Good morning!
The traffic jams up early on Fridays in Lowell, and the Tsongas Center is four miles and countless stoplights off Interstate 495. It was dark, wet and cold, the canals were half frozen and railroad tracks criss-crossed through the city’s historic downtown district.

Cobblestones of Lowell was crowded and expensive, and the maitre d’s were stumped when I asked where else to eat, but a gent near the door lowered his cell phone and whispered, “Athenian Corner on Market Street.”

It was quiet and uncrowded inside the nondescript brick building. Diners sat along the wall and others stood at the bar waiting for their takeouts. I ordered baked chicken with rice, string beans and coffee, left an eight dollar tip and told them it hit the spot.

Outside I turned one way then another, and opened the app for directions. It sent me down a dark open-ended alley that was deserted save for one pedestrian who screamed when she saw me trip and fall over the railroad tracks.

“Are you all right?!” she cried. "You scared me!"

She reached out with her mittened hand and pulled me up and found my phone.

“Where’s the Tsongas Center?” I asked as if falling down was part of my routine.

Follow me, she said, and during our walk she said she was from Washington, D.C. and was enrolled in the Manning School of Business at UMass-Lowell. She pointed at the Tsongas Center and asked again if I was OK. So much for Gen Zers being impersonal jerks, this young lady was an angel.

I walked up the steps and through the door and waited for Jack’s friend Steve Rogers to give me a ticket. Jack had asked me not to use his last name. He is a wealthy UMass alumnus and keeps a low profile, but he wanted me to see how UMass Lowell puts on a hockey game.

Rogers spotted me and we chatted in the lobby and waited for Jack and the chancellor to return from dinner. Both my legs were throbbing from crashing flush across the tracks and Rogers kept looking at the rusty brown smudge on my pants. 

“How about I take a look around?” I asked, but it was too late. We were surrounded by chancellor Julie Chen, a dean, his wife and Jack. I wondered if anyone in the crowd knew that the 59-year-old Chen was the chancellor and a rock star in mechanical engineering with three degrees from MIT.

A few weeks earlier in the Mullins Center, I’d met the new UMass-Amherst chancellor. Javier Reyes was walking past a concession stand wearing a UMass hockey jersey and our eyes made contact. He smiled and asked, “Are you enjoying the game?”

“I am,” I said. We spoke briefly and if first impressions count for anything UMass made a good hire. “Thank you for supporting the team,” he said.

Chen and her colleagues left for the school’s luxury suite and we headed for Jack’s seats behind the River Hawks’ bench. At the Tsongas Center, fans walk into the lobby and go up a flight of stairs to the concourse where students hand out line sheets and rosters, kids play spin-the-wheel games and adults make bids on silent auctions.

Afterward they step down into the seating area and watch the game. The River Hawks play to 85 percent capacity inside the 6,000-seat arena and season ticket holders can enjoy a complimentary summer barbecue. “You get a lot of perks to be a season ticket holder,” said marketing and promotions director Jon Boswell.

UMass-Lowell has made the NCAA tournament six times since it bought the Tsongas Center from the city for a buck in 2010. Former coach Bill Riley still comes to the games and rubs elbows with fans who remember him for winning three Division II titles from 1978-83.

In 1984, Hockey East officials invited Riley to join their fledgling conference and he gave them a $100 personal check on the spot. When the chancellor was asked for a comment, he said he didn’t know what they were talking about but it was too late to back out.

The River Hawks are having a tough year. At this writing they are in last place in Hockey East but the fans are faithful. The city’s still hurting from losing its Red Sox affiliate the Spinners three years ago and will hold onto their hockey team through thick and thin.

Despite trailing Providence 6-0 last Friday, they cheered like they’d won the Stanley Cup when Jak Vaarwerk’s goal spoiled the shutout.

Near the end of the second period, Steve Rogers invited us upstairs to the chancellor’s suite. It was my cue to leave, and I thanked them for the experience. If you’re in the area try a game, just be careful not to let the railroad tracks jump out and grab you.

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UMass softball coach Danielle Henderson will look to turn around a 16-34 season when the Minutewomen open against Radford and Georgia Southern on Friday in Statesboro, Ga.

Meanwhile Oklahoma will begin its quest for a fourth straight Division I title on Thursday in Mexico where the Sooners will play Utah State and Duke in the Puerto Vallarta Challenge.

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Notre Dame hockey coach Jeff Jackson to CHN’s Adam Wodon on NIL: “Doing something for money because of your name, image or likeness is fine as long as you’re doing something to earn it. Getting a million dollars to send out weekly tweets for a month doesn’t make sense to me. It’s crazy to think college football players are turning down NFL deals for NIL money.”

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Novelist James Ellroy (LA Confidential, The Black Dahlia, American Tabloid) caddied at Bel Air Country Club during his starving-writer days.

“Who was a lousy tipper?” asked podcaster Andrew Goldman. “Fred MacMurray,” said Ellroy. “When everybody else, even among the relative stiffs, gave you two bucks above the eight-bucks-a-bag minimum, MacMurray would give you a buck. And he had the heaviest golf bag on God’s green earth. It was full of scuffed golf balls he’d gotten as freebies at invitational tournaments.”

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SQUIBBERS: Insiders say that trying to get good players into a quality school and the negative impact of NIL are why Jeff Hafley left Boston College for the pros. Candidates to succeed him include Anthony Campanile, Bill O'Brien and Al Washington. …  Apparently Tom Werner was referring to getting out of Springfield when he said the Red Sox were “going full throttle.” ... East Longmeadow's Frank Vatrano scored his 22nd goal on Wednesday to lift the Sharks over Anaheim in OT. It was the 145th goal of his NHL career. … Yankees fan Les Lapointe corrected me on last week’s trivia question. Five, not four catchers won at least two World Series with the Yankees — Elston Howard together with Bill Dickey, Yogi Berra, Thurman Munson and Jorge Posada. … The UMass hockey team practiced on DA’s outdoor rink on Tuesday. The UMass practice rink is having issues, and the Minutemen needed to prep for No. 6 Maine tonight. … Former UMass goalie Luke Pavicich is 0-7-0 in Hockey East with a dreadful .875 save percentage for UMass-Lowell; former Minutemen winger Cal Kiefiuk has one goal in 16 games for Providence. … Scouts at today’s Senior Bowl in Mobile (1 p.m.) will be looking at Christian McCaffrey’s younger brother Luke who caught 131 passes and scored 13 TDs at Rice this season. ….  Aidan Hutchinson posted a message to the fans after the Lions lost to the 49ers. The note said in part: “A city born in steel, diesel and blood will not let a moment like this hold them back.” … Former Dodgers first baseman Steve Garvey is running for the U.S. Senate in California. Players considered Garvey aloof and perhaps for good reason. He once sent a birthday card to his daughter that was signed, “Love, Steve Garvey.”

Chip Ainsworth is an award-winning columnist who has penned his observations about sports for decades in the Pioneer Valley. He can be reached at chipjet715@icloud.com