To get a ticket for this weekend's NCAA quarterfinal series, you essentially had get right in line last Saturday night after UMD best the hated Gophers of the University of Minnesota proper.
Tickets went on sale Monday morning--two bitter cold nights later.
Some people who spent only one night out on the street in the Minnesota winter were accommodated but not all.
MTV here is punctuated by ads for Tim and Larry's Sports Cards, featuring a 30-card set of hockey cards, featuring all the Bulldogs.
Since UMD plays at the Duluth Arena (it has no rink on campus) and since there is nothing else happening here, no other sports and little appreciable culture, the community finds its communal satisfaction watching the Dogs.
Home games this year were 99.6 percent sold out, with a couple of contests against Northern Arizona and Alaska Fairbanks falling a few dozen fans short of the 5639-seat capacity of the Arena.
Hundreds of citizens figured out an angle on tickets and called Harvard to order them through the Harvard Ticket Office, which means the Crimson rooting section will have 250 fans, 200 backing UMD.
This weekend's games will be televised by the local NBC affiliate, which has covered almost all Bulldog road games this year and some of the home contests as well.
The television deal ensures that riots don't break out in the ticket lines.
At Harvard the lack of support for the hockey team is sometimes frustrating. Neither of the FCAC quarterfinal games at Bright sold out, and RPI produced twice as many fans at the Boston Garden than the Crimson did.
However, it is the richness of the Harvard community that fosters the disinterest.
Here, hockey is king and it is more than a little disturbing As wonderful a sport as it is, it is eerie to see over 100,000 people be up their fate in 20 local heroes of UMD.
And pathetic to see a town so consumed over so little.
There are no town-gown squabbles here.
In Cambridge, the University fights with the Cantabridgians over turf and the fruits of the city.
In Duluth, there aren't any such struggles.
There isn't anything-but admission to a Bulldog hockey game--left to fight over.