Washburn 2018: A Game Changer
St. Thomas University’s annual Washburn Cup took a turn this year as a new ‘no fighting’ rule was set in place. The Washburn Cup is a tradition held at STU where upper and lower campus residences form rag tag hockey teams and battle it out for the glory of the Washburn title.
Students come with signs and spirit to cheer on their teams. The event, run by students and for students, gives an opportunity for the STU community to show some spirit while watching a good old fashioned hockey game.
“I’m not gonna lie to you,” says second year student Mary Cronin,“I live off campus so I’m going to cheer for whoever’s winning.”
As part of the Washburn tradition, the final period of the game is usually filled with referees’ whistles. Players dedicate the ending of the game to squaring up with their friends and getting into a wholesome hockey fight.
As the game went on, the cheers became louder and every shove and push on the ice excited the crowd even more. Many students like Cronin were anticipating the final period; “I’m hoping to see some fist fights, like a lot of fist fights”. Others, like first year student and upper campus coach Tanner Anderson wanted to focus on his team having fun rather than fighting.
“It’s gonna be a good game, hopefully no fighting, we’re gonna try to keep that down as much as possible and everything’s gonna carry on Canada.”
Some students, like Hillary Latham a player for the Upper Campus team, feel that, although there’s more to hockey than just fighting, the fighting is what keeps people coming back, “I know that when a lot of people go, all they want to see is fighting”.
Despite the debate, and the booing from the crowd, many students, like Lexi Handrahan who had never been to a Washburn game before, had fun without the fights. “I wasn’t looking too good there at the start, but we did alright” says Handrahan who scored a goal for her upper campus team. “It was pretty good. I was surprised, I’m pretty sure the guy who passed it to me was more surprised than I was”
The Washburn cup now resides in Harrington Hall as the victors of this year’s game. Whether or not the crowd really needs to see a fight is still debated among the students but the excitement for next year’s game, fighting or not, hung in the air as people left the arena.
