I have recently experienced a great irony... I like BYU football again.
I never would have thought it possible... but it is true. Growing up I loved it. A performance of the Cougar "Ra Ra" fight song was required to go to bed at night. But something happened in the intervening years between my dad standing over my bed at night pumping his fist to my tenure at school there from 2001 to 2005.
I despised the football team.
From their state of the art indoor practice field to their exclusive Locker room and restaurant they made me crazy. Coincidentally this is also the time period that some genius thought to change the traditional uniforms to some variation of gold and ultra dark navy blue. (hint: they were very ugly) Maybe it was a reflection of jealousy on my part but the players represented everything my school experience was not... easy, glamorous, and full of hand outs. They definitely seemed to be governed by a different set of rules than me as I slaved at my campus job, studied my guts out, and stressed if i forgot to shave that day.
Well, for this season my Dad invited me to the kick off game against Arizona. There I was in section 00 seat 24 looking at the player's in the old uniforms and listening to my Dad chant the familiar fight song.... It was back. I was definitely into it. They even retired one of my old school favorite's number, the legend, Ty Detmer. I left the game hoarse from yelling and have since frequented a host of websites dedicated to cougar fans. I now know all the players names, stats, and I have even put my boy to bed a few nights with a certain fight song. The prodigal returns.
Rise and shout the cougars are out.
4 comments:
Too bad they gave UCLA a Christmas gift and belly-flopped against Tulsa... ;)
Once again...love the post! I also enjoyed being an enthusiastic BYU fan at the UCLA game. Of course, it would have been better if not for that fatal fumble just sort of the goal line...
Marc- It looks like you need a change of heart as well. Just because you've got George Washington (Do they even have sports or mascots? i don't think so!) under your belt doesn't mean you don't bleed cougar blue.
Kalex-Look on the bright side. If BYU would have won you would have been surrounded by spoiled SoCal yuppies crying about losing and making mormon jokes.
Oh Travis....you are turning into a Cougar Club guy. Do you want me to forward you my dad's underground football newsletter?
Post a Comment