November might mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people, but I think we can all agree that it mostly screams out, “Fall sports Ivy championship hunt crunch time!!!!” Am I right or what? While you kick back and pat yourself on the back for getting through those midterms mostly alive, athletic Brunonians are out fighting for those elusive Ivy League titles. Let’s see how they’re doing.

[Update: Football, men's soccer, and volleyball were all eliminated from championship contention over the weekend.]

Football: While Sunday NFL Countdown host Chris Berman ’77 may have predicted big things, football’s Ivy chances took a big hit when it opened its conference schedule with decisive losses to Harvard and Princeton. Wins over Cornell and, this past weekend, Ivy-leading Penn have snuck Brown kind of back into the picture, but da Bears still need to win out against Yale, Dartmouth, and Columbia, then hope Princeton, Penn, and Harvard choke real hard. Championship chances: 5%

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Brace yourself, winter homecoming is coming! Tomorrow (Saturday, November 2) at 12:30 p.m. is Brown’s homecoming football game against Penn, and the festivities continue all weekend.

Whether you’re a die-hard Brown football fan or you’ve never been to a Brown sporting event before, this is the game to go to. The shuttles will start picking up students at multiple points across campus at 10:30 a.m. (it’s okay to wake up earlier for a tailgate than you usually do for class, right?). Support your team while keeping up the Halloweek momentum, but be sure not to burn out before SPG that night.

Homecoming weekend also features men’s hockey games tonight and tomorrow night, and both men’s and women’s soccer tomorrow (game times here). There will be t-shirt giveaways throughout the weekend, and what’s better than free stuff, sports and dayging? Get out your Brown apparel and beer hat (or beer belt) and support Bruno!

Matt Lorito ’15

Brown men’s hockey completed a 2-1 best-of-three series victory over Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (yeah, that’s what RPI stands for) with an intense 3-2 victory Sunday night, advancing to the ECAC Final Four in Atlantic City, New Jersey next Friday. Goals from Jason Goldberg ’14, Nick Lappin ’16, and Matt Lorito ’15, along with clutch goaltending by Anthony Borelli ’13, helped the Bears hold on to upset #16 RPI. For those of us who dished out ten bucks to watch the online feed, it was well worth it (driving six hours round trip last night to see us lose 6-2 in Game 2… not as much). We humbly suggest kicking your spring break off right by heading down to Atlantic City for a weekend of partying, gambling, and Brown athletics. Seriously. Why not? If you were ever going to support a Brunonian sports team, this is a pretty awesome one to pick.

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Anthony Borelli ’13

There’s nothing quite like heading out to the ol’ rink on a Saturday night for some cold hard hockey action (note: just because nothing is “quite like” it doesn’t mean there aren’t lots of things better than it). Watching a few bros bat around the puck for a few hours is the definition of fun—just waiting for the official word from Merriam Webster on that.

Jokes aside, hockey is a great sport as long as we can shit on something/somewhere called “Clarkson University” at it. Friday and Saturday, we did just that (at Pizzitola, by the way, and I hope you feel guilty if you didn’t come), giving Bruno a series sweep over the not-so-Golden Knights in the first round of the ECAC tournament. What’s the ECAC, you say? It’s our hockey conference; there is no full Ivy League in hockey because Columbia and Penn don’t field teams. (They probably spend the money required to sustain a Division-1 hockey program on pamphlets assuring prospective students that they have at least a 50% chance of not getting killed by stray bullets if they go off campus at night.) [Read more →]

If you’re feeling particularly adventurous (and aren’t planning to spend this weekend bundled up with your laptop, like I am), serious props to you! Here are a few ideas to coax you out of your dorm room and out into the Winter Wonderland that Providence is becoming.

1. American Idiot, Green Day Musical

Where: The Providence Performing Arts Center (220 Weybosset Street)
When: Friday at 7:30 p.m., Saturday at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m., Sunday at 1 p.m.
Why: Your inner 13-year-old will be overjoyed, a feeling your outer 13-year-old never had the luxury of experiencing.

Tonight is opening night of American Idiot, a musical based on the award-winning Green Day album with the same name. If the thought of Green Day brings back memories of your first middle-school crush, colorful iPod nanos, and long school bus rides, this could be just the nostalgia experience you need. And surprise! the plot is centered on suburbian teen angst. Everyone either went through that and needs to laugh about it, or never did and wishes they had. So what are you waiting for? Pull on those snowboots, call up your favorite cab driver, and head on down to the Providence Performing Arts Center tonight!

2. Mardi Gras Ball

Where: Fete Lounge, 103 Dike Street
When: Saturday Night, 8 p.m.
Why: To forget about the snow for a while and pretend you’re in New Orleans!

What’s that holiday that’s right around the corner? No, not Valentine’s day… it’s Mardi Gras! Oh, right! That wonderful day of masks, beads, indecent exposure and jazz, and you can find it all this Saturday night at Fete Lounge’s Chanteuse Mardi Gras Ball. A live band, complete with brass section, promises to keep your groove-thang shaking all night long, and according to the event page, “drunken revelry will be justly rewarded!” Haven’t you always wanted to earn those beads?

3. Providence Bruins hockey game

Where: Dunkin’ Donuts Center
When: Sunday at 3:00 p.m.
Why: To show off your Providence pride!

If you’re sick of watching college sports or want an unforgettable first date with that hot athlete who finally said “yes,” make the trek down to the Dunkin’ Donuts Center for a rough and tough hockey game. This Sunday, the Providence Bruins take on the Manchester Monarchs in what is sure to be an adrenaline-rush of a hockey game. Hundreds of screaming fans, men on ice skates, and only a hop, skip, and a jump from campus, there’s no reason not to go!

Garbutt holding up a game puck from his first ever NHL game.

Last night, another former Bear skated out onto NHL ice — Ryan Garbutt ’09 made his career debut for the Dallas Stars as they took on the Phoenix Coyotes in a 2-1 overtime loss. Pressed into service by injuries, Garbutt was only on the ice for a little under six minutes. But in that short time, he made his presence known firing three shots on goal and registering three hits.

The 26-year old Garbutt was called up to the big club from Dallas’ AHL affiliate, the Texas Stars, where he put up 33 points in 50 games. His journey to the NHL has brought him all over North America, from his home in Winnipeg to Providence to three minor leagues and finally to Dallas. At Brown, Garbutt double concentrated in economics and sociology.

Garbutt joins Aaron Volpatti ’10 of the Vancouver Canucks and Harry Zolnierczyk ’11 of the Philadelphia Flyers as Brown alums to play in the NHL this season. Volpatti played in the Canucks’ first 23 games of the season, but a torn labrum injury required surgery that has left him shelved for the remainder of the year.

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If you’re someone who watches the Super Bowl for the commercials, loses friends over the Marvel vs. DC debate, and saw High School Musical On Ice during sophomore year eighth grade, swing by the Meehan Ice Rink after the men’s hockey game for the Brown Band’s Superhero Ice Show.

Like, right now.

It’s everything you know and love about the band — scrambling, suggestive formations and tubas — but ON ICE! Why? Because everything is better on ice: from Disney movies to scotch.

If you miss it, there’s another ice show February 17 (the same night as IvyQ, making that weekend the biggest rainbow snow cone ever), but you’re still a horrible person without school spirit.

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Photos by Jonathan Bateman/Herald.

Photos by Jonathan Bateman/Herald

While you were enjoying your last week or so on break at home, the men’s ice hockey team was busy taking down the #1 college hockey team in the nation in dramatic fashion! Just a day after falling to the Bulldogs 5-2 in New Haven, Bruno enacted its revenge back in Providence on Sunday. [Read more →]