Monday, July 22, 2013

The First Road Trip to see the National Champion Ohio State Buckeyes


2002 was the season that affirmed my status as a college football diehard.  I had been a fan for years, but it's difficult to give football its proper Saturday due when you've got chores to do at your parents' house or soccer games to play.  So, it took actually being in college to push my CFB passion to its current level bordering on the ridiculous.  I was a freshman at North Carolina State.  I'd never had so much free time to sit around and watch football all day.  Saturday was wide open.  My long-time friend and college roommate, Tommy, and I would order Gumby's pizza and we would just sit...ALL DAY.  If we weren't at the State game, we were watching football on our little 19-inch TV - or in our friend Sac's room watching on their slightly larger TV.  Every weekend was built around football.  The Wolfpack started the season 9-0.  That same year, Notre Dame started 8-0.

My buddy Garlow and I had decided to make a road trip to Ohio State on the first weekend of November to visit his cousin.  He had grown up a fan of the Buckeyes similar to how I had with Notre Dame.  As luck would have it, our plans to attend the Minnesota game on Nov. 2 were made twice as awesome by The Ohio State University's 9-0 start.  On the first day of November, we headed northwest to Columbus, Ohio, jamming out to 80s music and Dave Matthews Band.  That was my first of many times driving to the Midwest.  It's about as boring as watching NASCAR.  There is nothing to see for hundreds of miles on end.  I'm used to it, now, having lived out there, but you better have someone interesting to talk to (Garlow was) and some good tunes to listen to (we did) when you drive through the Midwest.  If not, you could easily fall asleep and wake up inside of a silo. 

We didn't arrive in Columbus until the early hours of Saturday morning, so we basically grabbed a solid few ours of sleep and got up to get ready for tailgaiting.   

The tailgating at Ohio State ten years ago remains the best that I've seen.  I like being outside to do a little pre-gaming, but I also want to watch all the other games leading up to the live kickoff for the game I'm attending.  At Ohio State, you get both.  On a giant, outdoor screen, you can watch all of the other games right outside of the stadium.  It has taken every bit of the last decade for the memory of watching NC State lose to an inferior Georgia Tech team on that massive screen to fade, but there's nothing better than being able to enjoy the crisp air, have a beer, and watch football with the knowledge that you're about see two ranked teams clash with conference and national title implications.

Every fan has their own set of expectations for tailgating experiences, but mine are about three things: 1) I need to be able to watch football somewhere and I'd prefer to do it without making friends with "Drunken" Chuck O'Callahan who brought a TV with him.  2) I want it to be easy to get a beer.  3) - I need easily accessible bathrooms.  Ohio State - you're #1 for the time being. 

Just walking to the stadium can be an interesting experience, as it gives you a taste of the town.  Buckeye fans are some of the most hardcore that I've ever known.  My buddy Tony, an OSU alum, once left a restaurant because the beef he wanted to order off the menu was brought in from Michigan.  They don't breed fair weather fans in Ohio.  If the scarlet and grey gets into your blood, then you're a diehard.  Weekends can be incredible or terrible based on a win or a loss.  I love that about college football.  Losing one game can mean no more national title shot or less of a chance at winning the conference.  One game!  You can't duplicate that in any other sport.

Ohio State is a big place - it's one of the biggest schools in the country.  It's historical vibe - that flood of feelings that you get when you walk on campus and get closer to the stadium, where you sense the spirit of legends - is about as palpable in Columbus as it is in South Bend.  I'm thankful that the a place that I'd definitively consider to be amongst college football's Holy Grail of game day experiences was the first stop on my tour.  Being one of 104,897 people in the Horseshoe...I may not even have become all that interested in traveling the country for CFB games if it weren't for The Shoe. 

There's a spine tingling moment when you realize that you've just experienced something special and you start wanting to experience it again.  When you're standing there watching an undefeated football team amidst over a hundred thousand rabid fans, getting goosebumps on top of your goosebumps on a mid-fall day in Ohio, it's what I can best describe as divine.  If life is broken down into a series of memories, then the roar of the crowds just prior to a kickoff - when the anticipation reaches a fever pitch - are going to be some of the things that I think about on my deathbed.
Stock photo - I didn't have a camera back then


Ohio State dominated a ranked Golden Gopher squad with Big 10 title dreams of its own.  They went on to gut out a few close ones down the stretch and set-up a Fiesta Bowl showdown with Miami in the national championship game.  Anywhere I go in any given season, I become kind of a de-facto fan of that team for the rest of the year.  Garlow and I watched the title game over at our friend Kevin's house during the holiday break from school.  Another of our friends, Chris, is a big Miami fan and his heavily favored 'Canes came in expected to potentially breeze their way to a second straight BCS title.  Chris holed up in one room of the house, while many of us were in another.  A lot of people were critical of Ohio State's inclusion in the game, citing their close wins against mediocre teams.  They played their hearts out, though, and won in double overtime.  Garlow jumped me in one of those perfectly acceptable man hugs.  He's kicking my rear end in national titles for his teams versus mine since we started and completed college - he's got three to my zero (two UNC basketball titles and one OSU football championship).

The fact that both the Irish and Wolfpack had their undefeated dreams die that day was disappointing, but the negativity from that day wore off and the lasting awesomeness of seeing the eventual national champions win 34-3 in the Shoe took over.     

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