Boneyard inception?

[rw005]

20 minutes, didn't you hear?

 

[Fishy]

This is long - if anyone clicks "Quote" to reply to it, I will punch you in the throat.

I hate that.

It started as the Husky Howl on the Courant board back in like 1994 or 95.

Back then, you could go a day or two between posts.

The "anchor" posters back then were two guys with the handles RabidHusky and BadDog - Rabid is still around, I think, but the other dude dropped off a long time ago. It started to get more popular as it went along - Deepster, SuzyQ, uconnhenry, JeffK, x, Dove, Deadrody, prankster, RabidHusky, nyhuskyfan (Gurley now) a Pitt fan named 3Rivers or something are the ones I remember from those days.

Guys like EssexEd, AussieCuz, Swami, Nuzzi, DogFather, Hamster, Beakum, DoggyDaddy, Mau, IdahoHusky, IronMike (neither iron, nor Mike, btw), and people that I am certain that I am forgetting, but who should chime in and remind me, all kinda came along in the early years that followed.

(I believe Essex passed away a few years ago - he had gone into assisted living a little while after his wife passed away. What a great man. The first time I met him in person was at the first BYC - he came up to me, introduced himself, handed me a syringe of some sort and said, "A bee can kill me. If I get stung, you gotta give me this shot...if I die, it's your fault, not mine.")

I think what really built things up was the Moore/King suspension year - after every game, mostly losses, we ran through long, involved threads trying to find scenarios where UConn would make the NCAA tournament. (The fan base was most definitely not as spoiled as it is now.)

Some time after that season, I went on vacation. When I got back, I had an email from RabidHusky that basically said, "We've moved - the Courant ruined the board".

The Courant's webmaster had decided that the threaded style of the board was a resource hog and he moved it to something of a bulletin board style. People rebelled, he said go pound sand, so RabidHusky basically up and moved their entire UConn community.

At that point, for the day, we were a big group. There were a lot of websites that were putting out message boards for every topic in those days, so we just would find a UConn basketball message board and that is where we would set up shop.

And we would crash every single board - I remember that we wiped out something called CollegeInsider.com about 20 minutes after Rabid sent out a message that it was our new home. Their entire site was 404'd. We were actually asked to leave.

After a while, a guy named Frank D. decided that we needed a more permanent solution. I believe he worked for one of the networks at the time and had the ability and the inclination to set up a board for us.

Frank came up with the name "The Boneyard" and the original URL for the site, UConnfan.com. He was a busy dude, but he set the board up and let it roll.

Unfortunately, after about a year or so, we were overrun with trolls - you didn't really have to register a name back then, so someone could just post as whoever they wanted and it just became a mess.

Sometime after the season in 1998, I got an email from someone I didn't know - Tom E. - who said that he had a version of the board's script running on the web space he got from his ISP that would allow us to moderate the board and would I be interested in trying it. So for a couple of days or weeks, the two of us posted and he tinkered.

At some point, we all moved over to that board. It had some crazy URL so after a while, we decided that we should see if we could get the UConnfan.com URL. I asked Frank if he would consider giving me UConnfan.com and, by extension, the name "The Boneyard". And he did.

Funniest thing is that the guy who really created the Boneyard is still on the board and no one even notices...there's a 100% chance Frank will read this and hopefully chime in.

The board from those days through the end of our first affiliation with Rivals was probably about as good as any sports' message board could be. I doubt there was a smarter, funnier board out there.

We had a bunch of very good posters who weren't even UConn fans who simply preferred our board to their own. Beakum, the Pitt dude, some SU peeps, the FSU Nole guy, etc. It was just a great board.

Now, it's a lot of monkeys throwing s*** at the wall.

 

[OkaForPrez]

This is long.

It started as the Husky Howl on the Courant board back in like 1994 or 95.

Back then, you could go a day or two between posts.

The "anchor" posters back then were two guys with the handles RabidHusky and BadDog - Rabid is still around, I think, but the other dude dropped off a long time ago. It started to get more popular as it went along - Deepster, SuzyQ, uconnhenry, JeffK, x, Dove, Deadrody, prankster, RabidHusky, nyhuskyfan (Gurley now) a Pitt fan named 3Rivers or something are the ones I remember from those days.

Guys like EssexEd, AussieCuz, Swami, Nuzzi, DogFather, Beakum, DoggyDaddy, Mau, IdahoHusky, IronMike (neither iron, nor Mike, btw), and people that I am certain that I am forgetting, but who should chime in and remind me, all kinda came along in the early years that followed.

(I believe Essex passed away a few years ago - he had gone into assisted living a little while after his wife passed away. What a great man. The first time I met him in person was at the first BYC - he came up to me, introduced himself, handed me a syringe of some sort and said, "A bee can kill me. If I get stung, you gotta give me this shot...if I die, it's your fault, not mine.")

I think what really built things up was the Moore/King suspension year - after every game, mostly losses, we ran through long, involved threads trying to find scenarios where UConn would make the NCAA tournament. (The fan base was most definitely not as spoiled as it is now.)

Some time after that season, I went on vacation. When I got back, I had an email from RabidHusky that basically said, "We've moved - the Courant ruined the board".

The Courant's webmaster had decided that the threaded style of the board was a resource hog and he moved it to something of a bulletin board style. People rebelled, he said go pound sand, so RabidHusky basically up and moved their entire UConn community.

At that point, for the day, we were a big group. There were a lot of websites that were putting out message boards for every topic in those days, so we just would find a UConn basketball message board and that is where we would set up shop.

And we would crash every single board - I remember that we wiped out something called CollegeInsider.com about 20 minutes after Rabid sent out a message that it was our new home. Their entire site was 404'd. We were actually asked to leave.

After a while, a guy named Frank D. decided that we needed a more permanent solution. I believe he worked for one of the networks at the time and had the ability and the inclination to set up a board for us.

Frank came up with the name "The Boneyard" and the original URL for the site, UConnfan.com. He was a busy dude, but he set the board up and let it roll.

Unfortunately, after about a year or so, we were overrun with trolls - you didn't really have to register a name back then, so someone could just post as whoever they wanted and it just became a mess.

Sometime after the season in 1998, I got an email from someone I didn't know - Tom E. - who said that he had a version of the board's script running on the web space he got from his ISP that would allow us to moderate the board and would I be interested in trying it. So for a couple of days or weeks, the two of us posted and he tinkered.

At some point, we all moved over to that board. It had some crazy URL so after a while, we decided that we should see if we could get the UConnfan.com URL. I asked Frank if he would consider giving me UConnfan.com and, by extension, the name "The Boneyard". And he did.

Funniest thing is that the guy who really created the Boneyard is still on the board and no one even notices...there's a 100% chance Frank will read this and hopefully chime in.

The board from those days through the end of our first affiliation with Rivals was probably about as good as any sports' message board could be. I doubt there was a smarter, funnier board out there.

We had a bunch of very good posters who weren't even UConn fans who simply preferred our board to their own. Beakum, the Pitt dude, some SU peeps, the FSU Nole guy, etc. It was just a great board.

Now, it's a lot of monkeys throwing s*** at the wall.

Thanks for the full history. As my handle would indicate I started lurking/posting in '03. It's cool to hear the origins before that. Since we're documenting the history, interested to hear the origins of mojo hangin's. Jurrrrrdge? swami?

 

[Fishy]

Thanks for the full history. As my handle would indicate I started lurking/posting in '03. It's cool to hear the origins before that. Since we're documenting the history, interested to hear the origins of mojo hangin's. Jurrrrrdge? swami?

I have to punch you in the throat.

The mojo hangings started in the championship year.

The board had a bracket challenge on ESPN - everyone, I mean everyone, took UConn to win the title. Except a poster called DogFather - I think there was the potential to win a pizza for the high scorer and he figured Duke would give him the best chance.

So we had a trial. Obviously, it worked mojo-wise, so we kept doing it.

DogFather also forgot his wife as he drove to the next hole at the first BYC. He once posted a question about whether it was bad if his son drank 'a little bleach'....Kenny is a force of nature.

 

[kobebeanbryant]

whatever became of makersmuppet?

he who must not be named?

 

[CAHUSKY]

I remember something called uconnbball forum or something like that back in the late 90s or early 00s. Was that an early incarnation? It wasn't a website and if I recall you signed up and all messages were sent out via email to all of the members. It seems to me that that group somehow led me here.

 

[RoderickSpode]

I know i just admitted I once watched on VHS tapes, but I don't want to be considered an old timer just yet. We did have Cinemax's Friday After Dark back then too (which was also known as Shannon Tweed's Greatest Hits). We weren't looking at nude paintings on cave walls.

So you're nyhuskyfan? The same nyhuskyfan who used to be on the CBS college bball board in the late 90s? I got in with that crowd (of mixed allegiances from all across the country) and accompanied them to their new home, but didn't know about the Boneyard until around 10 years ago.

 

[Fishy]

I remember something called uconnbball forum or something like that back in the late 90s or early 00s. Was that an early incarnation? It wasn't a website and if I recall you signed up and all messages were sent out via email to all of the members. It seems to me that that group somehow led me here.

That was Brett Rabideau's UConn mailing list - I don't know when she started it, but it predated the Boneyard and was a good deal more popular for a while. Not sure what ever happened to it.

 

[dsturdy5]

I found this place circa 2001 after much posting on the ESPN boards for about a year. I don't remember who, but someone would come over there pimping the Boneyard so I decided to give it a try. Best decision I ever made on a sports board.

 

[jleves]

That was Brett Rabideau's UConn mailing list - I don't know when she started it, but it predated the Boneyard and was a good deal more popular for a while. Not sure what ever happened to it.

I spent a ton of time on the uconnbball mailing list. That was really active in the early to mid 90s. I don't remember when I found the boneyard exactly, but I do know soon after I joined, Tom and Fishy asked me if I might happen to have any extra memory laying around for their server that was being overtaxed. I think just before the move to Rivals. Mid 90s?

 

[cts]

I didn't hear about the boneyard until I moved out of CT in '97, but I've followed them through their various iterations since. I don't post much though. I was, however, in the chat room when "fort the ead" became the rallying cry.

That was the UMass game where we scored 15 points in the first half and Rashad had his breakout game, right? I wish I could remember when I first found the Boneyard. I used to post here and there - just a lurker now! Where were we before the first Rivals again?

 

[Dann]

my dad has lurked this place from the courant days and so on from there. hes always a lurker. i came home from college years ago and i was watching a uconn game and brought up the site. he couldnt believe i was in the game thread or w/e chatting and we talked about it for a while. i then went on to make him a user name and got him going trying to get him to fianlly get involved 2 years later. at the time i was a user with a few posts on scout. when i finally got him set up on scout it was after kemba and muppet. it took years of talking to him. it was funny. i got in trouble with nan because i used my laptop so my ips were the same for both users. my dad made like 3 posts and then gave it up. he still lurks.

my dads favorite story about this place is some aprils fools day joke that happened years ago. i forget what it was, i'll have to ask him. i guess it was a big funny deal at the time.

once a year threads like this and ct pizza and so on happen. usually during the offseason. but considering this year these threads have been more popular in season. is what it is. i like reading about all the old time BY'ers. i thinkw hats lacking in these threads that rarely happen tho is expalining to all the newer posters why we are here today and no on the scout and rival type sites. i think a good amount here know but a lot of the new blood doesn't so that also crosses a lot minds at times on here. then posters can sjhape there own opinions more about here and elsewhere but atleast they are honest opinions.

 

[SallyH]

Well, I still don't post a lot, but in the early days mojo mattered. There were the wings and the sacred rolling rocks, and I had this little notebook I carried with various lists, and I used to keep fouls during the dream season (try that these days, where they never tell you who commits the fouls), where we had to try to foul the opponents bigs out (Mourning and Matumbo?) to win. When I lost the notebook, I was in trouble, because I lost a Mojo artifact. Anyone remember those times? We don't talk about that much anymore.

 

[tzznandrew]

I started posting here around 2003--much like dsturdy, I had initially started at the ESPN boards. My dad was a lurker, and always talked about the Boneyard, and I would mock him. A lot.

But Fishy is right--from 2003-2007 or so, it was gold. Lots of people, with smart analysis, who were funny. Hell, I remember when Beakum brought over Mafia, and we played that for an offseason. Just great times.

I think the main change is that we are spoiled. In 2003, and even after 2004, there was still a sense that we were underdogs. 2009, and then 2011 changed that. For the better, in that we definitively made it, and passed programs like Syracuse and others; for the worse in that some of our fans thought we should be the Yankees from the late 1990s, and just stopped appreciating the slow build up over a couple of years that is college basketball.

 

[Gurleyman]

So you're nyhuskyfan? The same nyhuskyfan who used to be on the CBS college bball board in the late 90s? I got in with that crowd (of mixed allegiances from all across the country) and accompanied them to their new home, but didn't know about the Boneyard until around 10 years ago.

Yeah, I used to be nyhuskyfan in a few places. Still am if I wander into the cesspool of ESPN which is very, very rare. The problem when you pick a handle that is geography-based is that it may not always work if you don't stay in that place (back then I just picked any ol handle to try out a new message board, not knowing it would become my cyberhome). I'm now a safe 3000 miles from ny, so when the most recent new board kicked in, I wanted a handle that I wouldn't have to change again. I could end up in a thatch hut in Bora Bora next time, and bbhuskyfan would just be silly.

I grew up just up the hill from the old Gurleyville Grist Mill, on the banks of the mighty Fenton. That mill was an important part of local Mansfield history. It helped the town establish its identity when it separated from Windham in the 1700s, until the Connecticut Agricultural College was started in the 1880s and became more of the centerpiece of local culture and employment. Those early settlers looked around at the bucolic, rolling hills and thought, "this is a perfect place for a crapload of banners, so we should put up some buildings where we can hang them. And Duke sucks." Those men may have been covered in grist, but they were wise.

So since the Gurleyville section of Mansfield is my original childhood home, and I'm not offended by potential insults to my manhood, even if I come in somewhere under 6-6, 250, I became Gurleyman. There's also a bit of a Hans and Franz homage in there from the SNL glory years of my generation (ie post-Belushi/Akyroyd). I might have done a Monty Python homage, but I couldn't figure out how to work Spam into a UConn-themed handle (Spamba Walker didn't make it off the drawing board).

 

[Scot-e]

I thought you might be a UGA football fan.

 

[HuskyNan]

That was Brett Rabideau's UConn mailing list - I don't know when she started it, but it predated the Boneyard and was a good deal more popular for a while. Not sure what ever happened to it.

She owns her own business and just got too busy to deal with the crazy people. Plus, the Kervicks migrated over here and they made up about 98% of the board's cumulative IQ so the maillist just started to degenerate.

 

[UConnDan97]

This was a nice thread and it gives a lot of perspective to where this all has come from and all of the hard work that has gone into this thing. In a way, I'm angry at myself for only finding out about this place in late '11 and not joining up until early '12. I'm sure I missed out on a lot of great stuff...

 

[RoderickSpode]

Yeah, I used to be nyhuskyfan in a few places. Still am if I wander into the cesspool of ESPN which is very, very rare. The problem when you pick a handle that is geography-based is that it may not always work if you don't stay in that place (back then I just picked any ol handle to try out a new message board, not knowing it would become my cyberhome). I'm now a safe 3000 miles from ny, so when the most recent new board kicked in, I wanted a handle that I wouldn't have to change again. I could end up in a thatch hut in Bora Bora next time, and bbhuskyfan would just be silly.

I grew up just up the hill from the old Gurleyville Grist Mill, on the banks of the mighty Fenton. That mill was an important part of local Mansfield history. It helped the town establish its identity when it separated from Windham in the 1700s, until the Connecticut Agricultural College was started in the 1880s and became more of the centerpiece of local culture and employment. Those early settlers looked around at the bucolic, rolling hills and thought, "this is a perfect place for a crapload of banners, so we should put up some buildings where we can hang them. And Duke sucks." Those men may have been covered in grist, but they were wise.

So since the Gurleyville section of Mansfield is my original childhood home, and I'm not offended by potential insults to my manhood, even if I come in somewhere under 6-6, 250, I became Gurleyman. There's also a bit of a Hans and Franz homage in there from the SNL glory years of my generation (ie post-Belushi/Akyroyd). I might have done a Monty Python homage, but I couldn't figure out how to work Spam into a UConn-themed handle (Spamba Walker didn't make it off the drawing board).

You should write a full history of the town if you haven't already, that was fantastic. I grew up in the UConn area as well -- began life a nearby town and moved to Mansfield in my early teen years. Gurleyville is a one of a kind place.

 

[Gurleyman]

You should write a full history of the town if you haven't already, that was fantastic. I grew up in the UConn area as well -- began life a nearby town and moved to Mansfield in my early teen years. Gurleyville is a one of a kind place.

That might be the extent of my knowledge, and even much of that was made up. From more recent history, I also know the Button Box antique shop burned down in the 1980s, which while not being a major event in the town's development, was probably a significant development to the people who owned it.

There are also the remnants of an old revolutionary war fort hidden in the woods off an old dirt road back that way that you can only get to on foot. My friends and I found it playing in the woods, back when kids did things like play in the woods. We hoped we'd find buried treasure, but Nicolas Cage probably got there first.

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

Wow, this thread (and Fishy) played it straight more or less. Kinda like the public service The Boneyard has always been. As Marshall Crenshaw once sang, " . . . my favorite waste of time."

 

[CAHUSKY]

She owns her own business and just got too busy to deal with the crazy people. Plus, the Kervicks migrated over here and they made up about 98% of the board's cumulative IQ so the maillist just started to degenerate.

i had forgotten about the kervics. If I remember correctly there were multiple generations of them on the mail list. I recall speaking with one of them about coordinating a group trip to the ncaa tourney since I'm in the travel biz. Or, maybe it was helping them Book a vacation in Tahoe? It's been a long time but I definitely remember them.

 

[huskyharry]

I've enjoyed reading and contributing a bit (not as much as many others though) since the 1996 Courant board.
Wow, 17 years goes by quite quickly!
I grew up in Mansfield Center but the Navy has kept me away for 28 years. It was particularly nice to get my UConn fix via the boneyard when deployed overseas...I thank you all.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

I remember I found The Boneyard when it was on Scout.com probably around 2007? Not sure when I started to post, but I just remember when I initially stumbled upon The Yard and couldn't get enough of it. Truth be told, with the Conference Realignment saga, I definitely refresh this site way more than I would like to admit.

 

[Mike Honcho]

I spent a ton of time on the uconnbball mailing list. That was really active in the early to mid 90s. I don't remember when I found the boneyard exactly, but I do know soon after I joined, Tom and Fishy asked me if I might happen to have any extra memory laying around for their server that was being overtaxed. I think just before the move to Rivals. Mid 90s?

I was a regular on the AOL UConn message board with UconnHenry in the early to mid 90s as Chuck. RRLBEES headed up the SU contingent there. Anyone from AOL?

 

[WisePig]

I remember the site starting as an offshoot of the Hartford Courant in 1996. The original name at the time was "Husky Hardcores." I remember this because of a computer problem I had. The repairman looked at my history folder and saw it was filled with Husky Hardcore views. He looked me straight in the face and exclaimed "You know I love large women as well." I did not have the nerve to tell him it was a basketball site. I can imagine what he would have thought if it was "The Boneyard."

Anyways, whatever happened to the Oklahoma Eric?

 

[Fishy]

I was a regular on the AOL UConn message board with UconnHenry in the early to mid 90s as Chuck. RRLBEES headed up the SU contingent there. Anyone from AOL?

Holy crap - yes.

I don't even remember the handle I used back then.

That's amazing. I actually thought Bees was the last one from those days left. (Bees goes back before AOL to Prodigy - we used to joke that he started the internet.)

 

[Mike Honcho]

Holy crap - yes.

I don't even remember the handle I used back then.

That's amazing. I actually thought Bees was the last one from those days left. (Bees goes back before AOL to Prodigy - we used to joke that he started the internet.)

Ha - I was on Prodigy too, though I don't recall a UConn board there. Henry and Bees are the only ones I remember... JKul used to keep us up to date on all the recruiting gossip. I posted a lot more back then. I was a fiery little pre-teen. 'I bleed husky blue' was my sig.

 

[Mike Honcho]

While we're taking a trip down memory lane, years ago ESPN ran a poll for the best town/city in college basketball and someone on the Boneyard developed a program to stuff the ballot box for Storrs. Can't remember what it was called but damn that was funny. We inched up from behind Lexington and Durham to take the lead if I'm remembering right. Anyone have more details on that?

 

[Gurleyman]

There was an old UMass rivalry board too, which died once UMass died. It might have just been called bball.com or something generic, so people would find it who wouldn't even care about either team. I might have wandered into that sewage pit before finding a link to the Boneyard. I can't remember.

Hard to believe now that there was actually an entire website devoted to UConn vs UMass. These days it would make as much sense to have a message board rivalry with Albany. It is also a state school for a bordering state, and they even gave us a good battle in the NCAAs. And so did Fairleigh Dickinson.