WASHINGTON, DC – The seconds ticked off the clock as Northeastern University brought the puck down the ice in a futile attempt to make the game look somewhat close. As Sean Fields fell on a weak shot as time expired, the Boston University faithful rose up and cheered as one.
But these fans weren’t at the FleetCenter, or the BU pub, or some cramped off-campus apartment. They were 450 miles away from Beantown and the Beanpot, whooping it up in Arlington, Va. while Northeastern, Harvard University and Boston College fans looked on, keeping their mouths shut. Welcome to the Boston University Washington, D.C. Alumni Club’s biggest event of the year.
“I’ve gone to 20 Beanpots back in Boston,” said Elliot Cole, a former BU trustee and a 1954 College of Communication graduate, “and the fans down here are the best. The fans here know the game better than they do in Boston.”
The Washington, D.C. Alumni Club has organized Beanpot viewings for the past 15 years, according to Ed Matisik, the club’s general counsel and 1984 School of Management graduate. About four years ago, the event moved from local Washington bars to the larger-capacity Mister Days Sports Rock Café in Arlington, which is capable of holding several hundred people and boasts 60 televisions ranging from wall mounts to plasma screens. And this year, for the first time ever, alumni from all four Beanpot schools joined together to celebrate Boston collegiate hockey.
The Beanpot viewing is just the center of the gathering, however. For a $15 cover charge, alumni get reduced food and drink specials and raffle tickets for prizes ranging from commemorative Beanpot shirts to a Buffalo Sabres program autographed by Terrier hockey hero Chris Drury. And the party is a chance to network with some of the estimated 20,000 alumni in the Washington, D.C. area from the four schools.
Most of the people watching Monday’s early game, however, were BU alumni, with a smattering of Husky fans along for the ride. Despite the dogfight going on overhead, the fans seemed to get along with each other.
“This is great,” said Steve Gordon, a 1972 Northeastern graduate. “I’m sitting next to the BU guys – the BC guys are [expletive deleted].”
Gordon said he remembered going to the event back when he was a student watching the tournament at the Boston Garden.
More and more alumni from other schools will show up from year to year, said BU Alumni Club President Clifford Ty. BU alumni already have a strong network, and brought about 100 people to this year’s event. Ty said he hopes for similar results from the other schools.
“If we had to limit the number of people we could allow in – well, we want that problem,” said Ty, a 1980 graduate of the College of Arts and Sciences and a 1992 Graduate School of Management alumnus.
In past years, though, BU and BC have had joint Beanpot parties on different floors of the same establishment, according to Glenn Garay, a 1997 College of Liberal Arts, now CAS graduate.
“You could hear the BC floor rumble whenever they scored a goal, and they could hear us,” he recalled.
But re-enacting old rivalries isn’t as important as reliving an integral part of the BU college experience, Garay said.
“I remember getting ready for the game, getting drunk,” he said. “That was college.”
Staff writer Katie McMahon contributed to this report.