Irish fans should take cue from Wolverines
Ted Fox
Fox Sports...
The semester has just started, but I already have some confessions to make.
First of all, like I said once last year, I don't know a whole lot about hockey. Secondly, despite being a so-called sportswriter, before last Friday, I had never actually been to a Notre Dame hockey game.
However, over break, I had the chance to attend two Michigan hockey games with a friend who prides himself on being a Wolverine. The second game was on Michigan's home ice at Yost Ice Arena.
My third confession? Well, whenever I go to Yost, although I have a general aversion to cheering for any sports team donning the maize and blue, I become a Michigan fan for three periods.
How, you ask, could someone whose dislike of Michigan football pumps through his blue and gold blood and who has little more than a working knowledge of hockey attend and enthusiastically cheer for the enemy for three hours?
Confession No. 4: It's really fun to mess with the other team, especially their goalie.
Now I don't mean just standing there by yourself, yelling: "Hey Burleigh. Your mom wears combat boots!" But when the whole crowd starts to mess with the other team, well, that's just beautiful.
Example: Michigan just scored its third goal of the game. Everyone holds up three fingers and waits for the announcer to say who scored the goal and who collected the assists. Then,someone in the band yells: "Ready!" like a drill sergeant, and everyone counts out: "One! Two! Three!" Then, while twirling their index fingers yell, "We want moooooore goals!"
And finally, the conclusion, by far the best part, the whole house accusingly points at the goalie, first screaming "Sieve!" about seven times, and then, "It's all your fault!" four more times.
A mid-game variant of this cheer occurs when a face lost somewhere in the crowd bellows out the goalie's name to which everyone immediately responds, "Sieve!" It goes on as long as the bellower's voice holds out.
The reason I bring all this good-natured yelling up has to do with the absence of this environment at the Notre Dame's game versus Western Michigan on the Jan. 21.
Sure, there were about 20 or 25 students who heckled and cheered in this way, and I give them credit for doing so. However, when there is only a handful of people getting into the act, you can't call that a raucous atmosphere.
Twenty people yelling "Sieve!" doesn't quite have the effect of a couple thousand.
The person who heard most of the heckling was not the Broncos' goalie but the usher who told the small group to clean up their cheering act.
Please, they haven't seen an entire crowd take up this mission to annoy and bother the opposing squad. They've only seen a few guys who like to think of themselves as "freedom fighters" but whose revolution is often met by the deafening silence of the cavernous JACC.
We can't let this be the case. The student section on the other side of the maze of concourses at the Joyce is coming back to life for basketball games, so why not make the rink just as imposing?
I'm not saying copy Michigan's cheers. The guys cheering now have a good base of heckles. Although the lengthy tirades shouted at the goalie by one fan don't really do much except wear one person's voice out.
If everyone, or most everyone, could join in and direct those guilty of penalties, "To the box!" or remind the goalie, "It's all your fault!" (except, of course, when he makes 52 saves, as the Western goalie did) the JACC would be transformed into a true college hockey venue.
After that, people will look at the Joyce Center a little differently.
Hockey seniors across the country will tell the incoming freshmen: "Going to South Bend? Man, that's tough."
And then, stating the obvious, a new sign will be hung outside the JACC bearing this simple message: "When the JACC starts a-rockin', don't come a-knockin'."
Or we could just forget that last part and leave it to become a really tough place to skate three periods.
That works for me.
The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.
All Sports Stories for Wednesday, January 26, 2000
