Didn't make me less BYU Blue...

My father (who attended Nevada in the 40's) was a big BYU fan and hooked me too! My brother was married the day of the Miracle Bowl at the DC Temple and my Dad checked in and out of 2 hotels on the way from DC down to Florida after the sealing because they weren't showing the game--finally picking it up in the car in perfect clarity on KSL (yes, 1160 from Utah) for the last 2 minutes of the game. Before he passed away last year, he attended the GaTech game in Atlanta with me and commented that he'd never seen a BYU win in person east of the Mississippi and assumed they wouldn't win that game either (we blew them out as you all know). My Mom would tell us that he used to toss and turn all night after every BYU games replaying each loss in his dreams (nightmares). No amount of frustration every dimmed his passion...and his kids all caught it and still have it.

My first game was the Tangerine Bowl in 1976 when we got blown out by OkSt. I went to BYU and watched wonderful wins and inexplainable losses (to UTEP, New Mexico, Wyoming, CSU, Air Force--1st game in the newly expanded stadium as I recall). On the whole, BYU wasn't ever much better or worse than they are now. Lavell had a lousy bowl record, he seemed totally disinterested in the game on the field but we were and always will be BYU Blue. One of the greastest days in my life was when the church satellite began showing BYU games. Like all true blue fans, I volunteered to set-up the satellite and quickly learned that home & away games were both shown even though the away games weren't advertised. I remember going to the church in Connecticut from 2-6am on a Sunday morning to watch a BYU-Hawaii game. I lived overseas for a decade and had to get Slingbox just to watch grainy BYU games in the early hours of Sunday. [We should've started with prayer and we could've taken credit for FHE.]

I could be frustrated with every player on the team, the head coach, the price of tickets, the seats in LES and almost everything else and still show up to support the team. I am a poster child for (I was called out on CB) being the "kind of fan that is the reason for BYU's underachievement"...

...oh yeah, and I love the firesides too...