NCAA Football General Nhl

So a guy named Mike attended his first hockey game on Saturday, and he chose to break his maiden on one hell of an evening: The Wheeling Nailers' "Shred Rodriguez Night," which was the ECHL franchise's tribute to turncoat West Virginia University coach Rich Rodriguez, who according to the team "took the time to shred every file in his WVU office before departing to become the head coach at the University of Michigan." While Mike was disappointed to discover there wouldn't be any blood geysers from self-shredding accidents -- the team shredded any Rodriguez documents brought in by fans, as well as photos of the coach handed out at the door -- there were other forms of protest that caught his attention:

During the 2nd intermission, Spike and Buck entertained the crowd and then they did this promotion for a local Italian Restaurant in which people who previously purchased foam pucks could throw them onto the ice and the closest to landing in the center (which was Rich Rod's face) won a free meal. Very cool promotion. Also during that second intermission, a blimp and hot air balloon they fly around the arena attempted to shred a picture of Rich Rodriguez that was attached to the blimp using the propellers from the hot air balloon. Sadly, they were only able to shred his crotch...take that for what you will.

Check out Open Mike for great coverage of the evening with some interesting photos, and then consider the subtle differences between this promotion and the Florida Panthers' "flat-screens-for-Luongo-goals" promotion last week; like, for example, the difference between a community fighting back against a guy who screwed it and a team that screwed itself battling memories of having instigated perhaps the worst trade in hockey history. There is one glaring similarity, though: Both promotions belong in the bush leagues.

Previously on FanHouse:
West Virginia Just Can't Let Go

Following in the footsteps of the pathetic legal battle between Texas A&M and the Seattle Seahawks over the use of the term, "12th Man", it looks as if the Phoenix Coyotes and Penn State University are going to be headed to court over the use of "White Out".

God save us all from lawyers with nothing better to do. From the Daily Collegian:

This football season, a trademark held by the national hockey team the Phoenix Coyotes nearly blacklisted Penn State's use of the term "White Out."

Lucky for Lions fans, Penn State found some gray area.

"We have applied to protect the phrase 'Penn State White Out' in connection with the promotion of fan participation and involvement in collegiate athletic events," said Greg Myford, associate athletic director of marketing. "Penn State intends to register the phrase for protection on a national level."

But "White Out" is not originally a Nittany namesake.

In fact, Steve Weinreich, vice president of general counsel for the Phoenix Coyotes, said that any variation on the term for marketing purposes is "in violation of the law," restricting certain posters, advertisements and garments around campus.

For those of you unfamiliar with the origin of the term, the "Winnipeg White Out" came into being during the 1987 NHL Playoffs when the Winnipeg Jets -- the team now known as the Phoenix Coyotes -- faced the Calgary Flames. Wanting to come up with their own answer to the "sea of red" worn by Calgary fans at their home playoff games, the Jets responded by asking their fans to wear white to their home playoff games.

Subsequently, the Jets eliminated Calgary in five games that year, and a new tradition was born -- albeit one that is only observed sporadically as the Jets/Coyotes make playoff appearances about as often as a solar eclipse.

Earlier today at the Fanhouse, Michael David Smith pointed to the story about how Louisville Courier-Journal reporter Brian Bennett was tossed out of the press box at an NCAA regional baseball playoff game for blogging about it in real time -- something he had done without incident through the rest of his coverage of Louisville's playoff run to the College World Series.

When I first read about this story, I was disappointed but not surprised. After all, I covered 35 NHL games this past season from the press box at the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C. and I never intentionally liveblogged a word. Most nights, I would start off with a few pre-game posts during warmups before going dark with the drop of the puck. For the rest of the game, I would continue to live blog, but wouldn't publish anything until after the game was over -- most nights, if there wasn't any trouble with the arena's Wi-Fi connection, that meant we had the first account of the game available on the Web.

Meanwhile, down at ice level, one of my photographers would take a break from shooting in between periods to post photos to the Web, just like any other photo agency does through Yahoo Sports. In addition, I'd also publish a post game update if I was able to get anything interesting out of the locker room or the coach's press conference, and maybe insert a couple of photos directly into the text.

Why did I go to all that trouble? Because before I ever climbed in the press box, I was well aware of the restrictions that the NHL, like other sports leagues, places on real-time accounts of games in progress. After all, what red-blooded American kid can't recite the following line from memory:

Any rebroadcast, reproduction, or other use of the pictures and accounts of this game without the express written consent of Major League Baseball is prohibited.

I've been hearing that standard disclaimer for as long as I can remember, and it's funny how it's still covers all the bases today even with all the changes in technology in the decades since then. So why does the NCAA have its undies in a bunch about this? After all, what could the harm be of allowing somebody to liveblog from the press box the same way any other pajama-clad blogger could from home?

As Michael David Smith mentioned on NCAA Basketball FanHouse, Ashley Judd is officially a graduate of the University of Kentucky, with a bachelor's degree in French. (There was a time when the words "Ashley Judd" and "degree in French" would have garnered squeals of adolescent glee from many an admiring gentleman. I believe that time is commonly referred to as "1996.")

With this great accomplishment in mind, what a perfect time to revisit perhaps the greatest contribution Judd has made both to University of Kentucky athletics and to the collective memory of male hockey fans: her 1998-99 schedule poster for the UK hockey team.



Take another look...amazing, isn't it? I mean, the fact that they were willing to call her an "alumnus" even before she graduated.

UK Hockey has gone on to publish several more schedule posters featuring the greatest additions to the hockey sweater since the invention of the fighting strap. Elisha Cuthbert, please take notes -- less blogging, more posing for schedule posters. Although I think I know which jersey you might model in -- and what a turn-off that would be.