ORONO, Maine — Members of the University of Maine men’s hockey team knew they would be wearing a special jersey for last Friday night’s home game against Vermont and it would be commemorating the school’s 150th anniversary.
They didn’t get to see them until they came to the locker room following pre-game warmups during which they wore their traditional home white jerseys.
The players fell in love with the light blue jersey, which featured a logo with three flags inside a crest on the front of it. The top of the crest had “Maine” written in white within a dark background, the three plain light-colored flags were in the middle and there was a small dark triangle at the bottom.
They were designed by UMaine equipment manager Kevin Ritz and his former college roommate, Chris Violette.
The Black Bears wound up sweeping the Catamounts 3-2 and 4-1 for their first two wins of the season after eight losses and three ties.
Many athletes are a bit superstitious and, not surprisingly, the Black Bear players are hoping to be wearing the blue jerseys again this weekend when 2-6 Princeton University of the ECAC invades Alfond Arena for Friday and Saturday night games.
“Even after last Friday night’s game, the guys were saying, ‘Let’s stick with these jerseys,’” said senior alternate captain Conor Riley. “I don’t think we were supposed to wear them on Saturday night but we asked [head coach Red Gendron] if we could and he said yes.”
“We thought there was going to be a black bear head on the front but that [three flags] symbol is pretty cool. We’d like to wear them every game and see how it goes,” Riley added.
The three flags inside the crest represent the Orono campus’ flagship status and symbolizes its mission of teaching, research and public service.
“We have some pretty superstitious guys out there so we would sure love to keep wearing them,” said junior right wing Brady Campbell. “I like the logo. It mixes things up a little bit. There are different colors out there. It looks good.”
Campbell and sophomore center Cedric Lacroix said Gendron gave the team a talk before last Friday night’s game about the university’s history and the meaning of the crest and logo.
“It was pretty cool to know that the school has that much history behind it. We’re very fortunate to be a part of it,” said Lacroix.
“They look great and we played great in them. It works for me,” said senior goalie Matt Morris, who backstopped the two victories. “When I first saw them, I thought, ‘Wow, these are sharp.’ We were pretty excited for the game.”
Freshman left wing Dane Gibson thinks they should keep wearing them as long as they keep winning. He was also impressed with them.
“The light color and the logos are so cool, as is the fact it’s the 150th anniversary of the school,” he said.
Ritz said there wouldn’t be any kind of color clash this weekend because Princeton’s colors are orange and black and they will be wearing their black jerseys.
But he expects the jerseys to be available just through the calendar year because there’s “no sense” wearing them in 2016, since that represents the 151st year of the school’s existence.
He added that he was pleased to see fans wearing the jerseys.
“I counted 15 of them,” he said.
Gendron will make a decision Friday on what jerseys will be worn.