See the little thing sticking out above the tree line?
No? Here, let me zoom in.
See it? That building off in the distance? Thats Fox Hall. It’s a dormitory for the University of Massachusetts Lowell. I graduated from UML in 2004. 20 years ago.
That building was important to me because I had a show on the campus radio station and our transmitter was on the roof. The station itself was in another building in my day, but today the station is in Fox Hall somewhere.
Fascinating, eh?
Tomorrow afternoon my step son and I are going to a hockey game. It’s my first hockey game in person since… 2016? 2018? I can’t remember. It’s my first NCAA hockey game since 2004.
I graduated from UMass Lowell. My step son currently attends the University of Vermont. Both teams are in the Hockey East conference and… well… both teams kinda suck. UVM is in 8th place (out of 11 teams) with a 3-3-1 record in conference and a 4-5-1 record overall. UML is in 10th place with a 2-6-1 record in conference and a 5-9-1 record overall.
I expect the game is going to be evenly-ish matched but also kinda crappy. I don’t care. I’m looking forward to spending an afternoon with Harry, probably trash talking each other into oblivion. I tried to get myself a UML hockey t-shirt to wear but I failed. Oh well. The Vermont fans in the building will know that they have a foreigner in their rink by me being obnoxious. I used to be a pretty obnoxious fan back in my minor league season ticket days.
It’s going to be fun.
Last year I made an attempt to follow my old college’s hockey team. UMass Lowell is a Division 1 team playing in the Hockey East division. After years of boycotting I finally let myself be a fan again. It didn’t really work out. I listened to a few games on the radio here and there but I never made it to the Tsongas Arena to see a game in person.
I will try again this year.
The first game is tomorrow. If I have the links right, this should be the radio broadcast. If that link isn’t working I will try to get it off of the team’s schedule page, which is here.
As always, the Boston Bruins will get most of my hockey focus, but they don’t start their regular season until the middle of next week. UMass Lowell is playing in Anchorage tomorrow and Sunday nights. We’ll see if I can tune in.
I was just wondering if there was any chance that the Boston Bruins training camp might coincide with some time off from work that I have already booked. Nope. Camp begins on the first day back from my vacation. No dice.
The other day I asked Jen if there was any chance she’d go see some live hockey with me this year. I don’t think I have a Bruins game in me after Covid. Not yet at least. That’s a smidge too much crowd, though when I stop and think of it the crowds will be a lot smaller than the crowds at Disney World were in January, specifically the fireworks show at Hollywood Studios. Still, not an NHL game. I was thinking of UMass Lowell.
I just Googled UML’s schedule. I knew there were two games against the kids school, University of Vermont, and they were both home games for UML. Those would likely be my first choice for games to see in person, unless BU or BC are lighting the world on fire, in which case I’d probably picked one of those as my first game back. Then I noticed that there is a third Vermont game. It’s on the road in Vermont. It’s Sunday December 3rd at 4:00pm. My step son is still a student at UVM and my step daughter is a graduate who still lives in Burlington. Once, pre-Covid, we tried to go to a game in Burlington but the plans fell through at the last minute.
Is it possible that the December 3rd game is now the front runner for my first hockey game post-pandemic? Maybe Jen and I could book time off for the next day so that we don’t have to worry about getting home late and working the next morning?
These are important things to ponder. Very interesting. I put all three UML/UVM games onto my Google calendar, just in case. We’ll see what happens.
Inside the Red Head's Head 