September is a month full of promise. Students start the school year with a “clean record” ready to fill it with assignments and test scores. In my vocation, the timeshare industry here in Florida, we breathe a sigh of relief from the business of a summer filled with tourists. But by far my favorite part of September is the launch of a new college football season. Teams assemble for that first game with a record of 0 – 0 in the win/loss columns. Pre-season polls get busted and resorted after the first weekend. Playoff hopes can be destroyed in September, and Cinderella teams emerge seemingly out of nowhere.
I’m not entirely sure where my love story with this sport began, but my earliest recollections center around my brother when we were living in Littleton, Colorado. Ty would rush our little family of four through our Sunday post-church meal of spaghetti with giant meatballs at “The White Spot” to go home and turn on NFL/AFL football. The Los Angeles Rams with their swirled royal blue and white helmets were his favorite team, and thus they became my favorite team. In our split level two story on Roxbury Place, Ty’s bedroom was wall to wall professional football posters. (My dad was a district sales manager for Hormel and they were a proud sponsor of the NFL, thus resulting in said posters covering Ty’s room!) Then there were the fall Saturdays spent watching Ty playing on the Columbine Knolls “peewee” team. I can picture him like yesterday, his bright white football pants (our mom was excellent at keeping them clean) and his grass green jersey. He and his best buddy Brett Goetz played their hearts out. Though that was the beginning and end of his football career due to being a “late bloomer”, I know he appreciated the opportunity and I loved watching him.
Ty and our neighbor Jimmy Earl suited up for their Saturday game. I’m not sure why they weren’t on the same team!
When we moved back to Nebraska when I was in 7th grade, I was indoctrinated into college football mania. You see in Nebraska you bleed Cornhusker Red whether or not you ever spent a day in a class at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln. If your address ends with a Nebraska zip code, you best be wearing red when you step out to the grocery store on a Saturday or people will stare at you like you’ve forgotten where you live. My first vivid memory of watching a Nebraska football game on TV was Thanksgiving weekend, 1971. Back in the good ‘ole days of the Big Eight (when there really were the SAME eight teams FOREVER), Oklahoma and Nebraska always played Thanksgiving weekend. It was the end of regular season rivalry that put all the bragging rights on the table. It didn’t matter how your season had gone up to that point, because if you didn’t win the Oklahoma game, it was a failed season. So out at my aunt and uncle’s Woodcliff Lake cabin, the cousins and parents gathered for the big game. To this day, this game is considered a “Game of the Century” including Johnny Rogers’ 72 yard punt return for a touchdown. I remember my oldest cousin Steve leading the charge with his enthusiastic screams. We all joined in with much jumping and rejoicing, and we all grew up to pass this love of the game on to our children. Bowl games were a huge reason to gather together, and I remember back to the days when there were only about ten bowl games and zero had corporate sponsor names attached to them. Ty and Terri had this huge great room in their Omaha house at the end of the cul-de-sac in the early 90’s when Nebraska was vying year after year for a National Championship. We would gather with tons of our mutual friends for a watch party. Tradition was for every Nebraska score, the grown men would dog-pile in the middle of the room while all of our kids ran around screaming. My son Drew had lucky “Herbie the Husker” underwear that he insisted on wearing year after year until he outgrew them. When dear Coach Osborne finally won that first championship game against the Miami Hurricanes in the 1995 Orange Bowl, we went absolutely nuts, and some of the fathers even drove to Lincoln the next morning to welcome the victors home.
I eventually had the thrill of going to many Nebraska football games in person. Memorial Stadium becomes the third largest city in Nebraska on game day with their capacity crowd of more than 90,000. The Cornhuskers hold the record for most consecutive sellouts and I doubt anyone will ever catch them. Season tickets are a prized possession and put in wills, handed down generation to generation. Red balloons are released on the first score of every home game, and the fans have a reputation for being among the nicest in the country. When my Kearney State College football team had an away game, we would hop in a car and make the two hour trek to Lincoln for the game. My first date with my future husband was a Nebraska game. I was at the final Big-8 game back in 1995 with Mike, Ty and Terri to witness the end of that era. And we returned from Florida in 2007 to bring our football-playing son back for a home game to celebrate his senior year of high school.
The final Big 8 home game at Nebraska’s Memorial Stadium!
As my sons grew up, only one of them pursued playing the game of football. Spencer got his start on the Kissimmee Kowboys Pop Warner team and then went on to play for his high school team, the Celebration Storm. Like many football parents, I made trips many miles away to remote towns like Lake Placid, Florida, population 1,900, for the Friday night games. I was definitely one of the more knowledgeable football moms in the stands and would often have to teach the other moms basic football rules as we watched our sons play. Spencer’s senior year was my favorite. By this time he was starting on both sides of the ball and was seeing action 99% of the game. Every time the announcer would call his name for a fumble recovery or tackle I proudly shouted, “That’s my son!” We also developed this tradition of meeting back at the house after the game. I would make a run through Taco Bell drive thru for massive amounts of food, and then meet him in front of our big screen TV to watch that week’s episode of our favorite show, “Friday Night Lights”. I continued having kids to watch on the field with Cameron playing pit in the marching band, and Ali performing at half time with the dance team. So many happy memories under our own Friday night lights at Celebration Stadium.
My son “56” heading out for the final coin toss of his “Celebration Storm” senior year.
As my boys left the nest for college I entered the world of “house divided” as they all three picked different schools to attend. Unlike Nebraska where there is only one team to cheer for on Saturday, the rivalries in Florida are rich in tradition, with the biggest being Florida State University and the University of Florida. It took me forever to keep these schools separate in my mind until I figure out “State” stands for Seminoles, and just “Florida” stands for Gators. But then when Spencer landed at FSU and Cameron two years later at UF, it became easy to remember. The past many years have been filled with amazing road trips to Doak Campbell stadium in Tallahassee rich with its tradition. To be a part of doing the “chop” in person around the concentric stadium of Doak is electrifying. A favorite game was Clemson vs FSU in 2010 when we won it with seconds to go with a field goal by golden shoes Dustin Hopkins. The Swamp in Gainesville is a perfect distance of just under two hours from home, and allows for plenty of tailgating time with friends pre-game. My favorite games at the Swamp have been the FSU vs UF rivalry games on Thanksgiving weekend. When both marching bands take the field at the same time for the national anthem it gives me chills every time. Spencer and Cameron have a six year streak of going to this game together, and they try not to rub in the bragging rights too hard, especially when one team is having a bad stretch. Now I have our oldest son Drew at University of Missouri getting his doctorate, which makes for another house-divided rivalry. But I love it—and watch the scores of all three teams, PLUS Nebraska on game days.
My Beautiful “Family Divided”
So here’s to the start of another season! Last week I attended the season opener of Florida State vs Ole Miss in Orlando. I had bought Spencer a ticket for his 27th birthday and he flew in from New Orleans to join his momma at the game. It was the most two diverse halves of football I have ever witnessed. We were down at one point by 18 in the first half, and then went on to outscore them in the second half to win 45-34. But that’s what is so great about this game. It takes you high, and brings you low, and in the end you’ve had a good time high-fiving total strangers in a stadium filled with fanatics.
This year’s season opener in Orlando. Thankfully by the 4th quarter the Noles were living up to the hype!
So thank you little brother, for introducing me to this great American pastime! I will always think of you when enjoying the game of football. And I’ll give you a big high-five when I join you in heaven for all the victories I’ve had to celebrate here on earth without you. Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose…
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