Happy Birthday...College Football!

Apparently, it's a birthday, but not for a person, or a country, but a sport. One-hundred and fifty years ago today two college teams competed for the first time.

The result: Rutgers beat New Jersey (now, Princeton...) 6 - 4.

According to NCAA.com, the game was much different than what we see on Saturdays (and sometimes, Fridays, Thursdays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays...). Rutgers and New Jersey actually played ten games--if you scored, you got a point, then a new "game" began, hence the 6 - 4 score.

Flash forward a century and a half and we have a multi-billion dollar industry. We have dreams fulfilled and dreams dashed, fanatical fans ecstatic and fans heartbroken, legends made and players forgotten. I never attended a college football game until I was in college. It wasn't a tradition for my dad to take us--he had passed long before. I never had that connection that some have.

But, I did go to many games while I was a student (probably because they were free...). I went to several games as an Aggie. They were not a good team back in 1984. I went to several games as a University of Utah student in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Once again, the teams were no where close to the caliber of team Coach Whittingham has now.

Since it wasn't a tradition going to games as a kid, taking my own children to games is not something they've grown up with. I don't know if the Taylor fandom will end with me. It's possible--my kids are more into electronic sports than "on the field" sports.

I wonder what the next half century will bring, or the next century. Will the game transform as much as it did when it was first played November 6th, 1869?

Time will tell.

Okay...We Can All Breathe Now

Sports are funny things. In a world of "fairness," the same cannot be said of sports. Fair would be the strongest, fastest, smartest, most prepared person or team will always win. Their hard work would be rewarded.

That's not how things happen, though.

Many times, the one who works the hardest is not rewarded with the blue ribbon, the gold medal, the championship ring. It's what makes sports fascinating, infuriating, even poetic and beautiful. I'm glad I haven't been cursed with a desire to gamble on the outcomes of sporting events. I'd lose my shirt.

In my years of blogging, occasionally, I blog about sports and certain games. Unfortunately, I've never been able to blog about one of my teams winning to blue ribbon, the gold medal, or the championship ring. I think our professional soccer franchise, Réal Salt Lake, came the closest when they lost to Sporting Kansas City. Heartbreaking.

But, even when a team doesn't win "the big one," there are smaller battles along the way. Today, the team I root for the most and have spent good money on shirts, sweatshirts, and hats advertising their logo, had one of those games.

Today the University of Utah Utes football team traveled to Seattle to take on the University of Washington Huskies. And even though the Utes have a better record, have one of the best defenses in the entire country, I was still nervous...so, so nervous. 

You can read about the game on the internet, or watch local and national sports clips on TV, and I hope I'm not spoiling anything for anyone (if so, I apologize...), but Utah beat one of their Goliaths, and thus removing one of the monkeys on their backs. Utah left the stadium victorious. 

I've been around long enough and watched enough games to know the final score was never guaranteed. A bad bounce here, a fumble there, an injury, another turnover, and the result could have been much different, no matter how hard anyone worked, or what the stats on paper say. Today, it worked out for my team. Next week, it might not go that way, but for tonight, I can let out a huge exhale--I can breathe again. 

* Photos and videos were used without permission from the U of U, U of Washington, Pac12 or Fox Sports

Did You Hear That? It's The Sound Of The Unfulfilled Unrealistic Expectations...

In the short space of eighteen hours, a wave blew across the landscape. Perhaps you heard the cries of anguish, the gnashing of teeth, the profanity and pseudo-profanity. For if you are a sports fan of Utah's two largest college football programs, this was not a good weekend.

In fact, it sucked.

But, if you look at the games with a non-fan perspective, the outcomes might not be surprising. The local teams lost to national powerhouses, or, at least, programs with storied pasts. On any given weekend, our local teams would lose to those programs again and again. 

So, why the frustration? Why the angst, the pain, the sad faces across the state?

One reason--unrealistic expectation.

The die-hard fans thought--no, expected--the local teams to win. We thought our teams were better than they actually were. And this weekend, the truth--truths that were always there, we just chose to ignore them--showed their ugly faces. It didn't help that national media pegged the Utah Utes as a dark horse playoff team, nor did it benefit anyone that the BYU Cougars were 2-1, even thought their record could be 0-4, if it weren't for a couple of plays and lucky bounces. We flat-out thought our teams were better than they were, or that the limitations in the teams were either not there, or would not show up for big games.

Yes, the pain is real. We wished things had turned out different, but they didn't. The lofty goals some imagined will have to wait until next year, and they may never happen (another hard truth that may be tough to swallow...). The sound we heard this weekend may return again. Although, I suspect, if it does happen, it won't be as loud, or as impactful. After all, we all learned something this weekend, whether we wanted to, or not.

Rivalry Week...2019 Edition

Today marks Day One of Rivalry Week. On Thursday, the football team from the University of Utah will travel south to visit the home field of Brigham Young University. There, they will battle for bragging rights for the next twelve months.

Let the smack talk begin!

If you're looking for said talk here, I'm sorry. You'll need to go elsewhere. I'm not much of a smack talker. I know several who are good at it, who can dish it out--some in good fun and others a lot more serious--and they seem to take it when their team doesn't win. I'm hoping I can be considered in that category.

Because I haven't always been a good winner, or a good loser.

I've blogged about this particular game, I believe, each year I've written this blog, and since I've been blogging daily since 2011, this would make it my ninth BYU vs U of U blog post. In all the time I've blogged, the Cougars have never beaten the Utes. In fact, the last time BYU won was November, 28, 2009, almost a decade.

There was a time when I really stressed over this game. I know it's stupid and immature, but I did. I remembered when I attended the U. BYU would stomp our team every year. They were the "Big Dogs" (or cats...), a national brand, an excellent program. I hated to be a fan on the losing end of the game, and it happened all the time. 

Since then, momentum has changed, and hopefully, my attitude as well. I hope I'm mature enough to hope for a good game and appreciate whoever wins. Of course, it's easy to say when the team you root for has won nine straight. Time will tell--on Thursday night I may have to be the one having to endure twelve months of "second-place" and "overrated" posts, comments, even perhaps bumper stickers.

This should be a fun week. It should be a fun game. And when the clock hits 00:00, may the better team win. Here's to those who work so hard to give us all a few hours of entertainment and a year of smack. Go Utes!