There we were sitting in DKR Memorial Stadium, in Austin, Texas, enjoying a perfectly wonderful weekend with friends and family. Two orange shirts in a sea of blue.
(Did I mention we got our tickets through BYU?)
So we were literally the ONLY two orange shirts in a section of blue. Thankfully we were somewhat warmly received by those around us. Throughout the entire first half that is, when BYU was ahead. During the second half the loud, irritating fans around us mellowed somewhat and the rest of the game was much more enjoyable. At least for us. (PS, I'll never understand how fans who bring their kids along with them, or who don't bring their kids with them, can feel good about themselves yelling things like, "kill him" and "take him out", etc... Your kids and people around you can HEAR you and it's kind of inappropriate).
In fact, the game was entirely enjoyable for us orange shirts after the first half, when I stopped sweating and realized that the Longhorns, my Longhorns, were actually going to pull off a win against the Cougars, my Cougars. That's pretty much when I realized that they weren't my Cougars anymore.
I may have felt a sense of longing as I watched the thousands of Cougar fans loitering about the shops and restaurants with us. I may have searched the crowds for people I knew. I may have actually thought that I should have been wearing a navy blue shirt like the rest of our group. But I realized that night, as I sat with my husband and my orange shirt in a sea of blue, that my heart belonged to Shane and my shirt represented my solidarity with him and his Longhorns.
As we drove home the following day I was still trying to sort it all out in my mind. When exactly had I decided I liked orange over blue? The answer surprised me a bit, because I was certain it had to do with Shane, but then I realized I had loved BYU when I lived there in it's shadow, when I ate their famous ice cream, and walked it's campus. I loved BYU when I went there for piano and violin recitals, and EFY, and sports games, and art exhibits. For all those reasons I still love BYU.
But I loved BYU football when Lavell Edwards was there.
When I met Shane in 2003 I was a girl without a football team. Sure, I was still cheering for the Cougars, but there wasn't much love there. The love had left three years before with Lavell. So, when Shane came in with his Longhorn fetish and a team and a coach worth loving, my heart turned from blue to orange. After eight years of watching Longhorn football and Mack Brown, it was a dream come true to step into DKR Memorial Stadium, with it's 101,000+ seats.
It felt just like the first time I watched Lavell coach at Cougar stadium.
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3 comments:
No clever remarks (do you know how intimidating that is???) but a question...do you feel a connection with the UT coach?
Maria, I totally do. He's old school, like Lavell was. There are no theatrics, no excuses, no whining and he plays fair. He reminds me a lot of Lavell. He's been a great coach for as long as I've been watching Texas, and it'll be a sad day when he retires. I'll have to review my loyalties again at that point... :)
BTW, I'm not a fair weather fan. Despite losses or wins (see Texas' abysmal season last year) I will cheer for a team while I like their players, their coaches and their program. If those things change, then I might change.
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