Wednesday, March 01, 2006

Brokeback Falcon

The average sports fan in Omaha probably wouldn't name Bowling Green as a rival. Heck, most aren't even aware where the heck Bowling Green is.

And when UNO applied to join the CCHA, they certainly weren't a rival.

But something happened along the way. Namely, Scott Hewson decided to goon up the Civic Auditorium and "welcome" the Mavs to the CCHA back in the 1998-99 season. And the rivalry was on.

The rivalry intensified in the Mavs inaugural season in the 2000 CCHA playoffs "play-in game" when UNO defeated Bowling Green to qualify for the CCHA semi-finals in a game forever memorialized as "Tuesday Night"; quite possibly the loudest sporting event ever held at the Civic Auditorium.

Then last year, 7 Bowling Green players were suspended after a team hazing incident where a teammate was photographed naked with profanity and racial slurs written across the victim's body. They were reinstated just in time to play UNO. Hence, the birth of the "Where's my Sharpie???" chant.

Remembering 5 years back to that memorable run, it featured defeating Bowling Green in Omaha, and Northern Michigan in Marquette, MI en route to the Joe Louis Arena and the CCHA semi-finals. Will history repeat itself?

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