People used to ask me during job interviews, "Oh, so you're a senior; are you excited to graduate?"
What a silly question, I would think to myself: Of course I'm not excited to graduate. I still feel that there are a lot of things I need to do before I'm out the door in June. I feel like I've done a lot as an undegrad, and experienced a lot of what the Dartmouth sports world has to offer.
So if I had to give the Dartmouth sports fan five things he or she needs to do before they graduate, this would be my list:
- Go to an away game.
Sure, any fairweather Dartmouth sports fan can motivate themself see a home game in Hanover. All you have to do is roll out of your dorm, walk five to 10 minutes to the venue, pay nothing to get a seat, and take in the action. But making the effort to follow the Big Green on the road by going to an away game is a totally different experience that displays a new level of dedication to Dartmouth athletics. It provides an opportunity to get your buddies together, jump in a car for a road trip and cheer on the Big Green as you are surrounded by hostile fans in a hostile environment. The whole thing gets better if Dartmouth is crushing its opponent, thereby giving you even more chances to heckle the home crowd faithful. Get outside of the "Dartmouth bubble" and show the world what Big Green fans are all about.
- Go to the Dartmouth-Princeton men's hockey game in Hanover.
If you had to go to just one Dartmouth home game during your career as an undergrad, this would be the one. I honestly have no idea where the whole tennis balls on the ice after the first Big Green goal concept came from, but it represents one of the few true Dartmouth sports traditions that has been successfully passed down over the years. The game is always packed, so Thompson will already be rocking with a boisterous student section. But the moment after Dartmouth scores its first goal is something special, when you reach to grab your tennis ball from whatever location you may have hidden it and throw it onto the ice in unison with hundreds of other fans. Sure, we get a penalty for delaying the game as crews herd all of the balls off the ice, but I don't think the hockey team minds the whole spectacle too much. And guess what? The Dartmouth-Princeton game is this upcoming Friday! See you all there.
- Go to the Dartmouth Skiway.
First, fans should get out to the Skiway to watch our ski teams compete. Last time I checked, they were the last varsity program to win an NCAA championship, and they've continued to dominate the competition since then. The teams are undefeated this season after taking their fifth straight carnival at Middlebury College on Saturday. Second, fans themselves should try skiing at least once, whether it be alpine or cross-country. Winter is a critical part of everyone's Dartmouth experience, so it makes sense for a Dartmouth sports fan to take advantage of a resource like the Skiway (even if it is a mediocre mountain compared to places like Killington and Okemo). You don't know if you'll have the opportunity to ski after graduation with the ease and accessibility that you have right now in New Hampshire, so get outside and spend a day hitting the slopes.
- Go to a football game.
This one kind of seems like a throwaway, considering football is one of the most popular spectator sports in the country. But over the course of the last four years, I have seen some woefully attended Big Green football contests at Memorial Field. I can remember Senior Day in 2006 against Princeton, when probably no more than 100 students showed up. I know the team has been tough to watch recently, but Dartmouth football is a program steeped in tradition that needs the support of its fans if it hopes to get back to its rightful place as a dominant force in the Ivy League. Take the initiative and rally the student population to get out to Memorial on those Saturdays in autumn that aren't part of Homecoming weekend.
- Get vocal.
Knapp suggests going to heckle at the baseball games. While I'm a little perturbed he took this one, since I am a Chi Gam and I've gone to heckle at home games the past few springs (by the way Knapp, we've been doing this longer than last year), I don't think fans should simply limit their heckling and insulting to just baseball games. It's shocking just how quiet our fans can be, even when a good number of students show up to games.
Before you graduate, go to a game, stand up and start hurling insults at the other team. Get the crowd into it to with other kinds of cheers and jeers. Seriously, when Cornell plays us in hockey, the loudest constituency in the arena is the Big Red marching band. Let's put a stop to that.
