These last four years have seen a good number of fantastic sporting events. Some of these matches have featured crazy, come-from-behind victories, heart-breaking losses or the occasional blow-out of another team.
The best game I ever saw in my four years was the 2007 ECAC Women's Ice Hockey championship between Dartmouth and St. Lawrence University, which the Big Green won 7-3 to claim the ECAC tournament title to go along with its earlier ECAC regular season and Ivy League titles.
What made this game the best? I think there were three key elements.
The first was domination. Dartmouth simply crushed St. Lawrence, jumping to a 3-0 lead in the first period. Katie Weatherston '06 put up a hat trick, and it seemed like every other Dartmouth skater got in on a goal or an assist.
This domination was only made sweeter by the backstory. Just over a month earlier, the Big Green had a come-from behind victory at home against St. Lawrence. Gillian Apps '06 scored the tying goal with just 18 seconds left in the game. Apps then scored the game winner in overtime.
This was the second key element in making this game a great one. St. Lawrence came in looking for revenge, and simply got crushed beneath the sheer awesomeness of Dartmouth women's hockey team.
The third, and at least from a spectator's perspective, most important element, was the big home crowd. There were over 2,100 fans at this game, many of whom were pumped up to see the Big Green lay down a proper shellacking.
As I was trying to decide what my favorite game at Dartmouth has been, I realized that they all featured this element of crowd participation. Having a large, boisterous house is what makes the Dartmouth-Princeton men's hockey game such a great tradition. Throwing tennis balls at the Princeton goalie is awesome by itself, but the reason it needs to continue despite Safety and Security pat downs and public address system warnings about possible disciplinary actions is because it brings out the best about Dartmouth sports fans. They show up in their boisterous best, but more importantly, they show up in droves.
So, dear reader, I'll offer you this one long winded bit of advice: Go to sports games, and not just men's basketball, lacrosse or baseball. Check out women's hockey, go watch a football game, take in a soccer game or even a tennis match.
Actually, there's a bit of an addendum to this advice. Once you go to a game, be loud, be crude, maybe even hold up slightly ridiculous sign. Because in the end, no matter what the ultimate outcome, all the great games I have seen at Dartmouth have had one thing in common: the presence of a good, loud crowd watching the game. Without spectators, the efforts of so many talented Big Green athletes would go unheralded.
