Laser beams, LED light-up foam sticks, and the aroma of popcorn danced around Conte Forum as students entered the arena for the return of Boston College’s Ice Jam.
Ice Jam featured the women’s and men’s basketball and hockey teams on a unique layout: Conte Forum was split down the middle, half basketball court and half ice rink in order to accommodate the events of the evening.
To kick the night off, BC’s Irish Dance Club performed for the audiences as “I’m Shipping Up to Boston” blared in the background and rainbow laser beams lit up the audience.
After this introduction, Courtney Cox, an M.C. for the event and BC ’14, started to hype up the crowd.
“At Boston College our tradition runs deep,” she said. “Winter sports means basketball, but on the Heights, it also means ice hockey … fans from all over have gathered to celebrate a tradition like no other.”
She said that BC is the only college in the country to make a half ice rink and half basketball court, which ignited “wow” and “ooooo” among the crowd.
Josie Ruyak, CSOM ’24, went to Ice Jam to get herself excited for the winter sports season.
“The entire setup was well thought out—I felt like I was at a game show watching mini competitions play out among players while the host detailed the event,” she said. “I originally came to Ice Jam because I wanted to get excited for the winter sports season. I’m a sophomore and last year we barely had any events so I knew I wasn’t going to pass up such a fun occasion, especially since they haven’t had an Ice Jam in 10 years.”
To start off the competitions, the four different teams’ captains were told to come to center court and form two two-person teams to face off in a trivia match. Two freshman spectators were also chosen to stand on the court and pick one of the teams to join. After answering trivia questions about their coaches, the freshman on the winning team won a trip to an away game.
After the opening act, the Boston Junior Eagles—a youth hockey team—flooded the ice rink in their children-sized BC hockey uniforms. BC women’s hockey, along with the Junior Eagles boys’ team, formed one team while BC men’s hockey and the Junior Eagles girls’ team formed another.
The rest of the night was full of various other activities: dance-offs, slap-shot contests, 3-point shootouts, trick-shot matches, and a performance from Air Elite Dunkers.
Toward the end of the event, players threw T-shirts into the crowd, a few of which had golden tickets. The lucky winners were directed to the court where they were handed a New Balance shoe box in a random order. Three of the boxes had a ping pong ball, the others did not. Those whose boxes had a ball competed for the grand prize: a two-year lease on a 2022 black Honda HR-V Sport. Lucky winner Molly Denning, MCAS ’24, went home with the new car.
“I feel like [Ice Jam] was a really fun time and I loved coming out and supporting both the [basketball and hockey] teams,” Kate Miller, MCAS ’25, said.
Featured Image by Chris Ticas / For the Heights
