Pop culture mystery, solved

Hey ’80s kids, this one’s for you: a TikTok user famous for identifying sporting events in the background of movie and TV scenes determined that it was a UNH men’s hockey game in the hit 1980s movie “Gremlins.” And he couldn’t have done it without help from UNH Archives.

It started when someone challenged @noproblemgambler — who has amassed more than 1 million followers for his creative sleuthing work — to identify the game, saying in his message, “No chance you can find the hockey match that plays in Gremlins at about 1 hr 13 min into the movie.”

Challenge accepted. @noproblemgambler did some impressive investigating and narrowed it down to just two possible contests before reaching out to UNH Library’s Archives.

Morgan Wilson, special collections and archives public services coordinator, fielded the request and sent him the official programs from the two games in question, and by learning which of the two featured an active Northeastern player wearing No. 4, he was able to conclude that the game was a Feb. 16, 1983 showdown that resulted in an 8-1 romp in favor of the Wildcats.

“Honestly, I didn’t know until afterward what the request was for; we get a lot of sports-related questions in the Archives, from both alumni and college sports fans, so I figured this was similar,” says Wilson. “But this is definitely a first for me.”