Director: To play the thing

By Stan Grossfeld, Globe Staff, 2/3/2003

n the afternoon of Feb. 6, 1978, the forecast was for snow - lots of it - and Steve Nazro, Beanpot director and vice president of events at Boston Garden, got a phone call from the office of the Boston University athletic director.

''He said, `What do you think about playing tonight?''' Nazro recalled. ''I said, `What do you mean? Of course we're gonna play. This is New England. It's February. It's expected to snow. The show must go on.'''

Even if the severity of the blizzard had been correctly forecast, Nazro said, the possibility of canceling the event by afternoon was slim.

''During the afternoon, there was little snow,'' he said. ''So it looked good. At 5 p.m. we went to Durgin-Park. It was not snowing. We came out at 6 p.m. and it was snowing and blowing. We went back into the Garden, but there was no imminent danger out there.''

A crowd of 11,666 hardy souls had shown up to see the four local schools battle for bragging rights to the 23-pound, engraved silver Beanpot trophy.

''In the first game, Harvard beats Northeastern in overtime [4-3],'' Nazro said. ''By that time, it was blowing and it had become a northeaster, which is the worst. The end of the first period of the second game, I went to both Bill Flynn, who was the athletic director of Boston College, and John Simpson, who was the athletic director at BU, and said, `What do you think?' It was a four-goal [BU] lead then, but they said, `Oh no, we've got to play.' So we continued to play.

''Meanwhile, word came that the commuter trains were starting to cancel. Then the MBTA said they were thinking about stopping the trolleys. Now it was serious. So Nate Greenberg went across and made an announcement that the trolleys were going to stop at 11 p.m. and anyone who wanted to leave, we suggest that they do so.

''The game was lopsided at that point, I believe it was 8-4 BU. When the game ended, there was not a lot of people here, maybe 300 people. We invited them to go to the Blades and Boards club and we had food down there. There were hot dogs, of course, and I think a beer stand or two that was still open. But the best part of it was they found their own little niche. Some of the people watched television. There were card games galore.

''The phone calls went like this: `Hello, honey, can't get home tonight, the MBTA stopped and I'll see you tomorrow.' Then they got back to playing poker.

''Those people stayed down there for up to three days. There was never any panic, never any danger.''

On Tuesday morning, Nazro went to see Sammy, who ran the little restaurant at 150 Causeway St.

''We said we need breakfast for 250. He went `Ahhhhhhh.' We sent them down in shifts and they got fed a hot breakfast.''

For some, the Garden had become Eden.

''It was so peaceful,'' Nazro said. ''We were locked in. You could take showers, the customers took turns in the locker rooms. Some people used uniforms that belonged to concession people. It was a lark. Nobody scowled, everybody had a smile. By Friday, the MBTA was running and we gently moved them along.''

This story ran on page D6 of the Boston Globe on 2/3/2003.
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