Riverhawk's Hockey Game

Savannah Szymanski

Professor Conway

Freshman Honors Seminar

20 October 2014

Riverhawk’s Hockey Game

            Some of the most well-known and participated events on campus are arguably the University of Massachusetts in Lowell hockey games, which are always attended by masses of people eager to cheer on their respective team. As crowds of students fill the Tsongas center, the environment becomes filled with energy and excitement. It is not only the large amount of people in the audience that make for an enjoyable experience, but also the performance of the players as they fight to maintain their established reputation as a higher level hockey team. The players can feed off of the infectious energy of the crowd meanwhile the audience becomes infatuated with the game causing them to become increasingly thrilled as the team plays. The fantastically symbiotic relationship between the players and the audience contributes to a hockey rink surrounded by hyper energized individuals ready to celebrate their team’s victory or compensate their loss through obscene cheering and commemoration. The University of Massachusetts in Lowell hockey games are some of the most anticipated events throughout campus allowing the students of the university to band together as one chaotic yet unmatchable student body audience.

            Upon attending my first game at the Tsongas center, I quickly realized that this year’s season would be occupied with hype filled crowds of students and families prepared to cheer on our University’s valiant team. An hour before the game began, the entrance to the Tsongas center was packed with both young and old hockey fans awaiting the opening game of the Lowell Riverhawk’s hockey season. Children were wearing player’s duplicated jerseys while students sported the free hockey shirts supplied by the school in a fulfilled attempt to maximize school spirit. Crowds of students swarmed the center fully ready to support our team as they challenge their longtime rivals the Boston College Eagles. For a large portion of new students, this was their first exposure to a Riverhawk’s hockey game. For other more experienced students, this game was one of many sports oriented activities where they are provided the opportunity to display their support for their school. Whichever level of exposure one has to the Riverhawk’s hockey games, the opening game this year has surely contributed to a correlation between students and their new strong loyalty to the team. As the audience members all took their seats throughout the Tsongas center for the opening game to start, contagious energy and rampant noise flowed through the air and a truly memorable moment occurred that no person could have fully predicted no matter their experience with Riverhawk games.

            In one extraordinary moment in the opening scenes of the Riverhawk game, an unforgettable moment occurred that caught public attention, and it all started with the student section of the Tsongas Center. Every sports game is traditionally begun with the singing of the national anthem out of respect for our country’s customs. In addition to this tradition, many times the anthem will be sung by a live performer, which is exactly what occurred the night of the opening game. A female vocalist was introduced to the audience as an award winning singing prepared to endure the nerve-wracking experience of preforming the national anthem in front of thousands of people, including a massive crowd of lovely yet obnoxious University students. Through a string of unfortunate events, after her introduction to the audience and at the start of the anthem, her microphone was tragically malfunctioning and unable to play the audio throughout the rink. To make matters exponentially more awkward, the jumbo-tron screen was filming her the entire time, so her realization of this embarrassing mishap was viewed by every individual in the audience. However, in an unpredicted turn of events, the student section of the stadium took the luckless situation and transformed it into an uncanny and remarkable one to be reveled about for days to come. It began from one student, then to a group of students, to the entire student section, followed by the entire stadium singing the national anthem in unison. The spectacle transferred the uncomfortable malfunction while singing the anthem to a marvelous revelation of students bonding together to fulfill the tradition of our school and country.  

Personal ticket from University of Massachusetts in Lowell vs. Boston College Opening game