Wednesday, Dec. 18, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.
IT MAY READ "Las Vegas" on their jerseys, but the team that represents Las Vegas in the International Hockey League hasn't played a home game since Nov. 30 and won't play one until Dec. 26.
Similarly, the UNLV men's basketball team hasn't played here since Nov. 29, and the Lady Rebels haven't played here since Nov. 24. The men are finally home Saturday, while the women have a home game Thursday.
The long absences, of course, were the result of the National Finals Rodeo taking over the Thomas & Mack Center.
And while the affected players and coaches generally accept their yearly banishments without complaint, clearly the NFR can be disruptive for the local teams. This year it's the Thunder that has been left especially disheveled.
"That's just the way it is," said a surprisingly tolerant Bob Strumm, the Thunder's GM. "The rodeo does this to us every year."
It all evens out in the end, of course, with every IHL team playing an equal number of home and road games. But that's only slight consolation right now for a Thunder team in the midst of nine consecutive road games, especially when it has lost three straight and fallen from first place in its division.
The Thunder has been gone so long, half an interest in the team was sold while the guys were out traversing the country. (Maybe Ken and Hank Stickney, who owned the majority of the team until this week, thought the Thunder wouldn't ever return so they tried to reclaim a portion of their investment while they could.)
The only reprieve for the Thunder players: their 26-day adventure included 36 hours in Las Vegas this week; laundry duties, no doubt, were at the top of their list of things to do before heading back out for games at Houston and San Francisco this weekend.
"It would have been nice if they could have worked it out that we could have had one home game this week," Strumm said. "But they kicked us back out for another week."
Call it cruel and unusual punishment.
"By the results of how our trip has gone, obviously we would reevaluate (taking such a long trip) if we could," Strumm said. "But, to be honest, we've had realistic goals for the trip. Sure, it's a tough stretch and a big challenge because most teams in our league can win at home, but we'll get through it and we know we should still win our division."
For the displaced UNLV teams, the NFR interrupts their still-young seasons at a most inopportune time. The Lady Rebels, with a new coach and several new players, are 1-5 coming into Thursday's game with Fairfield at the South Gym. And the UNLV men are 4-1 heading into tonight's game at Syracuse; they get Tulane here Saturday. Coach Bill Bayno's primary complaint: a lack of practice time at the Mack has made the Rebels strangers to their own arena.
At least they'll be home later this week, as opposed to a Thunder team that still has another week to kill.
In NFR parlance, that's a lot of bull.
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