A fan once said, “Being a UMass fan is like watching your dog run away forever” UMass sports fans of the last 20 years have been let down time and time again. Every time a team seems like they are good, they'll drop a stinker, or let the fans down one way or another. Nowhere was this more true than in hockey. The hockey team was ever the doormat in Hockey East, one of the best collegiate hockey leagues in the country. A visit to the Mullins Center was rarely a challenge for visiting teams. Until this season...
- Katelyn Burns
Freelance journalist and podcast host
What we’ll remember about this fandom a decade from now
In 2016, a new coach, Greg Carvel, was brought in, and the culture around the team started to change. Even in his loss-filled first year, there were signs of improvement, and then everything came together in a run to the Frozen Four and national championship game in 2019 with Hobey Baker Award winner and current Colorado Avalanche phenom Cale Makar. The program's new mantra, NewMass, was so palpable that even the most stone-hearted cynics in a fanbase full of cynics started to buy in.
Best fan moment of the year
Going into the 2020-21 season, the conventional wisdom was that without Makar, the team would take a step back. Instead the team won its first national title. The dog finally came back home.