n It was unfortunate to see The Daily Free Press display an inflammatory and misleading headline (“Fans Can’t Fight ‘The Suits,'” Sept. 13, p. 7) on Tim Heaney’s letter regarding the behavior of the Dog Pound. This is yet another instance of hysteria and hyperbole replacing rational thought and honest discussion.
Heaney appears to be offering a rebuke for what he dubs “Neanderthal” behavior rather than a message of powerlessness against the administration. The sad truth, as Heaney points out, is that officials from Boston University and the NCAA view the childish behavior of the few as representative of the masses. The point is not to fight “the suits” but to prove to them that we are functioning adults who are capable of more than childish chants of retribution and shameful accusations. This seems to be Heaney’s point, not a call to stop the fight. Truly, I am very saddened by the decision to ban “The Song,” one of my first memories of both BU and the BU hockey team. Hockey is the one instance in which I see myself as a member of BU rather than a member of the School of Management, and it is terrible that our traditional rallying cry has been taken away from us.
I hope in the coming year that the rest of the fans at Agganis prove Dean Elmore and Athletics Director Mike Lynch correct, because I heard the same sounds of silence during “The Song” and benign chants like “Let’s Go Terriers.” I will attend this upcoming season’s games with some trepidation, and my friends are taking bets on how long I will last through the first game before the inevitable ejection. However, when that first puck drops, all in Agganis should join us in the Dog Pound and rally around the team.
An open dialogue on this issue should be held, possibly a forum for season-ticket holders hosted by Elmore, Lynch and Coach Parker to discuss these decisions and the ramifications. That would doubtlessly lead to more progress than ridiculous exaggerations from all sides.
Elmore and Lynch are incorrect to punish all of Terrier Nation for the behavior of those immature fans in Worcester, but it is just as wrong for Nick Williams to call them the Gestapo and the Free Press to mislabel a thoughtfully written letter with the defeatist attitude of: “You can’t fight ‘The Man.'”
Nick Giglia
SMG ’07