Favorite Yost Moments
Hey guys, for a break from the FREEP "balanced" "reporting", expansion talks, and the DD loss, I thought that I would change gears and see what peoples favorite memories from Yost are. This was inspired by the excellent piece in the Michigan Daily. Mine;
One of my favorite impromtu cheers at Yost was against Northern Michigan around 2000. One of the Northern players had the unfortunate last name of Cockburn, and naturally, every time he was on the ice, his name was chanted. (Note: This was still when the student section surrounded the opposing parents). Finally one of the mothers had enough, and began screaming at the student section to shut up. Amazingly, the student section did stop chanting, although for only a moment. After a few seconds of quiet, the student section, without any planning, began chanting "Mrs. Cockburn" as a response. One of the funniest moments I can remember. Keep it up Yost, I love the creativity and quick thinking, and the custimization for a team and situation. It was never the vulgarity that really got me going, it was always the quick wit and quick thinking of the crowd that makes it special. Keep the tradition up, and go blue!
NCAA regionals when Jed Ortmeyer nearly decapitated SCSU's Matt Hendricks, and students made fun of SCSU's ice-skating cheerleaders and mascot
IIRC correctly, Michigan was down 3-2 going into the third against Denver the following night. I can't remember who scored the tying goal, but I think Cammalleri scored the winner, and Nystrom added an empty netter. Its about as loud as I've heard that building.
EDIT: Can't believe I forgot Ortmeyer's goal, which was actually the game-winner. I think Cammalleri tied it?
Dancing. There was one game where I sat behind Jake Long and another lineman, can't remember who, but it was their senior year, after football, and Jack's dad went over to say hi to them. They had pepsi bottles with obviously not pepsi in them (red liquid, probably vodka + ?) and jack's dad asked if he could have a sip, he ended up downing the other lineman's drink, then had some of Jakes, got a tiny sip and made an "I just took a straight shot of Kamchatka" face, handing the bottle back to Jake Long.
The Johnson family is great, glad to see Jack doing well on the next level too
During the NCAA Regionals trip to Grand Forks, North Dakota in '06, the Hockey Band stayed in the same hotel as the team (standard practice on tournament trips). A lot of the families were in there, too, including the Johnsons. A bunch of us befriended his little brother Kenny down at the pool/arcade the morning of the game, and he invited us up to their room to hang out.
Let me tell you, the Johnsons are just about the coolest people ever. We spent all afternoon playing mini-hockey in the hallway and shooting the shit with Mr. and Mrs. Johnson about any and everything. They couldn't have been nicer, and it continued on at the hotel the next year in Denver, even while Mr. Johnson and Jack where going back and forth into the business center in the lobby to negotiate Jack's contract with the Kings. I think they were glad to have Kenny occupied playing chess with the band geeks while they took care of business!
Anyway, just a little perspective. I wish Jack could have played at Michigan forever, if only for his family being around.
Mr. JMFJ hopeful that younger JMFJ will play for Michigan too, when that time comes?
Yeah, I've heard that. It'll be a few years (he's probably like 12 now), but I'll say this: he was a pretty feisty and physical kid playing mini-stick hockey. I'm rooting for him. Really fun kid.
Oh, you didn't mean that Yost.
So those memories are definately fair game. Ha!
One of his first games at Yost he shot one from the point that hit the goalie's mask and it just silenced the crowd for a sec.
The NCAA Regional against North Dakota was the best hockey game I have ever seen. I don't know if Yost could have been louder.
Seconded. I was at the NoDak regional game too, and it was the best hockey game I've ever seen by far.
To go with you Cockburn story. In Cockburn's last visit to Yost he was ejected from the game. After the C-Ya chant was administered someone right around me started the "NO MORE COCKBURN clap clap clapclapclap NO MORE COCKBURN"
I loved that one!
My other favorite moment is when Komisarek and the Michigan team were huddled around their net before an NCAA Regional game against St. Cloud State. The St. Cloud State mascot was on the ice in skates during the starting line ups and as he was going off the ice he grabbed I believe was Komisarek's stick which he was in the huddle and threw it. After that the mascot was blasted through the rink door and was getting a mugging by a couple Michigan players. The mascot was not seen the rest of the night and Michigan won!
My friends and I always liked to chant at Cheeseman from LSSU everytime he was on the ice. I knew it was intimate when he looked up at us and gave us an evil grin. We were losing 4-1, but the student section still never let up and stayed till the end. Sometimes I was more impressed with the Yost crowd noise in losing games than in the winning games. Of course I will always love the winning games more.
Another great Cockburn moment was when he got ejected during his last game at Yost - "No more cockburn!"
(edit: holy hell did I get beat to that one)
Another Cockburn story: "GO --------------- BLUE" was replaced with "COCK -------------- BURN" with the band. That was fun.
That same year, or perhaps the one before, there was a game against MSU that resulted in the penalty boxes just absolutely filling up - cue the student section:
"We got the whooole, teeeam, in the box!
We got the whooole, teeeam, in the box!
We got the whooole, teeeam, in the box!
We got the whole team in the box!"
Fantastic.
I think I remember that game. There was a player for Michigan, Gassoff, who was usually a healthy scratch, who ALWAYS was lookin for a good fight. I remember him punching a state player and his plastic facemask go flying. That guy was great. Everytime we thought we needed some enforcement the student section always chanted "We want Gassoff".
That was the greatest. It was either the 02-03 or 03-04 season and was the first game my now-wife went to; she was immediately hooked.
My other favorite memory is the four years my dad went to U of M (86-89). I was between 4 and 7 and could take entire sections for myself. I distinctly remember shoving trash under the seats and then trying to race it down to the bottom of the bleachers while it slid on the ramp underneath. Now I would hate to see Yost that empty, but at that age it was quite the adventure.
Michigan vs #1 and Defending Champion North Dakota.....It was electric in there, the game was amazing....especially following the epic overtime match between MSU and OSU....it was just incredible. Turco's diving save on an ND Power Play which lead to Herr's breakaway goal. Bobby Hayes scoring with 2 minutes left to give Michigan the win. That was my first game at Yost with my dad when I was in third grade. I will never forget that day and that game.
*My second favorite Yost Moment....2008 vs Notre Dame. When louie caporusso scored with 30seconds left, that place shook it was so loud. This is the best moment as a student, but still cannot compare to that North Dakota game.
and after it, with the Michigan team celebrating on the ice, Hayes started acknowledging the fans. He was waving and smiling, standard stuff. I was right on the glass near where they were at so I had a great view. Then he looked right at me and I could see him mouth "thank you." Obviously, he wasn't being specific to me and I'm sure he had no idea of my obsessive fandom, I just happened to be the person he was looking at. But it was still awesome.
The next week, I was in psych discussion and Eric Wilson mentioned how he saw me on TV and it looked like a really fun time. WTF? I had a 2-time national champion extend thanks for my support, followed by a Rose Bowl winning national champion comment on my "participation" in the Michigan athletic community.
-October 6 2006 playing Waterloo and screaming "We want 11!" when up 10-2
-Playing against MSU in 03-04 and screaming "Thelen.....FAT" I also taped a McD cheeseburger to my dry erase board that game.
- Feb 4 2006. I was sitting in section 17, row 1, and brought my dry erase board. I wrote on there during the beginning a message: "Jenny Caruso is easy" Goalie David Caruso, her brother, took offense, but I distinctly remember seeing a few fellow players smile as they came by during warmups.
-During one of the 2 JMFJ seasons watching his dad do the Blues Brothers dance during the 2nd intermission. He, at one game, was also joined by Jake Long.
dry erase board
Elegant in its brilliance & simplicity.
I just remembered another amazing moment in 02 or 03 when the announcer was retiring. In the final period "How, Much, Time, Is, Left" chant, after we said "Thank You" he said "No, thank you." The crowd erupted into the best "Announcer Sieve" chant ever. Man, I really miss Yost and need to go to games this year.
Anybody else remember an exhibition game against Guelph, a small Canadian school? This must have been about 1996 or so.
There was a kid on the team named Monkman. For some reason, the student section latched onto this kid and kept cheering for Monkman all night long. "We want Monkman! We want Monkman!" It gets to the third period, Michigan's up huge, Monkman is out on the ice. During a stoppage of play he goes to skate off to the bench, the cheers start up, and he tries to do a one-leg-off-the-ice fist-pump move to acknowledge the crowd. At which point he loses his balance and falls directly on his ass.
I also remember a game sometime in the late 90's-early 00's where the zamboni broke down between periods. They brought out the other zamboni with a rope to try to tow the thing off. The rope breaks. Then they try a chain. The chain breaks. Then they try a thicker chain, and it works, yet the zamboni breaking down caused the blade on the thing to dig deeply into the ice and leave a pretty sizeable rut, which took a good long time to repair. All in all, that had to have been a 45-minute period break.
Marty Turco breaking the NCAA wins mark, with the tally kept on one end of the rink. As a side note, anybody else remember the totally rad old-school scoreboards that used to be in the endzones? Yost pre-renovation was a radically different place than it is today.
I wish I could remember more specific years for stuff, I've been going to games at Yost since 1993 or 4 and they all kind of blend together.
There was also another game against MSU (I think) when during the song 'If you cant get into college, go to State" where we listed every other university in Michigan as an alternative to going to State. The chant went on for a few minutes as we literally came up with every college higher than the JCs.
I was a student and had season tickets for the Cockburn years, it's one of my fondest memories of college.
The guys in my area also added Cockburn to the end of the C-Ya chant for a while there. Didn't really take on with the rest of the student section, but the 8 or so of us giggled like little girls every time.
add "dick" to all of the chants that had "suck" in them, i.e. the mom phone call, and the goal count. Very childish, but if I can't be a child there, where can I be a child. I think they call us the children of Yost for a reason. So many good times.
...all season really, but two moments stand out. First was a midseason game vs. ND, when we went down 0-2 real quickly but battled back, dominating play in the 3rd period and Louie put home the GWG with about 25 seconds in the 3rd. The loudest I've ever heard the place, easily.
Next was game 1 of our CCHA playoff series vs. UNO that year, when we won 10-1 and managed to score against all three goalies on that roster. I look forward to a repeat of that this upcoming season.
Hooooooomer...D'OH! People in the first row actually held up "D'OH" signs.
Some of my favorites:
2003 regionals
Every game wth Al Montoya
Drunk guys yelling at Chris Tamer to "Get out there and fu*#king hit somebody!"
When the chant was simply, "C'ya...Asshole!"
Making fun of Cowie, because his name is Cowie
Seeing a Hanson brother
My first game at Yost. I had no idea of the craziness I was getting myself into.
My first game was in 92-93; I had a friend from out of town visiting and hockey tickets were easy to get last minute.
I didn't know squat about hockey; my friend had never seen Michigan play but had seen a lot of college games. His pre-game orientation chat with me was mainly along the lines of, "Keep in mind, college hockey is nothing like pro hockey. There's a lot less fighting."
Well. Little did we know that the opponent that night was a team of goons from University of Illinois Chicago (this was back when they still had a team, obviously). I don't know why they even bothered bringing sticks on the ice--their fists were clearly their preferred equipment.
So most of the game was spent with my friend saying "Wow. I've never been to a game like this." and assuring me that, honestly, most college games aren't like this. No idea what the penalty minutes added up to, but they had to have been substantial.
I was just thinking about this. My first game at Yost was against Michigan State, I think it was the '93-4 season. This was when MSU had Anson Carter. My dad took me after months of badgering him to get tickets to a game. So we go to Yost. When we went to walk up the stairs to our seats, the usher said to us "If it gets too rough up there, let me know, I can find you different seats." My dad, who was also at his first Michigan hockey game after decades of football and basketball, looked at her like she was nuts. What could possibly happen?
Well, we get up to our seats, they're right around the blue line opposite the student section. We're sitting next to two pretty zany guys, both of whom have both t-shirts AND posters emblazoned with the following, along with pictures:
"HEY ANSON, HOW'S THE HERPES?"
And proceeded to yell at Anson Carter about it the entire game. "DO THEY HURT? DO THEY HURT, ANSON?"
As an 8 year old kid, this was the coolest thing in the universe. For my dad, yeah, he was horrified.
We got season tickets the next year.
In 08-09, there were 2-3 NMU players in the box at one point and someone started a "YOO-PER OR-GY" chant
and on a slightly mushier note I met my boyfriend there and we started dating between the last NMU and ND games in the regular season.