Every day, I take a look outside my window of the luxurious Student Residence at 10 Buick St. down onto the big hole in the ground that will one day be filled with a new hockey/basketball arena and athletic complex. They’ve already started pouring the foundation in the southeast corner of the lot, while huge earth-moving machines work on digging up the sub-basements of the nearly non-existent Armory.
Some days I’ve spent up to half-an-hour looking out there, watching them slowly make progress on the most ambitious construction project I’ve ever personally witnessed. I take a look at that hole in the ground and think, “Wow. In two years, kids are going to be streaming in and out of a shiny new building that’ll stand right there. They’ll go inside and scream their heads off for the Icedogs (or scream at the Boston College Eagles). They’ll pump iron and get ripped and so forth. And they’ll do it all at the “Jack Parker Athletic Complex.”
Yes, you heard me right. I said the Jack Parker Athletic Complex. No, that’s not an official announcement from Boston University. That’s my own dream. I guess you could even call it a prognostication.
And before you write your letter to the editor, I’ll let you know that I’m fully aware the University has decided to name the new arena the Harry Agganis Arena.
I’m not going to get into all of that “Agganis OR Parker” business here. Erik Malinowski covered that in his sports column last year — a column I happen to disagree with. I’ve got a separate argument to make. I call it the “Agganis AND Parker Proposition.” What I would like to see in the Fall of 2005, when the entire athletic facility (arena and fitness center) is up and open, is for both of their names to be on it. I want to be able to visit the Harry Agganis Arena at the Jack Parker Athletic Complex. Mr. Malinowski shrugged off this idea. I embrace it.
The first reason they should name the whole facility for Parker is he, in essence, paid for it. But we all know that and I won’t belabor the point.
The second reason is aura, ambiance, spirit, whatever you want to call that feeling you get when you walk on hallowed ground. You’ll get that feeling if you call it the Jack Parker Athletic Complex. Students who visit in the building’s first or 50th year will see Parker’s name and, most likely, picture in the lobby and think, “I’m standing in a facility named for a legend.” Legends are sacred. Therefore, by association that facility would be sacred. In fact, it would cease to be considered just a “facility.” It would be a “home.”
You naysayers out there will attempt to play your trump card and say there isn’t enough room on the buildings for Parker’s name — that his legend and that of Agganis must duke it out in a battle for supremacy and all that is scarlet and white. Here, I play the card that trumps them all: the two-part sub-argument.
Part the first: Whenever a new building goes up on any college campus, the school names absolutely everything in sight, from the buildings to the floor tiles, and mostly for donors. Walk through the School of Management sometime and take a look at the little brass plates next to all of the benches. Each one of those is named in honor of or as a memorial to someone who gave money to the University.
Thus far in the new athletic facilities, according to the Boston University website, the arena has been named for Harry Agganis, the training facility within arena has been named for longtime Chief Athletic Trainer Tony Dougal and a luxury box in the arena has been named for former Icedog Mark Bavis.
(Side note: If you believe the “Pardon our appearance” signs outside the construction area, John Hancock has put its, uh, John Hancock on the Student Village project. However, nothing official concerning naming has been mentioned. Besides, John Hancock is sponsoring everything, including the new dormitories that will go up in about five years. I’m only talking about the athletic facilities.) So, there are plenty of parts of the complex yet to be named, including the whole thing.
Part the second: Some people will probably say it’s overkill to name what is basically the same building for two different people. I’ll set aside the fact that the new facility will be two separate buildings and say this: It’s been done before.
If you’re ever bored on a Sunday, ride the B line all the way out to BC. Take a walk to the back of the campus and you’ll find Conte Forum. Inside Conte Forum, you’ll see Kelley Rink. The building is named for Silvio Conte, a former U.S. Representative and Boston College alumnus. The rink is named for Snooks Kelley, the greatest coach in the history of BC hockey and one of the early legends of the Beanpot. Hmmm … a building named for a benefactor and prominent school personality and an arena named for an early legend. Sounds like something I’ve heard very recently.
As I mentioned earlier, my esteemed predecessor Erik Malinowski shrugged off this suggestion, saying it would come off as an effort to emulate BC. The facts: Conte Forum and Kelley Rink have had their names since 1989. The Harold C. Case Athletic Center and Walter Brown Arena predate Conte/Kelley by 16 years. Is anybody really emulating anybody here or is naming everything simply a universal tradition? I’ve got $500 on the latter.
Added bonus: Having an arena named for a legend inside a building named for another legend only adds to the aura.
So you see, we can have it both ways. We can honor our first legend and our greatest legend at the same time and give each what he deserves.
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