Boston University hockey is the pride of many BU students and alums, and they take the rivalry between BU and Boston College very seriously. This rivalry compares to the likes of Duke vs. North Carolina in basketball, Red Sox vs. Yankees in baseball and Ohio State vs. Michigan in football. To say that the students are ‘obnoxious and offensive’ is wrong (‘Parental advisory: explicit fans,’ Jan. 22, pg. 6). BU fans, like any die-hard fans, chant, scream and show their pride; it’s all part of the game. No one condones the cheering of an injured player, but everything else comes with the territory.

Hockey defines BU sports, and the only way BU students can get retribution from the BC fans is at that game. Students come to the games to express their feelings and emotions. The games let us forget all the work and the machines we are and let us focus on a game a game played by our classmates. The athletes understand it, the refs understand, the coaches understand and the fans understand. Students, alumni and local Bostonians understand what the consequences are when attending a sporting event.

I was also there Thursday night, having to listen to the chants of ‘safety school,’ ‘retards’ and other inappropriate comments by drunk BC fans. Let me tell you, they get under your skin. For those who bleed red and white, on those one to two nights a year when BC comes into the real city of Boston to play our boys, there is no other way except to dish it back at them. To say that last Thursday night’s game was the ‘most obnoxious and offensive spectacle I have ever seen at a sporting event’ is downright wrong.

I am proud to sit in the stands and have my fellow classmates back this school up and not take the criticism that BC throws at us. Yes, BC might have ‘unfounded elitism,’ but they know a BU fan when they see one. These games are about pride and respect, and if throwing verbal insults at the other team helps us become the seventh man, so be it. These few nights a year, when Walter Brown Arena is packed like sardines, are when we get our revenge.

Yes, there are a few fans that go overboard supporting their colors, but don’t let a few people put a bad name on the university. But people who say they are not proud they attended BU obviously have no pride in their alma matter.

For me and every one of the 15,000 classmates I have, we are proud to be Terriers; we are proud walking down Commonwealth Avenue and flashing red and white. This is our school, and no one can take that away from us. If you can’t enjoy the game, then don’t go. Go BU!