The Dog Pound is not an exclusive club. The only membership requirements of Boston University’s cheering section are being a student or alum of BU, and attending a sporting event here and there. In a school with roughly 18,000 undergraduates and top-ranked hockey teams, it would seem like a pretty big part of campus culture, but it isn’t. But behind the fiercely loyal members, which totals approximately 200 this year, are four dedicated Terriers leading the pack.
None of the leaders came from big hockey backgrounds, and yet hockey is what united them. Timmy Lagos, a junior from New York, grew up playing baseball and basketball, and watching football. Veronica Little, a senior from New Jersey, knew nothing about hockey when she moved to Boston, as did Anna Takahashi, a senior from California, but both had an interest in sports. Shannon Keane, a junior from Georgia, was the only one of the four leaders of this year’s Dog Pound to actually have been a hockey fan prior to enrolling at BU.
“I love sports. Growing up, I played every sport, I watched every sport. I grew up in the south, and not going to a college football school and not having a big spirit group was kind of shocking. I remember somebody turning to me once and going, ‘Does BU have a football team?’ and I go, ‘Yeah, they just play on ice and wear skates,’” she said.
Though they’re boisterous in BU’s Agganis and Walter Brown Arenas, at the Roof and in Case Gym, elsewhere, they’re a surprisingly laid back bunch. Sporting varying degrees of BU paraphernalia, from a simple hoodie to the highly coveted (and costly) BU hockey jerseys, most of their friends are fellow Dog Pounders.
Inside Agganis on a frigid Friday night in November, The Dog Pound is assembled ahead of the 7:30 men’s Hockey East game against the University of Maine. They’ve taken their place in section 118, directly behind the goal. Timmy tends to the giant scarlet BU flag which lays at his feet, while Shannon circulates copies of the Dirty Laundry List, which the four compiled the previous day.
The Dirty Laundry List is one of The Dog Pound’s traditions, a list of quippy, sometimes inappropriate jokes about the opposing team, along with a run down of the main cheers. After the run down of Maine’s goalies, which includes a player named Sean Romeo, it says, “Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou a sieve?” It’s almost too easy. Elsewhere on the evening’s list is a low-down on Bananas, the opposing team’s unfortunately named mascot, “who looks like a Build-A-Bear reject.”
Shannon said they usually print off about 200 copies for each men’s hockey game and they almost always run out. It’s not hard to see why — section 118, though half occupied by the BU Pep Band, is almost completely full, a sea of scarlet and white. Directly across the way, in section 108, the student section is also quite full, though some dark red seats remain unoccupied.
Despite the fact that they infrequently hang out outside of games, they spend plenty of time together on a weekly basis. “We try to go to all of the games each week, usually 4 or 5,” Timmy said. And it’s not just men’s hockey—currently ranked number one in the nation—that they’re going to. Admittedly, though, it is each of their favorite sport on campus. Amongst themselves and their fellow Dog Pounders, they attend men’s and women’s hockey and basketball games regularly, squeezing in events that “require recognition,” such as the soccer and lacrosse league championship games, as Shannon put it.
It might not be a fair distribution of cheering, but it’s what’s worked for The Dog Pound since it was founded in 1972. What they are part of is bigger than themselves. It extends to a locally based group of alumni, who were in The Dog Pound when they were students, now ironically known as the AARP. “It’s kind of like a mini community,” Shannon said.
On the ice, BU’s mascot, a Boston Terrier named Rhett, skates around the rink, clad in a BU jersey, throwing his hands in the air, encouraging the crowd to get loud. As the pre-game clock winds down, he does a few laps with a twin flag to the one laying at Timmy’s feet, stopping to wave it in front of The Dog Pound and the student section.
Overhead on the jumbotron, live footage shows the players leaving the locker room. As they do so, The Dog Pound stands, ready for a long night of cheering.
The opposing team is introduced to a round of boos and turned backs from section 118. After each players’ name is announced, members of The Dog Pound turn towards the ice and yell “Sucks!” When Maine’s goalie is announced, they again turn around as he skates out, and start yelling in unison “Sieve, Sieve, Sieve,” as they always do, suggesting that his goal tending skills aren’t quite up to snuff.
When the final player from Maine is introduced, the stadium darkens so that only silhouettes of players are left on the ice. BU’s starting lineup is introduced in glorius fanfare. A single spotlight shines on each player as his name echoes through the stadium and he glides to the center of the ice. In the stands, The Dog Pound erupts into cheers. Finally, Matt O’Connor, the goalie, is introduced, and the The Dog Pound collectively bows to his greatness.
All four leaders and other dedicated members of The Dog Pound admit that many of their friendships started in Agganis. “That’s where it always comes back to,” Veronica said with a smile. The senior knows her time is winding down, but she also plans to stay involved beyond graduation. “It stays in the family, if you’re in the area,” she said, noting her plans to remain in Boston.
This year, they’re making a concerted effort to increase participation, and support for BU athletics. For the first time ever, The Dog Pound was present at Splash—an annual kickoff event the first weekend on campus where student groups gather on, appropriately, Nickerson Field, attempting to lure in new students. Being an unofficial group, there was no precedent in the past for The Dog Pound to be present. However, this year, administration reached out and asked if they wanted a table. They took the opportunity, and like many of the other campus clubs, tried to recruit freshmen.
It’s a tough ask to get freshmen to commit to an organization, or even pique their interest, when the main event, hockey, doesn’t start for nearly two months into the school year. What’s more, current BU students aren’t even aware of the organization.
When mentioning plans to travel with The Dog Pound, Shannon and Timmy said friends had given them funny looks. During Splash, freshmen even asked if it was ok to sign up if they had pet allergies.
But for those who’ve dedicated their time to it, it’s proved to be a bit of a juggling act. Though the vast majority of their friends come from within The Dog Pound, each of the leaders admitted that it was difficult to find time to spend with their other friends who don’t attend games. Veronica takes it one step further. “I kind of use it as a test for someone to be my friend. How they react to it, if they judge me for it…we can be friends, but maybe not the best of friends,” she said, laughing.
As the puck drops over the BU logo, The Dog Pound begins its first of many cheers for the night. Alternating cheers of “Go BU!” and “Let’s go Terriers!” punctuate the sounds of skates tearing up ice and bodies being checked into the plastic guards that circle the rink. Later, cheers of “Ole, ole ole ole, ole, ole” join the mix for the duration of BU player’s penalties—in most cases, a solid two minutes. Behind them, the BU Pep Band plays tunes whenever play is stopped, attempting to rally the rest of the stadium.
There is a symbiotic relationship between the pep band and The Dog Pound. The conductor yells a “Help us out on this one,” before the band launches into “We Will Rock You.” They comply, stomping their feet and clapping their hands in time with the tune.
Early in the first period, as one of the Terriers circles by the opposing net with the puck, the group collectively leans in, only to utter a sigh as the puck misses. Maine scores twice and a slew of expletives issues from some nearby fans.
Still down 0–2 at the end of the second period, one man in the section says, “Whatever’s happening, I don’t like it. It’s very un-Terrier like,” with an authority that suggests he’s sat through a good number of games.
Balancing school with traveling to away games is sometimes difficult. Especially when there are things like math exams and papers lurking. Though they’d rather be in the arena, sometimes they’re forced to trade the ice for an old fashioned library carol. But it still consumes a great deal of their time.
“The amount of time I’ve spent planning things for The Dog Pound, talking about The Dog Pound, going to Dog Pound things, hanging out with Dog Pound people—that’s pretty much everything, but in a good way,” Veronica said. “Men’s hockey games — it kills me to miss any. I have to be at all of them.” The others share similar sentiments. “It’s kind of become who we are,” Anna remarked of her nearly four years as a member.
Shannon will even game-hop in a single night. “I’ve been known to go to part of a game and then on to the next one because I don’t want to not go to one of them,” she said. But when she’s not spending time with The Dog Pound, Shannon can be seen taking tours around campus and pointing out BU athletics trivia, or at weekly Monday Night Football viewings.
Timmy plays club basketball at FitRec, and both Veronica and Anna work at the Agganis box office. Veronica even used to be a member of the BU Pep Band, but left when she wanted more time cheering in the stands and on the road. Somehow, even their non-Dog Pound interests surround the small part of campus where athletics take place. They are the embodiment of what it means to “bleed scarlet.”
Despite being down for most of the game, 118 is the only section in the entire stadium that remains standing through all three periods, only sitting once the players have left the ice. There’s a palpable energy there, a current that seems to move through each person and on to the next. When BU scores in the third period, everybody erupts into loud cheers. One man is hoisted into the air and passed along part of his row in celebration.
As BU scores again, tying the game, the same man is again hoisted into the air, and the sounds from 118 are little more than a deafening roar. The clock winds down, marking the end of the third period, and in the few minutes before overtime, high fives and smiles are exchanged.
Two minutes and 20 seconds into overtime, Jack Eichel scores, putting an end to the game, and propelling BU to an unlikely victory. Around the stadium, there is an instant sense of relief. Dog Pound members reach out and hug one another, dancing in the stands and slapping backs. Around them, Agganis empties quickly, as the more fair-weather fans file out, leaving behind discarded Pepsi cups and nacho containers.
Several minutes after the victory, the stadium is quiet, except for section 118. The BU Pep Band raises their instruments for a final time that night and begins playing the victory song: “Hey Baby (I wanna know).” Together, The Dog Pound sings the words, clapping their hands and swaying back and forth. When the song ends, they finally leave the quiet rink and head around the corner to Raising Cane’s, where they’ll spend some time relishing the win over chicken fingers and french fries with their fellow Terrier fans.
For Timmy, Shannon, Anna and Veronica, it’s just another Friday night at Agganis, and this one happened to be a pretty good one. Being a BU fan over the past three years hasn’t always been easy. Regardless, they continue their support.
Whether it’s driving four hours to Maine and back in one night, walking the three-plus miles from BU to BC because the T isn’t running, or flying to Wisconsin in the middle of winter, The Dog Pound and its constituency are a group unto themselves. Regardless of the team’s ranking or win-loss ratio, they aren’t there just to be there. They don’t gather for the love of a singular sport. They gather because something intangible drew them all together, an entity that is bigger than each individual.
