Friday night observations

[redarmy]

Just a couple of comments on Fridays game

1. Having the band in the lower bowl is great. Much better atmosphere.

2. New PA announcer is good. I believe he is better than Scott Hennen

3. Something must be done about the language that the students used during some chants at the game. How can I bring my kids to the game if all they hear from the student section in profanity. Something must be done. Any Ideas?

[AZSIOUX]

Just a couple of comments on Fridays game

1. Having the band in the lower bowl is great. Much better atmosphere.

2. New PA announcer is good. I believe he is better than Scott Hennen

3. Something must be done about the language that the students used during some chants at the game. How can I bring my kids to the game if all they hear from the student section in profanity. Something must be done. Any Ideas?

"EARMUFFS"

[BleedGrn]

Note to Jim: Need to update the time on your server.

I hesitantly agree with the comments about language by the students. I'm all for a good razzing of the opposing team. Many times I have stood and yelled at Mannino or specific referees regarding their own personal suck-hood. I also believe that you can be equally demeaning without vulgarity. "Clever" is always better than "vulgar" in my opinion, and I feel that it weakens your own stance when you have to resort to swearing. There are, after all, a lot of younger children at the games.

[iramurphy]

Note to Jim: Need to update the time on your server.

I hesitantly agree with the comments about language by the students. I'm all for a good razzing of the opposing team. Many times I have stood and yelled at Mannino or specific referees regarding their own personal suck-hood. I also believe that you can be equally demeaning without vulgarity. "Clever" is always better than "vulgar" in my opinion, and I feel that it weakens your own stance when you have to resort to swearing. There are, after all, a lot of younger children at the games.

I agree. Hockey is so much more fun as a fan when your student section is smart enough to be clever. The F--- you Denver chant is an indication of ignorance. If it continues I would ban them to the rafters. They should be forwarned and then sent home. It shows absolutely no class. I like the band down closer to the ice next to the students. With a little imagination, it should be awesome.

[HockeyMom]

Ok, here's my $0.02:

You can't completely shield your children from profanity. Tell them that it is going to most likely be swearing and that you don't agree with it and you don't want to hear it repeated....ever.

I've never had a problem with my kids swearing and they've heard it a lot.

[Fighting Sioux #1]

Yea.....I sat with my son in the section right next to the students....pretty sad with the "F" chants.

[BleedGrn]

Ok, here's my $0.02:

You can't completely shield your children from profanity. Tell them that it is going to most likely be swearing and that you don't agree with it and you don't want to hear it repeated....ever.

I've never had a problem with my kids swearing and they've heard it a lot.

First of all, HockeyMom, I don't know who you are, but I you! (for a variety of reasons I won't go into here)

Second, I agree with you that you cannot shield your children from profanity, but I'd much rather my daughter heard it from me when I hit my finger with a hammer or something like that. The "f-u denver" chant is totally unnecessary, and I believe, shows poor sportsmanship. All it takes is a little toning down and revising the chant to something like "screw you, denver". I really think it's just as effective.

I remember back in the late 80's when the started cracking down on the "who's he? he sucks sh!+" chant. "Who's he? He sucks" would have been just as effective. Now I notice that they rattle off the opposing team's starting lineup so fast that there's no chance to do the chant anymore. I kind of found that amusing, by the way.

[iramurphy]

Ok, here's my $0.02:

You can't completely shield your children from profanity. Tell them that it is going to most likely be swearing and that you don't agree with it and you don't want to hear it repeated....ever.

I've never had a problem with my kids swearing and they've heard it a lot.

Mom,

That doesn't excuse the lack of class shown by the UND fans. It means you are a good Mom.

I guarantee you that even though we all have heard the word, there will be some recruit with his parents at a game who will hear it and it may cost us a recruit someday. Why should you have to spend time explaining this unacceptable behavior to your kid at a UND event?? I have always thought UND fans were better than that. It is one thing to tell your kids to be aware of that type of language and they willlikely hear it on the school bus or playground, but come on, these are kids who are supposedly capable of getting a 22 on their ACT. We should expect and demand better. They can use their minds to be more creative and it will be alot more fun for us and for your kids.

[AZSIOUX]

Mom,

That doesn't excuse the lack of class shown by the UND fans. It means you are a good Mom.

I guarantee you that even though we all have heard the word, there will be some recruit with his parents at a game who will hear it and it may cost us a recruit someday. Why should you have to spend time explaining this unacceptable behavior to your kid at a UND event?? I have always thought UND fans were better than that. It is one thing to tell your kids to be aware of that type of language and they willlikely hear it on the school bus or playground, but come on, these are kids who are supposedly capable of getting a 22 on their ACT. We should expect and demand better. They can use their minds to be more creative and it will be alot more fun for us and for your kids.

i understand most of your points but come on, are you serious? you think it will cost us a recruit..no way..

[PCM]

All you need to remember regarding the obscence chants is that the NCAA is watching.

[HockeyMom]

I hope the NCAA isn't sitting beside me at the next game.

[iramurphy]

i understand most of your points but come on, are you serious? you think it will cost us a recruit..no way..

Yup. I recruited for UND for a number of years. Gene Murphy was one of the best and he recruited the Mothers. There are mothers out there who will find the fact that the UND student section is screaming "F--- you Denver" repeatedly is not acceptable and enough to lean toward some other school when all else is equal. I do not think UND is the only school where this has occured and I don't think we will lose a lot of kids but it creates a very negative image of the UND student section when compared to other schools where they actually have coordinated, clever cheers.

If we were to allow this to be the norm at UND events, I would be willing to bet a lot that some recruits parent or the recruit will be turned off by it somewhere along the line.

[PCM]

I hope the NCAA isn't sitting beside me at the next game.

I'm sure the NCAA has no illusions about controlling the curses of individual fans. But UND's claim of using the Sioux name with "utmost dignity and respect" starts looking a tad silly when Sioux fans engage in organized obscene cheers that can be heard throughout the arena and over the air waves.

[southpaw]

3. Something must be done about the language that the students used during some chants at the game. How can I bring my kids to the game if all they hear from the student section in profanity. Something must be done. Any Ideas?

Three ideas to start off with. Don't say it's just the student section. While looking around during the chant, I saw many people who were not students doing the chant. By calling out just the students, they will get defensive, because you're singling them out. I appreciate how others refer to it as a fan problem and not a student problem.

Don't overdramatize the problem. You know it's not all your kids heard from the student section. I realize there are bad chants and the fans shouldn't do them, but realize the good that fans do. The students that you speak so badly of, started a large amount of the cheers at the game and if you look at the atmosphere during a normal weekend, vs one without many students there... I'd take the first option. It's just my opinion, and I don't have kids, so feel free to throw my point out the window, but as a SIOUX fan, I'd rather have a couple swearing chants during the game and the atmosphere that was on Friday, than have no swearing and a fairly dead atmosphere. Before you say "we can have both," I know it's possible, but it takes a lot of work on BOTH sides. Not just a bunch of "those students should do this and not do this."

Third, I touched on it a bit just before. Don't tell the fans what they should do, lead the way. Don't just tell people what you think is acceptable or not, start actually taking some action. You have a problem with the swearing? Tell someone. Everyone else complains about the students swearing, so there's no doubt that you'd have support. Just remember that you can whine about it all you want, but unless you or someone else starts doing something to fix it, it will always stay the same.

[iramurphy]

Three ideas to start off with. Don't say it's just the student section. While looking around during the chant, I saw many people who were not students doing the chant. By calling out just the students, they will get defensive, because you're singling them out. I appreciate how others refer to it as a fan problem and not a student problem.

Don't overdramatize the problem. You know it's not all your kids heard from the student section. I realize there are bad chants and the fans shouldn't do them, but realize the good that fans do. The students that you speak so badly of, started a large amount of the cheers at the game and if you look at the atmosphere during a normal weekend, vs one without many students there... I'd take the first option. It's just my opinion, and I don't have kids, so feel free to throw my point out the window, but as a SIOUX fan, I'd rather have a couple swearing chants during the game and the atmosphere that was on Friday, than have no swearing and a fairly dead atmosphere. Before you say "we can have both," I know it's possible, but it takes a lot of work on BOTH sides. Not just a bunch of "those students should do this and not do this."

Third, I touched on it a bit just before. Don't tell the fans what they should do, lead the way. Don't just tell people what you think is acceptable or not, start actually taking some action. You have a problem with the swearing? Tell someone. Everyone else complains about the students swearing, so there's no doubt that you'd have support. Just remember that you can whine about it all you want, but unless you or someone else starts doing something to fix it, it will always stay the same.

Points well taken.

I think some of the language is going to be a bit colorful but I think the perverbial "F word" should not be used. When I was a student we had a bit of fun with the other teams and the refs. I think the Sioux Crew at FB games have been entertaining but I can't hear what is shouted by individuals.

I think the students can do it without me leading the way. (If that happened none of the recruits would come here).

[Sioux_Hab-it]

The only obscenity that was audible on the Dataflix transmission of the Channel 8 feed over the weekend came from the mouth of none other than the DU coach as he berated a line coming off the ice. The commentators stated "Oh well live television what are you going to do".

[Diggler]

Part of the swearing was who UND was playing. Actually that was probably 95% of the reason for it. There was true anger in the student section towards Denver. You compare friday to saturday and it was a much different atmosphere and not just because of what happened in the game. Friday was one game, let's not overblow the situation.

While many people here didn't like students swearing on friday and I understand that, I was dissappointed on saturday night. UND just tied up the game and the students are going crazy. So what's done? They are made to sit down. Baloney. While it's fine for students to be sitting much of the time, in this instance everyone else should have been standing up and cheering. Instead everyone else just seemed to sit there and do nothing. I think UND should hire me to fix both problems.

The football games students seldom swear in organized chants. There is the BS chant about once a game and that is it. I think this may be because at football games, there is consistency in the rules. While I think some of the rules are stupid, they are the same every game. This isn't the case at hockey games and oftentimes the hockey games have idiotic rules at some games. Heck, security took away foam hands on saturday at the hockey game! They eventually gave them back, but still it was quite silly. The rules really do seem to change from night to night to night and game to game. On friday a guy was allowed to lean over into the PB and talk, on saturday he wasn't. Some days you can bang on the boards, some days you can't. Some days you can swear and no one cares, some days you get yelled at for saying butt. There is no consistentcy whatsoever. If REA would make rules and stick with them, it might just fix the problem.

[DAR]

I was at the Friday night game against Denver and had not attended a game at the Ralph for a while. To me it seemed the only people into the game were the students. If everyone was into the game like the students that place would be unbelievably intimidating. I realize this is probably unrealistic but the contrast between the sections clearly stuck out to me. The only real cheering from the other sections is after a goal is scored and even then it is for a very short period. I remember at the old Ralph when the students had the whole side of the arena that the noise in the building really was cranked up. I just wish the non-student spectators would get more involved in the game and we would have a much better home ice advantage.

[southpaw]

I was at the Friday night game against Denver and had not attended a game at the Ralph for a while. To me it seemed the only people into the game were the students. If everyone was into the game like the students that place would be unbelievably intimidating. I realize this is probably unrealistic but the contrast between the sections clearly stuck out to me. The only real cheering from the other sections is after a goal is scored and even then it is for a very short period. I remember at the old Ralph when the students had the whole side of the arena that the noise in the building really was cranked up. I just wish the non-student spectators would get more involved in the game and we would have a much better home ice advantage.

I can tell you now, the answer that has been given 1,000 times for this is: "If the students wouldn't swear so much in their cheers, then others would get involved."

The students do cheers with swearing in them about three times a game. The rest of it is clean and enthusiastic. Yet, to a lot of people "all they hear from the student section is profanity."

[UND Fan]

i understand most of your points but come on, are you serious? you think it will cost us a recruit..no way..

I live in Jacksonville, FL. One of the top high school quarterbacks in the country (if not the best) from here in Jax has just ruled out the school that he would have likely chosen because of a situation similar to this.

So, yes, you can lose a recruit because of poor fan behavior or a coach who doesn't behave well in the mind of a recruit and/or his parents.

[DAR]

I live in Jacksonville, FL. One of the top high school quarterbacks in the country (if not the best) from here in Jax has just ruled out the school that he would have likely chosen because of a situation similar to this.

So, yes, you can lose a recruit because of poor fan behavior or a coach who doesn't behave well in the mind of a recruit and/or his parents.

Bottom line to me is that in my observation the students cheer and the rest of the building could just as well be watching an opera for most of the game. If the students were taken out of the building you would be able to hear a pin drop. There has to be a way to get the rest of the crowd more involved in the game to have a true home ice advantage.

[BleedGrn]

I love the enthusiasm of the students. I truly wish it would spread to the rest of the arena. Also, whoever said it is correct, that not all swearing comes from the student section, but my point still applies. I apologize for "blaming" only the students.

Anger isn't an excuse, either. I think it show truly good sportsmanship if we could show enthusiasm without the swearing.

And yes, the whole fricking arena should be as lively as the students. Clap, cheer, yell, whatever. I believe we are losing a good bit of the atmosphere that the old Ralph used to be. As pumped as I get just sitting in the stands when that place is rocking, I can't imagine what it does for the psyche of our favorite athletes. But enthusiasm without proper restraint is just animalistic.

[HockeyMom]

I love the enthusiasm of the students. I truly wish it would spread to the rest of the arena.

How cool would it be if the whole arena was rocking like the student section!!!!

[BleedGrn]

How cool would it be if the whole arena was rocking like the student section!!!!

Would Jim get mad at me if I alluded to a big Woodrow from that kind of atmosphere???

P.S. PCM's got a good point about the NCAA watching too. As a fan, the swearing doesn't bother me that much. As a parent, I'm just glad my daughter is getting older and wiser so that she can sort those kinds of things out in her own mind. As a proponent of keeping the logo and nickname, I don't think it puts a good polish on our image.

[puck swami]

As a Denver fan, I totally understand the "F-U Denver" chant, and while I don't like F-bombs, in this case it was thoroughly warranted. Denver has wreaked a lot of havoc on the Sioux of late, and I'd rather have the crowds venting verbally than using other tactics to express frustration, such as throwing things or other forms of intimidation.

I have nothing but respect for UND and its program, and the F-U Denver chanting doesn't change that one bit....