By Greg Parker and Warren Zinn
The Michigan Daily
There are hockey fans, then there are Michigan hockey fans. To visiting teams, they are obnoxious zealots, whose cacophonic chants and demeanor demonstrate little respect. To the Michigan team, they are enthusiastic fans whose clever and ingenious chants inspire the home team to victory - 31 consecutive games without a loss, in fact, on home ice.
For a few die-hard fans, the game doesn't begin simply at 7 p.m. The first two fans arrived at Yost Ice Arena at 5:33 p.m. for the the Feb. 1 game versus Bowling Green. It turned out that one of these fans was Vince "Geno" Turco, father of Michigan goaltender Marty Turco. The other man was Mike Finn, friend of the Turco family.
In contrast to Turco, who has never missed his son play a home game, this was Finn's first Michigan home game. Week after week, Turco relayed his anticipation of coming to the games to Finn. "He can't wait to come to Ann Arbor ... he cannot get enough of it," Finn said. This isn't exactly around the corner for the Turcos, either - Finn noted that the Turcos had worn out a car driving from Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario to Ann Arbor for every home game.
As game time drew near, however, the casual conversation of Finn and Turco rapidly crescendoed - to near chaos. Near the end of the second period students continued to practice their habit of taunting the visiting team and their families.
The taunting went as follows, spurred by the ringing of a phone: "Phone ... Hey Petrie (the goaltender), it's your mom. She says, 'You suck!'" While Bowling Green goaltender Bob Petrie's mother was not available for comment, her son stated that his mom does not, in fact, believe that he "sucks."
The fans "really harp on the goalie," said Engineering sophomore Jeff Davis.
The student/ visiting-fan relationship has proven less than amicable in the past. This may be attributed to the arena's seating arrangement - the students are seated above the visiting fans, who include the parents of the visiting team.
This arrangement fails to take into account a fundamental law of human behavior - two parties that adamantly believe in diametrically opposite ideals do not tend to get along in the most friendly of manners.
Needless to say, with one minute remaining in the second period of the Feb. 1 Bowling Green contest, this fundamental law was followed with remarkable precision when a scuffle broke out between visiting fans and some Michigan students. No punches were thrown - just words - but tempers flared, and two Ann Arbor police officers were summoned to restore peace.
While many of the Bowling Green fans were upset, a few recognized the good-natured enthusiasm of the Michigan fans. "They have every right to yell and carry on. ... Sometimes they get a little carried away with the language, ... but what they do is great," said Dean Bell, a Bowling Green fan.
"It's all done in fun and games. When it's done in good taste, it's OK," said School of Natural Resources and Environment senior Kevin Gracely.
But what is it exactly that Michigan fans do? Michigan hockey games are similar to a screening of the "Rocky Horror Picture Show." There is an unwritten script to the game that the fans thrive off of repeating. The cues range from the referee entering the ice to the sound of a phone ringing. They don't miss a beat in recognizing these cues, instantly responding in unison with the "correct" line. But where do these come from?
Alumnus Dave Donoghue believes many of the chants may have been borrowed from other schools with hockey teams, such as Harvard and Cornell. Other chants are more than likely the product of imaginative fans.
But do the fans actually matter in the outcome of the game, or are they simply expelling extraneous hot air? It depends on who you ask. According to Michigan right wing Bill Muckalt, "the ice is still the same ice, the puck is still the same puck, and the net the same size."
But Bowling Green defenseman John Hustler has different thoughts on the matter. "The fans can sway a game one way or another, especially when the game is really close," Hustler said.
Chuck Legg, father of Michigan center Mike Legg (recent ESPY winner), said the crowd "absolutely affects the game - it gives Michigan at least a one-goal advantage - maybe two."
LSA junior Dan Ryan also believes the fans matter in the outcome of the game. "It gets the (rest of the) crowd into (the game), swings the momentum and keeps the players going," Ryan said.
Aside from the winning ways of the Michigan team, there are other factors that excite the crowd. Band director Jaime Nix is part of the of the crowd inspiration. Conducting is Nix's forte. "The band has a really big effect on the game - the crowd is in tune to the game, the band is in tune to the game, and the band and crowd are in tune. They feed off of us and we feed off of them," Nix said.
Bowling Green Coach Buddy Powers agrees. "The crowd interacts incredibly with the game, especially the way the band plays to the game with the crowd," he said.
Not only does Nix conduct the hockey pep band, but he moonlights as a dancer - that is, in the third period of every game, when Nix finds himself continuing the tradition of band conductor dancing that has been around for years. Judging by the reaction of the crowd, this appears to be one of the crowd's favorite moments in the game. This is followed by yet another innovative Michigan cheer - the fans point at Nix and scream, "dancer," and then point to the visiting goaltender and scream, "sieve." The cycle then continues: dancer, sieve, dancer, sieve.
According to LSA first-year student Rachel Adams, "Nix is awesome. ... You'd think he's the newborn of Michael Jackson," she said.
One of the prime targets of the cheers is the visiting goaltender. In addition to cheers that accuse him of being a wire mesh utensil for straining or sifting (a sieve), as well as stating that his mother thinks he "sucks," there are numerous others.
"It may intimidate some players, but it really does not bother me. I love playing against it, I thrive off of it," Petrie said. He said that he can hear the fans' noise and screaming, but cannot decipher the syntax of their cheers.
In any event, Michigan beat Bowling Green, carrying its home-unbeaten streak to 29 games. Whether the fans affected the outocme of the game is impossible to tell. The facts are pretty hard to dismiss, however. After all, Michigan has not lost at home since October of 1995, and it is a fact that Michigan fans are, at the very least, enthusiastic. Whatever the case may be, the situation is best summarized by Bowling Green coach Powers: "It is the greatest atmosphere and I would not trade it for anything."
WARREN ZINN/Daily
Yost Ice Arena, packed to capacity, cheers the Michigan hockey team to victory over the Bowling Green squad.
WARREN ZINN/Daily
Clair Branch gets fans into the game by hitting a cowbell, spurring fans to chant, "Go Blue!"
WARREN ZINN/Daily
The Michigan hockey band performs during the Bowling Green contest.