Just for nostalgia sake, back in the early 70’s there was a gas shortage (remember?), and UNH shutdown for a month between semesters, but the hockey team, having to stick around, freshman and those still living in campus were moved into Babcock, with all of us living in a lounge area, sleeping on cots!! There were about 12 of us in the lounge, with Barney Buppert, a backup goalie in charge(a mistake in itself)….we spent most nights Down Under during the break, which at that time had all the peanuts you could eat for free, with shells, with permission, going onto the floor! Beers were $.10 for Happy Hour!! Honest to God!
One night DU, somehow both hockey and football teams,(enough football players to even the numbers) got into it, quite intensely! Captain Mike Burkhart grabbed my arm and was screaming that we had to get out quick, for any hockey player caught, Coach Holt would surely boot his butt from the team! Sounds innocent enough now but we had had a few other incidents that winter elsewhere….(something about a fire extinguisher thrown down onto a police car….a mailbox run over…)
Remember, only athletic teams were living on campus….so we had a lot of excess time on our hands! “Idol hands….!”
Great story, zoofer!
. Was that semester break 73/74? I was in Orono for grad school 1972/73-73/74 (only a club team playing on an outdoor rink along the Stillwater River there then) and remember the long lines at gas stations the summer of 1973, which led to a huge surge of students majoring in geology, lasting until the early 1980s when the oil glut led to a crash in oil exploration jobs. But I returned to Durham a few times during those two years when I could find friends with vehicles in Orono and they all wanted to visit the DU after hearing about it from me. And, I remember the peanut shells on the floor, sometimes several inches deep.
Last edited:
