Student Teaches Teacher

NJ Devils v Philadelphia Flyers February, 25, 1993

The Spectrum, Section Y Row 13

Lindros is the talk of the town. He is still a rookie. Brodeur was not an every day staple yet. Scott Stevens is already playing like a Hall of Famer. So when a future Hall of Famer squares off against a green rookie, you expect the rookie to get his clock cleaned. Not so.

Zarley Zulapski put the Devils up 1-0 on an even strenght goal in the first late. Prior to the intermission, Kevin Dineen tied the game up.

The home Flyers went on a scoring barrage in the 2nd. Ric Nattress and Dimitri Yuskevich each scored one as Mark Rechhi scored 2. Scott Neidemeyer scored one for the Devils in the 2nd. The 2nd got chippy with several penelites and Jersey's Randy McKay earning fighting majors against both Terry Carkner and Jospeh Beranek.

Dineen scored the game's only goal in the 3rd. But the heavy weight matchup of the game took place in the period when Scott Stevens dropped the gloves against Eric Lindros. It was a heavy weight battle with the young Lindros getting the better hand over Stevens.

17,257 enjoyed the ass whopping of the team from up the turnpike this evening.

In State Rival

Old Dominion University vs VCU, February 25, 1984

Richmond Coliseum, GA

Student section. ODU wasn't VCU's biggest rival back then. They are today.

Forever Forum

Calgary Flames v Montreal Canadiens, Ferbuary 17, 1996

Montreal Forums, SRO

My first trip to Canada. Never do that in a kids dad's LTD loaded up with 4 obnoxious friends and expect to make it past the border guards without an anal probe. Our only saving grace was we held off buying American crap beer, so we had nothing to find in the search.

Our first stop after being granted permission to enter was an old corner country store in the first sign of civilization after entering Quebec. The place had 2 or 3 aisles of groceries with a beer cooler in the back. I was intent on making a beeline to the cooler but was distracted by a knockout girl at the register who greeted us in French. It was a thing of beauty.....the beer cooler that is.

We were still a ways from Montreal.

The first night we bar hopped then each bought a 12 pack of different beers for the next day. We placed them on the 10th floor balcony. When morning arrived and it was time for breakfast, we noticed all the beers were frozen except the Molson XXX.

We took the Metro to the Forum. It was not a historic looking building from the outside having been through 2 renovations in it's lifetime. This was the 4th to the last game to be played at the Forum. Montreal did it right. They closed a building in mid season so a proper goodbye could be planned.

Boston closed the Garden the year prior. Their last game was a playoff loss. The Flyers closed out the Spectrum with a playoff loss. I attended the "last" regular season game at the Spectrum. They tried to make it a festive occassion with ceremonies, but everyone knew it was not the real "last" game, with playoffs about to start.

We entered the Forum bar from the street hours before faceoff. We were greeted at our table by Yvon Lambert, a former Hab who scored one of the most memorible goals in Forum history. He managed the restaurant/bar.

Once inside we walked the concourse, checked the place out then muscled our way to the only standing room only place left to stand. Dead center behind one of the nets, up with the banners on a catwalk. I think 17,958 people had better seats (stand) then me this night. But I did not care, I was in the soon to be gone Montreal Forum.

The PA announcer made his announcements in English and in French. The national anthem was only the Canadian National Anthem being both teams were Canadian. We weren't far removed from the Patrick Roy controversy. He was now in Colorado. A new guy by the name of Jocelyn Thibault was in the nets tonight.

Valeri Bure scored two goals and Vincent Damphousse had three assists to lift the Montreal Canadiens to a 5-1 victory over the Calgary Flames.

Jocelyn Thibault stopped 36 shots to raise his record to 16-10-3 as the Canadiens improved to 3-1-1 in their last five games.

Theo Fleury scored Calgary's lone goal as the Flames dropped to 1-4-1 in their last six games.

Bure opened the scoring with his 15th goal, 5:21 into the game. Bure flipped a rebound of Popovic's shot over the right pad of Trevor Kidd. Pierre Turgeon's 28th goal, a power-play marker gave Montreal a 2-0 advantage with 9:12 left in the second. Turgeon snapped a wrist shot by Kidd's glove side from the top of the crease.

"We played well for sixty minutes," Bure said. "I'm always ready to come and play the game every night. I go to the net and I wait for the puck. I work hard. I've changed my game and improved it in the last month. I ask myself why I've imporved, but I can not figure it out. I give 100 per cent which satisfies me and I never get down on myself."

Fleury's goal cut the deficit to 2-1 just under 10 minutes into the second. Calgary outshot Montreal, 37-33, including, 21-5, in the final period.

"Give Montreal the two points, they deserved them tonight," Calgary coach Pierre Page said. "We started slowly, but we got back in the game in the second period. With 30 minutes to go, we were only losing 2-1, but Montreal got another power play goal and broke it open. We've been playing well on the road this season, but it just wasn't there tonight. It's our first bad game in a long time. We don't go out looking for penalties or fights, but we have to get ready for the playoffs by playing hard and tough.'

Montreal regained its two goal advantage on Mark Recchi's 16th goal, also a power-play tally, with 2:45 left in the second. Recchi grabbed a rebound of Damphousse's shot to the left of the Calgary and stuffed the puck between Kidd's pads and the post.

"I hope I can keep it up," said Damaphousse, who has eight points in his last five games. "I'm happy with the way I'm playing. Calgary is a tough team, but we took control right at the start of this game. In the third period, Calgary tried to rough it up, but we showed them that we have at least six guys that can rough it up. We are a lot tougher this year than we were last year, that's why we're a .500 team on the road this year."

Bure's second goal of the game gave the Canadiens a 4-1 cushion with 76 seconds left in the second. Bure broke away at the blue lune, skated down the right wing and beat Kidd, who was screened by Calgary defenseman, Trent Yawney.

Scott Fraser's 1st N-H-L goal closed the scoring, 3:57 into the third. Montreal defenseman Patrice Brisebois collided with Calgary center German Titov behind the Montreal goal in the second period and left the game with a bruised lower back. Montreal left wing Brian Savage suffered a hip pointer in the first period and also did not return.

Habs in Dixie

Montreal Canadiens v Carolina Hurricanes, February 17, 2000

RBC Center, Section 108 Row K

This was my first time in the new RBC Center.

Our seats were in the corner in the first row above the Zamboni entrance. The place was much smaller then other venues I was in recently. Much more intimate. NHL hockey was new to Raleigh as the Hurricanes played the two previous seasons over an hour west in Greensboro.
There was a new game in town to go along with NASCAR and Tobacco Row basketball.

One of my Flyer favorites was just traded. Rod Brind'Amour looked out of place warming up in the Hurricanes white sweater.

The new home team was playing sub 500 ball at the time. This 3-0 shellacking didn't help sell a new team to a new Southern city.

His team shut out in two straight games against Montreal, Carolina head coach Paul Maurice grudgingly praised the Canadiens' tight defensive game.

"They are happy to be playing that (kind of) game," Maurice said. "They're away from home, they're playing a defensive game and everybody has written them off out of the playoffs.

"They don't care how many shots you get or how many chances you get. They know that (goalie Jose) Theodore is going to stop the majority of them and all they need is one or two."

ESPN BracketBuster Bust

Bradley v VCU, February 17, 2007 Seigel Center, Sec 3 Row L

This was one of those ESPN made for TV games called BracketBuster.

Jeremy Crouch scored 22 points, including eight during a 24-10 spurt midway through the second half to lead Bradley to a 73-64 win over Virginia Commonwealth.

With the Rams leading 38-36 with 18:24 to play, Crouch hit a turnaround jumper in the lane and a 3-pointer to ignite the run that ended with Bradley (19-10) leading 60-48 with 6:48 remaining.Virginia Commonwealth (22-6) had an 11-0 run midway through the first half taking a 22-14 lead. Bradley eventually fought back to a 34-32 lead with 22 seconds left before TJ Gywnn's 3-pointer gave the Rams a 35-34 halftime lead in the ESPN BracketBuster matchup. Daniel Ruffing added 19 points for Bradley, Zach Andrews had 12 and Will Franklin had 11. Jesse Pellot-Rosa led Virginia Commonwealth with 14 points, B.A. Walker added 12, Micheal Anderson and Jamal Shuler each had 11, and Gwynn had 10.

Not 1986. Not 1988

Edmonton Oilers v Philadelphia Flyers, February 15, 1992

Spectrum, Section V Row 8

A few years removed from their last Stanley Cup and many years removed from 2 Stanley Cup Finals in the 80s when these same 2 teams squared off. 1992 was the 75th anniversary of the NHL. To celebrate, the league switched back to the home team wearing dark jerseys and the away team white for the 2nd half of the regular season. So the Oilers came to town wearing their familiar "home" white jerseys.

The 1st started out quiet with a mere goal early on when Kevin Dineen scored his 19th of the year at the 2:23 mark while the Flyers were on a power play. Vincent Damphousse tied it up for the Oilers at the 10:52 mark.

Then Mark Petersen put the Flyers up again with assists going to Mark Howe and Mike Ricci. Then the gloves started flying. Claude Boiven was flagged for a cross checking penalty until the Oilers scrummed around him. Boiven and David Maley both got fighting majors.

When the Flyers got back to even strength they scored two more in 1st when both Corey Foster and Keith Acton connected.

A little more scoring an a bunch more roughing and fighting majors in the 2nd. Semenov scored for the Oilers while Dineen connected for his 2nd of the game. Boiven squared off again with Louie DeBrusk The same two came together later in the period and were assessed coincidentals.

Five more goals were tallied in the 3rd. The first 3 of the period by Edmonton. MacTavish, Murphy and Semenov all squeaked one past goaltender Ron Hextall. The Flyers Kerry Huffman scored on a power play and Rich Tocchet scored an empty netter in the last minute of the game for a Flyers 8-5 win.

17,380 was the announced attendence.

Who Own the Chiefs?

Boston Univ Terriers v UMass-Lowell Chiefs, February 14, 1998

Tsongas Arena, Section I, Row 18

In 1998 Boston University's Chris Drury won the Hobey Baker Award. Drury, the most honored player in the 77-year history of hockey at BU, is the University's all-time leading goal scorer, with 113, and the third all-time leading point producer, with 213. During the 1997-98 season the Trumbull, Conn., native helped lead the Terriers to a 28-8-2 record. They won the Beanpot Tournament and the Hockey East regular-season title for the fourth straight year. Statistically, Drury finished the year leading the team in goals, 28, points, 57, shorthanded goals, 4, and hat tricks, 2.

In this game Drury scored one of his 2 hat tricks in the 97-98 season.

Technically, UMass-Lowell were no longer the Chiefs. They buckled to political correctness and bent over and changed their nickname from the proud and strong Chiefs to the sissified Riverhawks. This change occurred around the time the team moved from an on campus arena to the newly constructed (Paul) Tsongas Arena. Tsongas was a well known Democrat at the time.

I think this was UMass-Lowells first year in the new arena. The season prior I attended the BU game at their old on campus rink. The old place was a tight tinderbox with a low ceiling, loud dueling bands and wall to wall students jumping up and down on the bleachers. The paint was thick and there was some nostalgia in the old barn.

The next season, same teams, different rink, all of the excitement was sucked out of the arena.
I set this match up on my calendar as I have to travel 8 hours based on the excitement level of the year prior experience I had. Granted, Drury did score a hat trick but the atmosphere was totally void in this new arena. I never went back.

I unfortunately cannot find my previous year's ticket stub so I do not know the date in order to make a post.

Saturday Matinee

UNC v Maryland, February 13, 1999

Cole Field House, Section RS Row 1

My old college buddy was coaching at Maryland and hooked me up with a ticket. The student newspaper had a front page article claiming scalpers were asking $1500 per ticket.

I have never been inside Cole Field House. After the experience I can only imagine it was a notch below a Cameron Indoor or Palestra.

Steve Francis scored 22 points and No. 7 Maryland completed a rare sweep of North Carolina by forcing 25 turnovers Saturday in an 81-64 rout of the 12th-ranked Tar Heels.

Terence Morris had 14 points and nine rebounds and Laron Profit scored 15 for the Terrapins, who solidified their hold on second place in the Atlantic Coast Conference with their third straight win, the second since losing center Obinna Ekezie for the season with a ruptured Achilles tendon.

Maryland (22-4, 10-3) caused 16 turnovers in the first half and never trailed over the final 24 minutes in recording their first regular-season sweep of North Carolina in nine years. It matched Maryland's most lopsided home win over the Tar Heels since a 17-point win in 1962.

Ademola Okulaja scored 15 and Brendan Haywood 13 for North Carolina (19-7, 9-5). The Tar Heels' 25 turnovers were a season-high.

The Terrapins, who beat UNC on the road last month, became the first ACC team to defeat the Tar Heels twice in the regular season since Georgia Tech in 1993-94. It's also the first time in school history that Maryland has swept both North Carolina and North Carolina State in the same season.

Maryland led 56-51 before Morris hit a jumper and Francis scored on a follow. After a basket by Carolina's Vasco Evtimov, Francis hit a 3-pointer to start a 9-2 run that made it 69-55 with 7:09 left.

The Tar Heels never made a run after that.

Maryland thrilled the sellout crowd of 14,500 by forcing seven turnovers in the opening five minutes and scoring 10 straight points to go up 14-4.

North Carolina called a timeout, settled down and immediately went on a 7-0 run. The Tar Heels then took a 20-18 lead on six straight points by Okulaja, including a free throw following a technical foul on Maryland coach Gary Williams.

Down 26-25, Maryland outscored North Carolina 12-2 over a five-minute stretch and led 37-32 at halftime.

Sens Come Up Short

Ottawa Senators v Philadelphia Flyers, February 13, 1997

Core States Center, Section 221 Row 3

A chippy game. Eric Lindros scored first at the 8:23 mark of the first with assists to Mikeal Reneberg and Rod Brind'Amour.

The 2nd period was a fist filled. A major fight broke out involving Ottawa's Lambert and Crowe against the Flyers Scott Daniels and Daniel Lacroix. The Sens tied it up on a Scott Chorske well place goal off a feed from Radek Bonk and Alexandre Daigle. In a fistfest 2nd, it was ironic Flyers enforcer Dan Kordic would get a goal to help his team's cause.

Ottawa tied it early in the 3rd on a Scott McEachern goal. Mikeal Reneberg scored the game winner at 7:10 of the 3rd and Joel Otto added an insurance goal.

19,425 were on hand.

Pesky Hexy

Washington Capitals v Philadelphia Flyers, February 13, 1995

Spectrum, Section 59 Row 5

A Flyers onslaught of goals in the 1st. On the power play, Rod Brind'Amour scored the game's first on a pass from Eric Desjardins. The Legion of Doom struck next when Mikeal Reneberg scored off feeds from linemates John LeClair and Eric Lindros. Chris Terien and Patrick Juhlin also scored in the 1st to put the Flyers up 4-0 going into the intermission.

The 2nd period was a chippy donnybrook of a segment. In the middle of the pleatura of misconduct, fighting and majors, two more goals were scored. Craig MacTavish scored for the Flyers and the Capitals Petr Bondra finally put his team on the board.

The 3rd period was no different then the 2nd. More roughings and fighting majors. The Capitals managed to score 2 more.

With 3 seconds to go to close out the game more fireworks ignited. Not only were the Flyers Craig Berube and the Caps Poulin assessed with fighting majors, but he was also assessed with an intent to injure major. Also involved in the mayley was Flyers goaltender. He was carted off with a fighting major and an intent to injure major, to the delight of the fans.

Goose Eggs

Montreal Canadians v Philadelphia Flyers, February 11, 1993

Spectrum, Section A Row 12

An outcome not possible in today's NHL. There was a point in this game when you just knew who ever scored a goal was going to win the entire game.

Future Flyer John LeClair made it on the scoring sheet with a high sticking penalty for the Canadians.

Both teams failed to convert on 5 power play chances.

In all of my years attending hockey games, this ranks up there as one of the most exciting.

The Habs had backup net minder Andre Racicot starting. The Flyers had Swede Tommy Soderstrom between the pipes.

After 60 minutes of regulation and 5 minutes of sudden death overtime the game ended in a 0-0 tie. The 0-0 tie was the Flyers 6th scoreless game in team history.

17,279 were on hand.

Sun Belt Action

Western Kentucky v VCU, February 11, 1983

Richmond Coliseum, GA

Score unknown. VCU went 24-7 that season under Coach JD Barnett. They finished 12-1, tops in the Sun Belt Conference.

In the NCAA tournament, VCU beat Georgia in the first round but lost to LaSalle in the 2nd.

X

Xavier v Richmond, February 10, 2004

Robins Center, Section 6 Row V

A well attended game for Richmond, not a sellout, but Richmond isn't a sell out type of town for much. Xavier had a great squad this year. The Spiders home court is actually a pretty decent place to see a game. With all of the old places falling by the wayside, there aren't many places with a quaint age to them anymore. The Robins Center has those walls with inches of paint on them that almost makes it feel like the Palestra at times.

NCAA BB  FINAL                   1ST  2ND  TOTAL
                                 ---  ---  -----
         XAVIER                  25   37    62
         RICHMOND                26   25    51     FINAL

HIGH SCORERS:   XAVIER - LIONEL CHALMERS 20, ROMAIN SATO 14, ANTHONY
               MYLES 13
               RICHMOND - MIKE SKROCKI 21, GASTON MOLIVA 11, TONY
               DOBBINS 6
HIGH REBOUND:   XAVIER - ROMAIN SATO 11, ANTHONY MYLES 7, LIONEL
               CHALMERS 6
               RICHMOND - GASTON MOLIVA 8, TONY DOBBINS 6, MIKE SKROCKI
               6
HIGH ASSISTS:   XAVIER - JUSTIN DOELLMAN 4, DEDRICK FINN 2, THREE
               PLAYERS WITH 1
               RICHMOND - DAON MERRITT 4, TONY DOBBINS 3, PATRICK
               O'MALLEY 2

        ATT:   6,987

Dineen Hat Trick

Ottawa Senators v Philadelphia Flyers, February 9, 1993

Spectrum, Section G Row 6

Lindros' rookie year but the team was still in a non-playoff skid. Flyers season ticket holders kept their tickets but sold off many of them. Even in this low point in franchise history, the team still packed in over 17,000 per night. I got these seats from a girl I worked with.

Greg Hawgood scored the game's first goal while the Flyers were on a power play. Kevin Dineen and Eric Lindros each netted a goal in the first to make the score 3-0 going into the intermission.

Mark Recchi and Dineen both scored for the Flyers in the 2nd to a lone Senators goal.

At the 5:23 mark of the 3rd, the Flyers Kevin Dineen scored once again for a hat trick. Lindros and Brent Fedyk added making the final score Flyers 8 Ottawa 1.

This wasn't the first time I got to see Dineen play. In 1981, on a recruiting trip, I was taken to a Denver U hockey game, where Dineen was a member of the Pioneer team.

Dukes

James Madison v VCU, February 9, 1984

Richmond Coliseum, GA

This appears to be the only ticket stub that survived my college years. I usually made every home game and once had all the ticket stubs put away somewhere.

The 1984 Rams entered the NCAA tournament as a #6 seed in the East Region and defeated #11 Northeastern before being eliminated by #3 Syracuse.

JMU was no slouch back then either. In 81 they defeated Georgetown in the first round of the tourney before falling to Notre Dame in the 2nd round. In 82 the Dukes defeated Ohio State in the first round before losing to North Carolina in the 2nd and in 83 they beat West Virginia before falling again to UNC.

Early Action

Buffalo Sabres v Philadelphia Flyers, February 8, 1996

Spectrum, Section 59, Row 4



It's not often when all the game's scoring takes place in the 1st period. This was a time when the refs let the game be played without throwing someone in the box for touching another.

The Flyers Bob Corkum scored quickly at the 1:15 mark of the first. Buffalo rebounded quickly with a Derek Plante lamplighter 3 minutes later to knot the score at one.

Sabres Matthew Barnaby, persistent pest of any team, was sent to the box at the 11:03 mark of the period with a theatrical interference with Flyers goaltender, Ron Hextall. The team failed to capitalize on the powerplay.

Buffalo scored again at the 12:43 mark of the first, which eventually was the game winning goal.

The Flyers Eric Lindros and Buffalo's Randy Boughner squared off in the 2nd and both ended up serving fighting majors.

The Sabres only put 19 shots on goal but were able to get 2 past Hextall. 17,380 were on hand at the sold out Spectrum.

Final Four Dethroning

George Mason v VCU, February 8, 2007

Seigel Center, Section 3 Row X


VCU went to 13-1 in the CAA after winning this game 63-49. Mason was coming of an improbable NCAA Final Four appearance the year before.

VCU star Eric Maynor scored 13 points in the game. The Rams from VCU would go on to the NCAA tourney in 2007 where they upset Duke at the buzzer on a Maynor shot from the key with 1.8 seconds remaining.

Cheap Shirt

Roanoke Express v Richmond Renegades, February 7, 1999

Richmond Coliseum, Section 17L Row A

I only remember this based on the seat location. Me and the boys were huge Philadelphia Phantoms fans. One of the stunts they loved was when they shot t-shirts into the crowd at Phantoms games. Of course, they never caught one.

During intermission a crew came out on the ice of the Renegades game to shoot t-shirts. Being we were close to the glass, all the shirts went into the upper level. A mascot was skating around dumping shirts over the glass. One of the boys scored the Holy Grail of 9 year olds at a hockey game; a free t-shirt.

Now we saw other kids unravel their shirts at Phantoms games. They were logoed and pretty nice. So when the boy sat down, the anticipation was killing him. He tore open the shirt, held up a bright white shirt with a one color dime size logo of the Virginia State Lottery on then breast.
A look of disappointment came across his face. He let the shirt drop and said "Dad, can I throw it back onto the ice"?

No Camelskin Allowed

Boston Bruins v Philadelphia Flyers, February 6, 1992

Spectrum, Section V, Row 9

I have a little boy about 1 1/2 years old at the time. I'm a Flyers fanatic who just moved back into town from Boston. I got respectfully hooked on Bruins hockey. But in a toe to toe, I gotta hang with the hometown boys. I waited long enough to get the boy to a game and could wait no longer.

The wife was concerned the young child could get hit in the head with a puck being only 9 rows from the ice around the blue line. What, I'm supposed to put a helmet on the kid and have all the 1 1/2 year olds laugh at him and pick on him in the bathroom? Not a change. You are never too young to take a puck off the head.

I was starting to feel some animosity with the Spectrum and Flyers fans. What I liked about Boston were Saturday afternoon matinee games. The Garden was still blue collar. I stood next to guys in the beer line who were still in overalls and covered with soot. The Spectrum was starting to get a little wine and cheesy at this time.

Several seats in the row in front of us remained empty for some time. It gave me some room to swing the boy around and let him walk back and forth without interrupting anyone.

Eight minutes into the game the Flyers Steve Duchesne scored the game's first goal with assists going to Mark Howe and Dan Quinn. The goal was on the powerplay as Peabody MA product Bob Carpenter was in the box for charging.

The Flyers recently acquired Wez Waltz from the Bruins. And he registered his first goal of the season in the 2nd. Around this time the seats in front of us filled with late comer business types. The ones I hate a sporting events. The corduroy clad chap in front of us had a camel skinned jacket on.

A few roughing minors involving the Flyers Claude Boivin and the Bruins Chris Nilan got the crowd riled up. I don't think the proper types in front of us liked the crowd commotion.
Within the next minute Bruins enforcers Lydon Byers dropped the gloves against Tony Horachek. The crowd leaps to their feet, I leap to my feat with child in one hand and beer in the other. The propers in front of us were the only ones sitting.....until the kid knock my beer all over the camel skin jacket in front of me. The propers were so miffed at this sign of debauchery, they packed up their courderoy and huffed off. I missed who won the fight.

The Flyer held a 2-1 lead into the 3rd when Boston's Steve Leach cut the deficit early on in the period. But that was the end of the Bruins for the evening as the Flyers turned on their rare scoring barrage. Al Conroy, Howe and Mark Pederson all scored for the Flyers leaving the visiting B's frustrated. Their frustration led to a Chris Nilan boarding call and a bench minor on the team for unsportsmanlike conduct.

Even thought the Flyers weren't very good, the rivalay that carried over from the 74 Cup finals still lives on.

The Flyers this season put photos of past players on the ticket stub. This evening's ticket featured Pelle Lindbergh, who passed away in 1985. I had the ticket stub blown up as a poster as a keepsake for my son.

Broad Steet Bullies Visit Causeway Street

Philadelphia Flyers v Boston Bruins, February 5, 1994

Boston Garden, Section 31L Row H

I hated traveling to see certain team. I don't have a good record when I am in the stand. I traveled to see my home town Philadelphia Flyers in Boston. Beside winning a drink on a trivia question in the Sports Cafe on the ground floor of North Station, it wasn't a good day to be a Flyers fan.

Ray Bourque scored the first goal of the game in the last minute of the 1st period. Bourque factored in the 2nd goal of the game with an assist to Ted Donato to make it 2-0. Jozeph Stumpel added to the Bruins lead.

The final stanza was no better for the Flyers with Bourque scoring his 2nd of the game.

They Brought Their F*@king Cars!

Roanoke Express v Richmond Renegades, February 5, 2000

Richmond Coliseum, Section 31L Row H

Richmond had 3 Vandermeer brothers on the roster this year.

Madison Blues

James Madison University v William and Mary, February 4 1984

William and Mary Hall, Sec 25 Row P

I had high school buddies who went to W&M and a buddy who went to JMU. We often roadtripped from college to college in those days. I suspect this game was preplanned or we stumbled upon it by accident.

Barry Parkhill was the Tribes coach at the time. W&M had a decent player that year by the name of Keith Cieplicki.

Outcome of the game is unknown.

Bird-less Boston

Boston Celtics v Philadelphia 76ers, February 1, 1992

The Spectrum, Section J Row 10

I lived in Boston a few years back. I loved going to the old Boston Garden. I roomed in college with the son of one of the Celtics major TV sponsors in the mid 80's, he used to get the coolest packages from his dad like green Converse sneakers, warm ups, autographs ,etc. I had a fling with a gal from French Lick, Indiana. I got daily treatment with Gerald Henderson while in college, but I never had the urge to go to the Celtics game live.

The friends I made while living in Boston were all hard core Bruins fans, they never talked basketball. People I met at a fitness club I worked at were all Celtics fans, they never talked hockey. It was almost as if you couldn't be fans of both.

So now I'm living in Philadelphia and some free tickets came my way. I would never pay for an NBA ticket. Since it was the Celtics I decided to go.

Guys like Bird, Parrish and McHale were still on the roster but relegated to backup rolls. Larry Bird was injured this night.

The Sixers dressed like clowns and were ranked 20th out of 27 teams in attendance. It was embarrassing to be seen in the crowd. They did have a Charles Barkley on the roster along with 7'6" Manute Bol.

The Sixers beat the Bird-less Celtics 126-110. Charles Barkley was the game's high scorer with 38 points.