I come from a hockey loving-family. We all root for our beloved Bruins, but when it comes to Hockey East we are a family divided. My older brother went to Providence College and married a graduate of Boston University. I went to Boston College and my younger brother went to the University of Vermont. When my older brother and his wife started adding members to our clan 11 years ago, we wondered where (assuming they would be hockey fans) their Hockey East allegiances would fall…
Probably due to all of the BC-related presents I gave him early on, my older nephew decided he was going to root for the Eagles with his uncle. My brother’s wife didn’t like the idea of having any more of her children rooting against her alma mater, so she quickly made sure the younger two children grew up rooting for the BU Terriers. It was easy to see that her plan worked when my niece was watching the Red Sox play on opening day one year: Big Papi hit a homerun and she exclaimed, “Go BU!” A couple of years ago I stopped by my brother’s house the day that BC and BU were playing against each other in the Beanpot. When my younger nephew answered the door I asked him if he forgot about the game. Without saying a word, he ran upstairs and came back down wearing his Boston University “Be You” shirt. Yes, the first two Mondays in February are always interesting in my family…
Things have even got more interesting recently. Although UVM wasn’t a Hockey East team when my younger brother went there, they entered HE in the 2005-2006 season. Also, my older brother has started working at BC. So many times, the yearly Hockey East Tournament has pitted our teams against each other. In case you were wondering (from http://www.hockeyeastonline.com/men/tourney/quickref.php), BC leads the way with 9 titles, followed by BU with 7, Providence with 1, and the UVM Catamounts are without one since joining.
Earlier this year, I got to go see BC play BU at Fenway Park (see blog at: http://davestshirts.blogspot.com/2010/01/t-shirt-8-boston-college-superfan.html). I went with my father, older brother, and nephews. Even though he was greatly outnumbered, my younger nephew was rooting for BU all the way. And, he chose the right team – The Terriers dominated most of the game and won 3-2. I wore this shirt today for my younger nephew because it’s his birthday. I could not, would not, and will not ever wear a BU shirt, but I figured this one does have a BU logo on the back. I hope I helped make your birthday a happy one, buddy!
I definitely do come from a hockey-loving family, but more importantly I come from a loving family. We may root for different college teams, but we root for each other even more.
Finally, thank you to my friend Patrick for donating this Hockey East (http://www.hockeyeastonline.com/men/index.php) shirt!
No comments:
Post a Comment