best fans in college hockey, the “SEE YA!” is followed with a caustic, nine-word litany that is hardly fit to print:

“ ...You Chump! [Expletive]! Wuss! [Expletive]-Bag! [Expletive]! [Expletive]! Cheater! [Expletive]! [Expletive]!”

At long last, athletic departments at those schools are realizing that it might be a good idea to save the ears of grandmas and grandpas, moms and dads, brothers and sisters—and yes, students themselves—by ending these offensive and woefully unimaginative chants.

Not all chants, mind you. Just these chants.

Of course, this push has sparked considerable debate among the student bodies at the respective schools, not to mention the greater college hockey community. The chant debate has made news in student publications on both campuses this week.

Those in favor of upholding the foul language argue it falls under the category of free speech, or at least speech that is expected of stressed-out students blowing off drunken steam on the weekends.

Oh, please. In Michigan’s case, this is a matter of nine words. In Cornell’s, only one.

And in both cases, administrators and coaches only want fans to put the reputation of their hockey program above any tendency to call No. 22 a bleepety-bleep.

Is that really asking too much?

This is a problem that has caused both schools some embarrassment for years. Glen Williams, who retired in 2002 after 33 years as Yost’s announcer, used to time the reading of penalties so he would drown out the chant.

Michigan coach Red Berenson, who has won the Stanley Cup, two NCAA championships and the NHL Coach of the Year award and has universal respect in the hockey world, made a personal appeal to earlier this season. He stood with his grandson before a packed house on Oct. 17 and asked fans to stop the chant.

Again, not every chant. Just the one.

Nine words.

And some have stopped. Others haven’t.

Then we have the estimable Michigan Daily publishing an uncharacteristically groundless editorial entitled “Yost isn’t toast” last Monday, claiming Berenson’s “attempts to pressure students to end the chants are misplaced and would drain much of the joy from one of the greatest experiences in all of athletics.”

Wait. Berenson’s attempts are “misplaced?” Talk about having this whole thing backwards. “Misplaced” describes the viewpoint of students who (a) have painfully little regard for history and give incredibly and foolishly short shrift to the opinion of a man who is an ambassador of his sport and (b) equate seventh-grade humor with having “one of the greatest experiences in all of athletics.”

The editorial goes on to argue that the chanting is “an important part of the team’s success.”

Now, I’m from Michigan and have been to several games at Yost in person. And in my experience, the most “important part of the team’s success” is that Michigan has a talented, well-coached ice hockey team. I’ve never seen a Michigan player quoted as saying, “Jeez, we got a big lift in the second period there from that penalty box chant.”

Have Michigan players credited the atmosphere at Yost with giving them a lift? All the time. But it’s not the swearing that does it. It’s the enthusiasm. Let’s not give nine words too much credit here.

Noise is noise.

Thankfully, some in Ithaca have realized that.

The Cornell Daily Sun ran a story Tuesday about Nick Linder, a student who, along with two fraternity brothers, was ejected from Lynah for using profanity in the “SEE YA!” chant.

According to the story, Linder protested initially, but after meeting with associate athletic director Frank Araneo, he saw the administration’s perspective and later told the Daily Sun, “We have dignitaries coming to these games, Janet Reno comes to these games, Congressmen coming to these games, that sort of thing.”

Here’s hoping his schoolmates listen. Profanity has no place at Lynah, Yost or Harvard’s Bright Hockey Center, for that matter. And to be fair, most fans cheer in good taste.

The best chants rely on cleverness, not cursing. Cornell’s “Grade in-fla-tion!” jab at us Harvard folk is a classic, as was the “Hey Baby” remake in honor of their beloved Stephen Bâby. Even the stinky-fish-fling is a worthy tradition.

The Yost fans are great, too. My personal favorite has always been after an opposing goal, when students direct an “Ug-ly par-ents!” barb toward the applauding parent/girlfriend section. And then there’s the band director, who starts disco dancing in the middle of the game. Hilarious.

Note that none of these involved profanity. If they did, they might not be as funny.

In the end, though, this is less about wit than respect. If you’re a Michigan hockey fan and your coach, who has won more than 500 games and taken your team to 13 straight NCAA tournaments, asks you to do something as a favor to him, you do it. Period.

The same goes for Cornell. That university has promoted and supported its hockey program in a manner that the rest of the Ivy League does not, and it is hardly asking students to stand mute during the games. They just want them to change one word. That’s it.

So, even though Harvard fans are shamefully silent when compared with the faithful at Lynah or Yost—and that’s a subject for another day—perhaps foul-mouthed supporters at Cornell and Michigan can learn a lesson from Section 11 at Bright Hockey Center.

Around here, that same “SEE YA!” is followed by...nothing. That’s it. Just “SEE YA!”

And that’s where fans who care about their programs’ reputations should leave it.

Raves about Reese

Though Harvard coach Mark Mazzoleni has always been reluctant to move freshmen onto special teams units early in the season, defenseman Dylan Reese was on the power play last weekend at Vermont and Dartmouth—just his second and third collegiate games.

With All-American Noah Welch out of the lineup Friday night at Vermont because of a coach’s decision, Reese even saw time on the team’s first power-play unit.

“I was a little nervous at first, but that game was the best I’ve had here, just because I was getting more ice time,” said Reese, who has yet to register his first collegiate point. “And the more you play, the better you feel.”

The crafty, smooth-skating Reese was paired in both games with junior Ryan Lannon, who is regarded as one of the league’s top stay-at-home defensemen. For the weekend, they were a combined plus-5.

“I absolutely love playing with him,” Reese said. “From the very beginning, we clicked. He compliments my style really well. He’s unbelievable defensively and his offensive game has stepped up.

“He communicates well on the ice, so it’s good for a guy like me, who has little experience, to work with someone like that.”

Vermont coach Kevin Sneddon ’92, a former Harvard defenseman who enjoyed a national championship during his standout freshman season, called him a “gifted player.”

“He’s going to be a very, very good college hockey player,” Sneddon said. “He’s one of those guys that I know I’m going to be looking at saying, ‘When is this guy going to graduate?’ It’s going to seem like he’s played in this league for eight years before he’s done. He’s like [Harvard senior Tyler] Kolarik, because they’re both impact freshmen.

“There are guys you’re always worrying about and hoping they’ll graduate soon. [Reese] is one of those guys.”

The next several weeks will be a key evaluation period in terms of Reese’s chances at making the 2004 US National Junior Team, which will compete at the International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championships in Finland.

Reese attended evaluation camp for the team in August but was not one of the 16 players named to the team on Oct. 27. Six slots remain—one of which will likely go to a defenseman—and Harvard has five games before the final roster is set Dec. 2.

Turano surgery scheduled

Senior Kenny Turano, who broke his ankle in two places last Friday night, will undergo surgery today and will likely miss three months for rehabilitation.

But captain Kenny Smith said Turano is already talking about staying involved by helping coaches break down film.

“He’s in good spirits, and he’ll be down to the rink as soon as he can,” said Smith, one of Turano’s blockmates. “He’s awesome. We’re really pushing for him. Just having him around here will help him, and will help us, too.

“The thing you know about Kenny Turano is that, if there’s anything he can possibly do to help the team, he’s going to do it.”

Turano could return to the ice in February. In the meantime, Mazzoleni has promoted freshman winger Brendan Byrne from the junior varsity to the varsity.

Byrne, one of the all-time leading scorers at Milton Academy, was recruited by several ECAC schools, but came to Harvard as a middle infielder, not a hockey player, and will maintain his primary commitment to the varsity baseball team.

Yes, he really was that good

After watching Cornell senior Ryan Vesce’s seven-point performance last Saturday at Princeton, Mike Schafer told USCHO.com staff writer and former Crimson hockey scribe Mike Volonnino ’01 that it was unlike anything he had seen with the Big Red, including four years as a player and the last nine as coach.

Looking at the tape didn’t change his opinion.

“You really wonder—seven points,” Schafer said. “But Ryan Vesce is one of the best team kids we’ve ever had here, and you know a lot of guys get phantom assists over the course of a season, but every assist he had was a great play—a faceoff win or a real good feed to someone else.

“It was just one of those nights for him. He was involved in seven scoring chances, and every time someone scored or he scored. That doesn’t happen very often.”

After a loss and tie against Western Michigan to begin the season, Cornell swept Yale and Princeton and is back in a place it has occupied for much of the last two seasons: first place in the ECAC.

Cornell’s season could come down to goaltending, following the early departure of Hobey Baker finalist goaltender David LeNeveu.

Freshman goaltender David McKee has played in each of the team’s first four games and is 2-1-1 with a 2.46 goals-against average. Senior Todd Marr, who had a sub-2.00 GAA over four starts last season, has been out thus far with a nagging injury but will have an opportunity to play once he is healthy, Schafer said.

—Staff writer Jon Paul Morosi can be reached at morosi@fas.harvard.edu.

Editor’s note: This column will appear regularly on the Harvard Hockey page.