In late January, I went up to Troy, New York to attend RPI's 43rd annual Big Red Freakout. I've never been to RPI's campus before that weekend.
Luckily, I was able to get behind-the-scenes access for the entire weekend thanks to RPI SID Perry Laskaris. (I was also on WRPI with Perry during Friday's second intermission.) This was my favorite feature to write during the year, and one I hope to follow up on with more behind-the-scenes stories. These types of features don't often happen in college hockey. Given how important a community is with the sport, this feels all the more important right now.
Big thanks to College Hockey, Inc. for publishing.
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Owen Savory stands alone. The RPI sophomore goaltender, the lone player not on the blue line for the Canadian and American national anthems, prefers to be close to his net.
By now it’s tradition. He was not 100% sure what to do during his first start. Savory stayed back, being there for the rest of the Engineers after the starting lineups were announced.
RPI won that night. So it stuck.
On this night though, he’s not alone. Not this night. From the moment RPI came out in road red sweaters for warmups against Vermont, hundreds of standing home fans lined the glass to cheer on the Engineers. That includes nearly 60 returning alumni from the program, many of whom skated on the Houston Field House ice hours earlier. The cheers and European-style atmosphere does not let up until Savory leaves the ice to end the game, concluding a weekend tradition nearly a half century in the making.
“It’s unbelievable, the vibe around our room during the day and the alumni around. You could shake their hands and see the impact they had on the program,” said Savory. “I think when you skate out there for the anthem and the whole crowd yells ‘RED,’ that’s for our whole team. It gives us chills and that’s why we sacrifice because they did a long time ago.”
Welcome to The Big Red Freakout – part party, part reunion, part celebration of all things Engineers hockey – a night that serves as the biggest event of the home hockey calendar.
You can read the rest of the feature here: http://collegehockeyinc.com/articles/2020/03/experience-the-freakout.php
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