The private schools of Bowdoin College and Colby College seem to have quite a bit in common when you compare them from the outside. Both are small exclusive schools, with less than 2,000 students and an acceptance rate on the challenging side. Each school is located in a small town in Maine, Waterville and Brunswick, which themselves are not very different. And both will have celebrated their bicentennials by the end of this school year.
Maybe that’s why the schools are in such a feud. As if the put an exclamation point on that fact, the men’s hockey teams faced off against one another this weekend as they have done 199 times before it. The Mules and the Polar Bears have been battling it out on the ice since 1922, which makes is the longest standing rivalry in Division III hockey.
“It’s got tradition, passion, fine play and intelligent students looking to howl a bit at the end of the semester,” Bowdoin’s head coach, Terry Meagher said. “There’s an intense love of hockey in the state of Maine, and this is part of it.”
“I never go to games except the Bowdoin game,” a young female student said. “I go to the Bowdoin games because there’s fights. You’ll probably see one or two.”
When asked, on or off the rink, she replied “Both, it’s that kind of rivalry.”
It’s the type of rivalry that makes school officials think about things that only those who have experienced it will fully understand. Such as selectively choosing what kind of meals are being served on game day so it isn’t later seen being hurled onto the ice rink.
This year there was only one squid throwing incident as eighth ranked Bowdoin finished off Colby 3-1.