THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 5, 1995 TAG: 9502050180
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY VICKI L. FRIEDMAN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 73 lines
The ALL-STAR Bar & Grill in Waterside isn't Walker Arena in Potsdam, N.Y., but that didn't matter to the Clarkson University alums who gathered there Saturday night to catch their Golden Knights on ice.
On a night when a bitter chill penetrated even the snuggest overcoat in Hampton Roads, Clarkson alumni met up with some rival alums from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and kept warm the way they used to in college.
By watching Clarkson's Knights take on RPI's Engineers in hockey.
The Norfolk bar was among 41 locations nationwide to broadcast live via satellite the annual game between the Eastern College Athletic Conference rivals, two upstate New York colleges. The game ended in overtime with a 2-2 tie before 50 local fans.
``Everybody was wrapped up in hockey when I went to Clarkson,'' said Norman Burak, a 1961 graduate of Clarkson who never missed a home game in four years. ``When it's 20 below zero in New York, there's not much else to do.''
Hockey is the only Division I sport at Clarkson, which enrolls 2,600 students and has had several players advance to the NHL, including Dave Taylor of the L.A. Kings. And any alum can tell you that the Golden Knights boast 58 winning seasons, qualifying for postseason play 32 of the past 33 years. RPI, with about 6,000 students in nearby Troy, N.Y., is no slouch either, with 30 winning seasons and seven NCAA playoff appearances.
``What I remember about my years at RPI is the hockey line,'' said Mike Murawski, an '81 grad who is stationed at Langley Air Force Base. Snatching a white envelope from an RPI buddy, he draws a large rectangle and points to it. ``Let's say that's the student union. This,'' he said, drawing several rows of dots around it, ``is the hockey line. Tickets go on sale in November. The hockey line starts in mid-September. Students are camped out all around the student union with sleeping bags marking their place in line. . . . I studied for exams there. And being from Philadelphia, I remember I watched the Phillies win the World Series from that line.''
Saturday's game, shown on five TVs throughout the bar, was played in recently built Cheel Arena, but Clarkson traditionalists hold a greater fondness for the Knights' former home, tiny, cramped Walker Arena.
``It was the best,'' said '81 grad Jan Abramson, whose green sweatshirt had ``Clarkson'' printed boldly in gold letters. ``There was only six rows of seats or so, but people would hang from the rafters, climb on the railings. In the winter, you rotated your bar-hopping and your whole social schedule around hockey.''
Al Derenske, a mechanical engineer at Newport News Shipyard and an '85 Clarkson grad, regularly attends Admirals games at Scope, but prefers the crowds at Clarkson. ``You can put more people in Scope,'' he said, ``but as fans go, it's quieter . . . because maybe only two-thirds of the people are cheering. . . . Too many people come to watch the fights.''
Derenske keeps current on Clarkson hockey thanks to his dad, who sends him weekly clippings from an Albany newspaper. And to add a little of the green and gold to the Waterside bar, he brought his dad's letterman blanket with its giant C in the center and hung it from the ceiling.
Another part of Clarkson tradition is the Clarkson Bell, which alums will tell you clangs fear into the hearts of hockey opponents. The bell, which is permanently mounted in Cheel Arena, is maintained by a campus fraternity, and it rings after every Clarkson goal. At the end of every game, fraternity members symbolically remove the clapper.
``It was so loud,'' said Tom Stuart, a '90 grad of Clarkson. ``Going to Clarkson games, it was like leaving a rock concert.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo
MARTIN SMITH-RODDEN/Staff
Norman Burak, Clarkson class of '68, and Michael Anderson, class of
'83, cheer for their alma mater at the ALL-STAR Bar & Grill. About
50 local fans watched Clarkson and RPI play to a tie.
by CNB