What was the Boneyard Like?

[RichZ]

We took the mojo much more seriously in those days.

 

[AZHuskiePop]

Sorry it's not exactly Gomes in all reality but be creative you'll know where I was going.

I was just waiting for an opportunity to use my Valley Kid Line
It also gave me an opportunity to bust on the UConn horde
and PC . That’s always fun.
Think of you post a a great straight line.

 

[UConnNick]

The Toto site was the best site we had. People weren't anonymous but they were still passionate. Arguments got ugly at times, like siblings arguing, but we all eventually learned to get along. I made some great friends on that site and some of them have since passed away.

One of the older members (Papa K) gave me some sage advice which convinced me to name my first son after my father, who passed away when I was a junior at UConn. Another older member became a good friend who also passed on great advice. His name was Jack Wright. I was very sad when he passed. And then there was Annie. We argued a lot. I don't even remember about what. But then we became friends. Sadly, she passed from cancer. Some of the people from there are still on here. Deadrody and I went to see the UConn/Maryland tournament game in Syracuse. Huskyhawk and I have remained in contact too. I venture to guess there are others here that I just don't know about.

I think the nice thing about that group was that it was a smaller and tighter knit community. When we shared life events, it was very personal.

I was on the Toto listserv. Brett Rabideau was the administrator. She had to contend with her husband, a PC alum. PapaK is still around. Richard Jones and I became close friends. He sadly died from COPD in 2006.

That forum still technically exists as a Google group, but the activity level has dropped off to almost nothing.

 

[Travelman6]

Then there was one dude who called himself "TruthaboutUConn", and every one of his posts was about bashing UConn. He once even said that everyone in CT lived in trailer parks, a very delusion perspective of things, but I do remember him to this day.

I remember that. I think he called himself TruthrUconncuences or something stupid like that.

He did bash Uconn every day until those boards ended. I remember he came back years later on another board and basically admitted he had been wrong. He was in a miserable part of his life for those years he was trolling (end of HS/start of college) where he had no friends at either place and then was kicked out of college (largely because of grades) and had to go back home.

He was bullied in real life, sometimes by younger kids in HS and largely ignored in college, and felt his only outlet was to kind of do the same online, by trolling others who had experienced success.

It was kind of a harrowing thread overall, really surreal. Many people bashed him back, some felt sympathy. He admitted that he was interested in talking to a psychologist, not sure he did. Hope he did.

 

[RichZ]

But when you tell kids today, they just don’t believe you

Luuuxury!

 

[UConnNick]

Paesano:

The name of the successor forum to the toto site is:

uconn-bball@googlegroups.com

 

[FfldCntyFan]

Honestly, this is not meant to be cynical in anyway

Please use this thread to post memories etc.

One thing I vividly remember was after losing to Ga Tech in the preseason NIT the complaints about our free throw shooting were beyond reason.

 

[Guapo]

One thing I vividly remember was after losing to Ga Tech in the preseason NIT the complaints about our free throw shooting were beyond reason.

I do remember that free throw shooting was a talking point amongst the fan base

 

[whaler11]

Think about how different technology was. I joined in like 02 or 03 and my computer was on a different floor than my TV.

I used to bring a walkman to games to get info from the radio broadcast. There are 20 guys tweeting every update the entire game.

So of course it seemed more docile and not as aggressive because you didn’t have such easy access. I was at the Georgia Tech and Utah pre-season NIT games. I probably didn’t see a computer for 3 days after the GT game.

 

[Kitaman]

We used to walk to school, 5 miles in the snow, uphill, barefoot.

We had to walk back home 5 miles in the snow, uphill and barefoot when school ended.

 

[intlzncster]

I didn't have a profile back then but the talk was mainly about Taliek and mostly about him playing too fast / out of control.

And that they wouldn't be able to win a Championship with him as point guard. And that this team would win the championship with despite Taliek; ie anybody could fill in no problem.

Oft argued by the same people probably.

 

[intlzncster]

During the Duke game:

1st half: Calhoun's obstinacy in sitting Okafor w two fouls will cost us a championship.
2nd half: Calhoun is a genius.

 

[Fishy]

Is he still here? He let me use his game tickets once, in like the third row, center court. Heck of a fan.

I went to about five games with him in the immediate aftermath of that incident. (His wife no longer felt like attending.)

His ability to abuse opposing coaches was without peer. Even I felt bad for Bruiser Flint during one game.

 

[Stinger92860]

I seem to remember using a boneyard predecessor in the early 90's while dialing in on prodigy. Is that possible?

 

[B1GEast]

It was significantly better back then. At least we had HuskyDan and RutgersAl. Always a push which one was loonier.

HuskyfanDan was a true fan, Al was a hack

 

[B1GEast]

I seem to remember using a boneyard predecessor in the early 90's while dialing in on prodigy. Is that possible?

You couldn't find free 2000 hr AOL cd''s at Lechmere's ?

 

[Waquoit]

1st half: Calhoun's obstinacy in sitting Okafor w two fouls will cost us a championship.
2nd half: Calhoun is a genius.

Actually, it was sitting Caron with two fouls that cost us a Final Four.

 

[Robertelamin]

A few other interesting visitors in addition to RutgersAl were JaCkSoN (aka smoothasbutter) and Oklahoma Eric.

 

[B1GEast]

A few other interesting visitors in addition to RutgersAl were JaCkSoN (aka smoothasbutter) and Oklahoma Eric.

On the football board I remember PromotheRobot a Buffalo fan

 

[Kitaman]

Wasn't 'two phone' Bill running laps around that time?

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

No player deserved the venom and volume of criticism Taliek had thrown at him. He wasn’t a perfect player, but he didn’t deserve most of the crap tossed his way.

2/3 of the way through the season I swear I could tell which free throws were going to go in, and I became confident in the team. Not everybody got it, so the complaints about Taliek bothered me. Best. Smile. Ever.
As that season closed, the defense would just stop the other team from scoring, as though they simply said, "No."
This was probably my first season with something other than dial-up internet.
I began with AOL through 1999 (shout outs to JKul & Vuce) and then migrated that summer & thereafter to each version of The Boneyard.
I worried that the first corporate affiliation would be a sell-out that would ruin things. I picked up each service change within a day by decoding the whispers, feeling never of The Boneyard but definitely in it.
Too afraid (kinda) to play in The Boneyard Classic, but scored 4 free tix from Pat for Big East Finals against St John's and met a few folks live at a bar down the street from MSG.
Everything I know about participating in any forum I learned from The Boneyard. It's the only one I follow I've ever been in.
I still can't fathom how people physically have 5, 10, or 20 times as many posts as I have.

Wish I could accurately catalog the various NCAA Tournament hangings but it is worth noting that CTO44 felt welcome as a Syracuse fan in those days ("Shoo shoo, Orange flu"), and I believe there was a financial/administrative connection between the two boards through her. My sister served on CT Audubon Society board with Joyce.
One big difference between 2004 and today was that board-wide insecurity was not premised on UConn's place in the college basketball world, but instead related to fighting off those who claimed the "Big Least" was inferior to Big 10 or ACC. We believed we were in the best conference and during the tournament we would root for our rivals to beat all others until they got to us. 2003 Syracuse might have won the (unstripped) NC, but UConn was clearly better than they were, though I suppose 2014 Louisville makes a similar claim.
If there was an Ignore feature (could there have been?), I saw no need to use it in those days. Worth noting that nobody was on mobile devices other than Blackberry or Palm in those days. WAY different.

 

[UCFan1513]

Can there be another BY Classic?

 

[HuskyNan]

On the football board I remember PromotheRobot a Buffalo fan

Remember cubbybear?

 

[Ewekon]

I've always been a little confused as to the progression of the boneyard. I first discovered a bunch of like-minded UConn "fans" on the AOL and CompuServe message boards back when I was a teenager and discovered the interwebs. That was definitely 96 or so because I distinctly remember reading/writing/criticizing JC and his terrible half court offense after our loss to Mississippi St. 97 was the year of Rickety Moore and I will put his bashing up against anyone's, Taliek's included. Jeff Kulas was the resident recruiting expert and I remember McD's site as well as DNASoft who had a UConn-centric recruiting website.

At some point those boards died and I was transferred to Toto email listserv. And then what seemed like a tennis match between TOS and Scout. Was there a parallel UConn universe within there?

Yes

I remember that tennis match. I have never been a volume poster but through each iteration a volume reader.

Not that it's a big deal but; when we moved to this platform my handle, which was DConn, wasn't available. I haven't seen one post from that handle on this board. Oh well.

I remember a fake doctor fake diagnosing Mel's back with ridiculous long words. He was wrong and never to be heard from again.

And we took it all.

 

[UConnNick]

It was significantly better back then. At least we had HuskyDan and RutgersAl. Always a push which one was loonier.

Ah yes, RutgersAl. My favorite BY poster ever. His YouTube videos were even more hilarious than his occasional posts. I could watch those over and over again with tears streaming down my face from laughing so hard.

"Rutgers...The USC of the East..."