Bye Betty!

# 31

Recently at UNH, the song “Black Betty” by Ram Jam was removed from the pre-game warm ups for the men’s hockey team. Some UNH fans and students were not only curious as to this decision made by the athletic department; they opposed the reasoning for why it was not allowed to be played. Apparently, the University has been receiving complaints about its content being racist and inappropriate, which is why the athletic director, Marty Scarano, made the decision to ban it from playing at the Whittemore Center. What part, phrase, or words in the song are racist? Black Betty has been the traditional song to play before the men’s hockey team comes out onto the ice to get the crowd pumped up and on their feet. Is it essential to break years of tradition because of a song that has the word “black” in it and seems to be “theoretically racist”? This is not the first drastic move Scarano has made in the past couple months. He also cut four athletic programs from the department. Many believe he cut them so that there was more money to put into the prospective new football stadium. There have been plans to build a thirty-five million dollar stadium to accommodate the fans that want to watch the football team after having a dynamite season in fall of 2005. Is Scarano making these drastic decisions so that he can win the votes of those who are skeptical of building a new stadium for one team?