1/29/00 Hockey Maize-Out Disappointing

The Athletic Department held its first hockey maize-out on Saturday as the Wolverines played host to the visiting OSU Buckeyes.  The results, both in the stands and on ice, were less than spectacular.  On the ice the Wolverines skated to a 1-1 tie with OSU.  In the stands less than half of the crowd wore maize despite the fact that the Athletic Department handed 2500 maize-out t-shirts.  Now maybe that sounds pretty good to you- but UM Hockey fans pride themselves on being the best fans among the big three sports on campus.  Hockey fans will tell you that they cheer the loudest, travel the farthest, know the rules of their sport better, etc. etc.  UM went all out not only giving away free shirts and maize pom-poms but having the hockey team wear their maize 'big game' jerseys.  Even Red Berenson got in on the act by wearing a maize sweater under his blazer.  Many fans were more than happy to take the free shirt but not wear it, which I could understand if they already were wearing maize, but many weren't.  There was also some miscommunication about t-shirt distribution. Earlier in the week reports said that the t-shirts would be handed out only to students, later reports said that the shirts would be first-come first-serve.  In reality, the majority of the shirts were handed out first-come first-serve but as the supply of remaining shirts got low it was decided to only distribute shirts to students. Of course, the Pro Shop was more than willing to sell you the same 'free' shirt for $14 (wonder how many shirts were held-back to sell?)

But back to reason I wrote this article.  Whether you got a free short or not there's no excuse to not wear maize when called to support the team.  For one game it won't kill you to wear maize.  You don't own anything maize?  Well, they have these places called S-T-O-R-E-S which have all kinds of things that you can buy (if you get stuck ask for something in yellow.)  Rumor is that the players on the hockey team actually came up with idea of the maize-out after seeing an NHL team which has white-outs during the play-offs.  You have to wonder what they were thinking when they looked up in the stands to see half their fans not wearing maize.

Let's do better next year.   

Phil

Editor-in-Chief, UMGoBlue.COM