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The hole

Staff call it “the hole,” a 4,665-square-foot room below the south bleachers in Conte Forum, lair of two Zamboni machines (named for Frank Zamboni, an auto repairman and entrepreneur who invented the ice-smoothing device in the 1940s). Visible in this photograph are three murals (l-r): a leprechaun honoring the Athletic Association’s annual St. Patrick’s Day party held in “the hole;” a horned “Bullgang Eagle,” the mascot adopted by the gang of 30 students who set up and take down the basketball floor for every home game; and a beanpot representing the annual hockey tournament. Hanging on the wall is a five-foot-long piece of the basketball floor with an eagle image that was once used in Power Gymnasium. To the right on the wall is a hand-painted list of men and women who have worked in athletics and who have been nominated for immortality by their colleagues during the St. Patrick’s Day party. Called “Andy Beatson’s Wall of Characters,” for the facilities supervisor who retired in 1988 after more than 35 years at BC, the wall currently features nearly 90 names. Other artifacts on display are a hockey stick from the 2001 national championship and a sign that hung above the Mass Pike near exit 17 in Newton celebrating that victory. Also housed in “the hole” are lawn mowers and the Plexiglas barriers and nets used during hockey games. Television crews sometimes set up temporary studios in the Zamboni room for football broadcasts, and the Boston Pops stores its instruments here during the dinner break before its annual Boston College concert on Parents' Weekend.