If
you were not lucky enough to have attended the Bronco Bowl Extravaganza in San
Diego, then here is a nice little inside story from the eyes of a Bronco. This
game should not be remembered solely as a loss, but as the unity of Bronco
Nation...
Ok,
so the experience started out the night before bowl day with a wonderful trip
down to the
University
of
San Diego
for an action-packed
basketball game. After a full day of work, we left
Orange
County
a few hours
before the game and managed to end up at the
University
of California-San
Diego
campus.
Yeah, this was the home of the Tritons, not the Toreros. So, after
a little re-routing, we found the Jenny Craig Pavilion just in time for
tip-off.
As
we strolled up to the will call window, a bus from Boise pulled up and dropped
off a group of Bronco fans who had driven straight from The City of Trees to the
basketball game. As we all get in line, a bit of
Boise
small talk
and reminiscing pursues. Feels like home already.
Well,
as the game played on I noticed that we had 3 1/2 entire sections sold out, and
then some, and definitely had more fans than the home team did. Our band
did the National Anthem, and our dancers did the halftime show. Even their
fans were impressed how dedicated our fans were. Gene Bleymaier and Bob
Kustra were rows away, and I heard Naanee from the Chargers was there. Channel
6 and 7 news were both there. It truly felt like a home game.
Not
to mention, we won a close one by 3 points!! We had aisle seats right behind our
bench, and after the game the team ran up the aisle and high fived everyone.
It was a great time, but I think my lady friend might have been a bit
overwhelmed by the experience as it was her first college basketball game ever.
She used to be a cheerleader, so we both enjoyed watching the cheerleaders
and dancers as well. =)
Oh,
and that was just a warm-up for the bowl game!!!
Despite
the heartbreaking one point loss, the bowl game was still an experience to say
the least.
My
buddy Adam arrived at my place around
1:00 pm
and we
stopped to grab some lunch in Laguna Niguel before heading South. Boy did
we get some strange looks wearing our bright blue and orange "Game
Day" t-shirts. Next stop was Longs Drugs to grab an extra pair of
socks and some gloves, just in case. Shortly after, we hopped on the 5
freeway toward
San Diego.
To our amazement, we saw a
Boise
State
flag on a
truck with
California
plates headed
the same way. Of course we were proudly sporting our flag, and the people
in the truck gave us some thumbs up and smiles. Keep in mind that we are
just out of Mission Viejo (hometown of former Bronco Marty Tadman), and still
have about an hour, hour and a half left till we reach the stadium. That's
how far the Bronco Nation has spread!
As
we creep into downtown
San Diego, we
see more flags, and airplanes flying overhead with advertisement banners.
We knew it was time for some football. We pulled into the Qualcomm
parking lot, and drove around looking for as much Blue and
Orange
as we could
find before parking. There was actually more TCU fans than I expected, so
we tried not to run any of them over. At this point, it felt like home,
as footballs flew through the air, along with the distinct smell of barbeque,
surrounded by a sea of orange, 1A plates, and plenty of excited faces.
It
was merely an hour before kickoff, so we decided to head in and locate our
seats for the pre-game show. But first, we had to pop the trunk and load
up on Bronco gear from the Blue and
Orange
kit! This
included orange ponchos, "defense" banners, pom-poms, and of course
my trusty Bronco Santa Hat (hey, it was only 2 days before Christmas). Once
inside, we took a lap around the huge stadium to Section 2, Row 11, seats 17
& 18. Right on the 20 yard line, behind the Bronco bench, super close to
the field, smack dab in the middle of Bronco Nation, and right on the aisle. We
couldn't have asked for better seats than these, it was just perfect. Still a
bit early, so we went to scope out the merchandise tent. Not the largest
selection in the world, but a few bowl shirts, hats, and what not. There
was quite a line, so we decided to come back during the game.
The
pre-game show was nothing more than a bunch of giant balloon figures, a few
fireworks, and advertisements. After the National Anthem took place and
some fighter jets flew over head, it was time for some football!!! Of
course, first return of the game turns into an exciting trick play as our side
goes wild. We quickly made friends with the nice older couple in front of
us, high-fiving on every big play. Adam and I were so amped that we were
ready to stand the entire game. That is until some fellow a few rows back
asked us to sit down, and we were shocked that he had come all this way to be a
football scrooge. Since I saw the section in front of us and the one to
the left standing and yelling the entire time, I told the guy, "hey, this
is a football game!" But, of course we followed scrooge's demands and still
sat down, for the time being. Nothing was going to stop us from having fun
and enjoying a great football game.
Obviously,
if you watched ESPN, you know how the rest of the game unfolded. The
loudest point of the night was Ian Johnson's break away, record-breaking
touchdown. The crowd just erupted, and I ended up in the aisle jumping and
yelling as if we had just won a million dollars. I thought we were about
to witness another blowout, as Boise State extended their lead to 13-0.
As
halftime approached, the score was 13-7, we were all a bit afraid of the fact
that we actually had a football game on our hands. The halftime show was a
nice little dance show followed by a firework extravaganza. The smoke
billowed across the field as the kickoff pursued. At this point it was
getting colder, but we were thrilled with the lack of rain and/or wind. The
guy in front of us said it was the nicest night since he arrived in town. By
this time, there were giant lines for concessions and the bathroom, and all the
Boise State and bowl merchandise was sold out. There were still some TCU
shirts left of course. I was surprised at the amount of fans we had, it
was quite incredible. The Horned Frogs had a decent amount of fans, but a
lot of them just local Charger fans pushing for TCU since it's LT's (LaDamian
Tomlinson) former school and all. Nobody half as dedicated as the Bronco
Nation. Some people had flown into town, some took a bus, some carpooled,
and some only came a few miles. Doesn't matter how they got there or how
long it took, the Bronco Nation was there.
As
the game reached it's closing seconds, and we had been defeated for the first
time all season, there was a bitter disappointment in the air. Thousands
of us, exiting the building, with the same bummed out looks on our faces. But,
as we sat in the parking lot, waiting to head home, a few cute
Boise
girls ran
around to the cars with a "Honk 4 Boise State" sign, and you bet we laid on
that horn. We may have lost this game, but we still love our Broncos, and
our hometown. Nothing was going to take that pride away.
We
had made some new friends, made some enemies, saw familiar faces, laughed,
yelled, and sighed. On the way back, we stopped into a McDonalds
a few miles up the road, and ate away our devastating loss with about 20 other
Bronco fans. Once home and in bed, it was time to turn on the DVR and
watch the game all over again. Next season can't come soon enough!!!
GO
BRONCOS!!!