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My Texas Experience

GreenspointTexas

By GreenspointTexas
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GreenspointTexas

GreenspointTexas 9559

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Found this on a USC message board after the game this morning. So glad to see what another blue blood thinks about our program/atmosphere:

 

 

Lots and lots of takes on the game, "the safety call", RB rotation, etc. Thought some might find my first experience in Austin interesting.

I am a Widower as my wife of 20 years passed away a few years back at 44 years of age from Lung Cancer having never smoked a day in her life. That experience and raising my two kids solo these last few years, has really given me some perspective on what is important and not so important at least as far as my life is concerned. It also makes the concept of building memories very valuable to me, so when my 18 year old son approached me last week and suggested a memorable trip for his Senior Year in High School would be an Texas trip, I was all about it. We quickly convinced a USC classmate to join us and made plans for a long weekend road trip. We left Friday around noon and made it to Marathon around 2:00AM Saturday morning. We got a decent sleep and headed to Austin the next morning arriving around 1:00. We parked on the outskirts of campus by the polo fields and headed down to the Kerbey Labe and then over towards the stadium for the afternoon before the game started. Several things were noteworthy.

1) There is a place I believe was called the "Alumni Center.” It was in the Texas Exes center and had 4 or 5 large TVs and lots of sofas/chairs/floor space and there must have been 100-200 folks in Orange and White watching the TTU-Houston game and avoiding the mid-day heat outside. It was a great setup and the perfect way for us to watch the "other" important game that day. Lots of nice folks in there - even one gentleman and his wife who offered us their seats. We declined, but the sentiment was indicative of the treatment we would get the rest of the day. These folks are serious about being respectful and classy.

2) Bevo Blvd before the game. Right before game time, we lined the streets around the stadium to watch the parade of the Longhorn Band make their way to DKR. It was astounding how many there were! After the band marched through to lead the processional, the waves of band members kept coming and coming and coming! It finally ended when the large bass drum Big Bertha made its way down the street on the way to the stadium.

3) The stadium was very impressive! We were in the upper deck of the End Zone where Same scored his touchdown across from where our band was located. If I did not know the capacity, I would have guessed it was even larger than 105,000. I guess it was the way it completely surrounded the field that made it look so much larger than I envisioned beforehand. With all of the stadium lights flashing, energized fans, the towels waving frantically, and no place for the noise to escape, it is easy to see how the players could get easily get distracted and intimidated. No doubt about it - it was rocking Saturday night! Even up by 11 points at one time, you could feel the crowds energy and knew the game wasn't out of reach. That thought obviously turned out to be prophetic.

4) Band - I'm not much of a band guy, but the size and precision of the band was something to see. From the upper deck where you could see the formations unfolding as the members marched in all sorts of directions, I thought for certain there would be collisions or errors in all of the coordinated movements. It was flawless with straight lines and changing shapes that must take incredible effort to organize and pull off. It was a great show and worth staying in my seat at halftime to witness it.

5) The Eyes of a Texas - I think that is what it was called at the start of the 4th quarter had the whole stadium energized and engaged. If you are a Texas person, I could see how that would put a lump in your throat each time that song was played. Even as a visitor it was easy to get into it.

6 - The Smoke ring from the Smokey - Someone posted a picture of that earlier today. After one of the scores and firing the round, that smoke ring floating across the field was pretty cool.

7 Finally and most important the Texas People.... There was an announcement before the game reminding the Texas fans about class and respect for your opponent. I was blown away at how universal this sentiment was taken to heart by everyone we encountered all day - I mean EVERYONE. We sat in the middle of an Texas section. We had been elbow to elbow with folks decked out in Burnt Orange all day. Even making our way down the crowded walkways from the upper deck after a tightly contested game with controversial calls that frustrated the home team, I did not hear a single derogatory word. Not one - literally all day. Closest we even came was a car that drove by us walking to the stadium and the students yelled something like "Hook Em Horns!” or something like that. I was stunned to be honest. Much more often we heard "Welcome to Austin” or "Hope you have a safe drive home" and never a murmur of anything condescending or hostile. We all love college football and want our team to win. We all get fired up and heated up when things don't go our way. These folks get it though. Maybe it is just my personal history with tragedy these last few years, but these Texas folks see things the right way with the right perspective. They fought hard and that stadium was as raucous as you can imagine, but when the game was over we had nothing but pats on the backs, handshakes and well wishes. I just had to write this post to tip my cap Texas fans, students and Alumni. You may have come up a few points ahead on the scoreboard Saturday night, but you also won me over. What a classy, classy bunch that I have nothing but respect and admiration for based on the experience we had last Saturday. I hope it won't be my last trip to Texas, and for those of you that make the trip over next year, I hope you experience the same level of Southern hospitality, respect and sportsmanship we received in spades Saturday evening. My son, my buddy and I had an absolute ball!

Best of luck the rest of the way Texas friends. This is one guy from California who will be rooting for you along the way.

Blessings.
Chip

 

 

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Treefidy

Treefidy 1463

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The dead giveaways are always in the details, and that's how you know its fan fiction.

who would assume USC fans drove here and wish them a safe drive back vs flight

Hoping we get the same hospitality next year even though the series is over. 

Swinging towels and the band maneuvers are aggy things.  

 

Great satire of an aggy turdition  

 

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Bullneck

Bullneck 18983

Posted
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2 hours ago, Treefidy said:

The dead giveaways are always in the details, and that's how you know its fan fiction.

who would assume USC fans drove here and wish them a safe drive back vs flight

Hoping we get the same hospitality next year even though the series is over. 

Swinging towels and the band maneuvers are aggy things.  

 

Great satire of an aggy turdition  

 

Back in the late 80s DeLoss had the idea to give out towels and tell Texas fans to "Swing Orange."  I'm not kidding.

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jTower

jTower 225

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Posted
3 hours ago, GreenspointTexas said:

Found this on a USC message board after the game this morning. So glad to see what another blue blood thinks about our program/atmosphere:

 

 

Lots and lots of takes on the game, "the safety call", RB rotation, etc. Thought some might find my first experience in Austin interesting.

I am a Widower as my wife of 20 years passed away a few years back at 44 years of age from Lung Cancer having never smoked a day in her life. That experience and raising my two kids solo these last few years, has really given me some perspective on what is important and not so important at least as far as my life is concerned. It also makes the concept of building memories very valuable to me, so when my 18 year old son approached me last week and suggested a memorable trip for his Senior Year in High School would be an Texas trip, I was all about it. We quickly convinced a USC classmate to join us and made plans for a long weekend road trip. We left Friday around noon and made it to Marathon around 2:00AM Saturday morning. We got a decent sleep and headed to Austin the next morning arriving around 1:00. We parked on the outskirts of campus by the polo fields and headed down to the Kerbey Labe and then over towards the stadium for the afternoon before the game started. Several things were noteworthy.

1) There is a place I believe was called the "Alumni Center.” It was in the Texas Exes center and had 4 or 5 large TVs and lots of sofas/chairs/floor space and there must have been 100-200 folks in Orange and White watching the TTU-Houston game and avoiding the mid-day heat outside. It was a great setup and the perfect way for us to watch the "other" important game that day. Lots of nice folks in there - even one gentleman and his wife who offered us their seats. We declined, but the sentiment was indicative of the treatment we would get the rest of the day. These folks are serious about being respectful and classy.

2) Bevo Blvd before the game. Right before game time, we lined the streets around the stadium to watch the parade of the Longhorn Band make their way to DKR. It was astounding how many there were! After the band marched through to lead the processional, the waves of band members kept coming and coming and coming! It finally ended when the large bass drum Big Bertha made its way down the street on the way to the stadium.

3) The stadium was very impressive! We were in the upper deck of the End Zone where Same scored his touchdown across from where our band was located. If I did not know the capacity, I would have guessed it was even larger than 105,000. I guess it was the way it completely surrounded the field that made it look so much larger than I envisioned beforehand. With all of the stadium lights flashing, energized fans, the towels waving frantically, and no place for the noise to escape, it is easy to see how the players could get easily get distracted and intimidated. No doubt about it - it was rocking Saturday night! Even up by 11 points at one time, you could feel the crowds energy and knew the game wasn't out of reach. That thought obviously turned out to be prophetic.

4) Band - I'm not much of a band guy, but the size and precision of the band was something to see. From the upper deck where you could see the formations unfolding as the members marched in all sorts of directions, I thought for certain there would be collisions or errors in all of the coordinated movements. It was flawless with straight lines and changing shapes that must take incredible effort to organize and pull off. It was a great show and worth staying in my seat at halftime to witness it.

5) The Eyes of a Texas - I think that is what it was called at the start of the 4th quarter had the whole stadium energized and engaged. If you are a Texas person, I could see how that would put a lump in your throat each time that song was played. Even as a visitor it was easy to get into it.

6 - The Smoke ring from the Smokey - Someone posted a picture of that earlier today. After one of the scores and firing the round, that smoke ring floating across the field was pretty cool.

7 Finally and most important the Texas People.... There was an announcement before the game reminding the Texas fans about class and respect for your opponent. I was blown away at how universal this sentiment was taken to heart by everyone we encountered all day - I mean EVERYONE. We sat in the middle of an Texas section. We had been elbow to elbow with folks decked out in Burnt Orange all day. Even making our way down the crowded walkways from the upper deck after a tightly contested game with controversial calls that frustrated the home team, I did not hear a single derogatory word. Not one - literally all day. Closest we even came was a car that drove by us walking to the stadium and the students yelled something like "Hook Em Horns!” or something like that. I was stunned to be honest. Much more often we heard "Welcome to Austin” or "Hope you have a safe drive home" and never a murmur of anything condescending or hostile. We all love college football and want our team to win. We all get fired up and heated up when things don't go our way. These folks get it though. Maybe it is just my personal history with tragedy these last few years, but these Texas folks see things the right way with the right perspective. They fought hard and that stadium was as raucous as you can imagine, but when the game was over we had nothing but pats on the backs, handshakes and well wishes. I just had to write this post to tip my cap Texas fans, students and Alumni. You may have come up a few points ahead on the scoreboard Saturday night, but you also won me over. What a classy, classy bunch that I have nothing but respect and admiration for based on the experience we had last Saturday. I hope it won't be my last trip to Texas, and for those of you that make the trip over next year, I hope you experience the same level of Southern hospitality, respect and sportsmanship we received in spades Saturday evening. My son, my buddy and I had an absolute ball!

Best of luck the rest of the way Texas friends. This is one guy from California who will be rooting for you along the way.

Blessings.
Chip

 

 

good bull...

 

 

...shit

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Cairn Horn88

Cairn Horn88 8162

Posted
Posted
5 hours ago, dcar00 said:

This is beautiful.  so glad the USC people got a taste of the hospitality of the awesome Texas Fans.  hopefully someone responds to this great USC fan and his son saying they should join the Big 12.

Personally, I am going to believe that this is true.  We all had a good Saturday night here in Austin....I'm not gonna mess it up by saying this is not true.....just me.  It is what it is.

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TexMexBuddha

TexMexBuddha 987

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Bullneck said:

I didn't see the "vicious hit from behind" that tore up the knee of one of the USC players on the kick block.  Anyone got that?

Yeah. I did not either, but my eyes were down the field with Wheeler and Sterns. I got a kick out of the comments about the place being so loud that SC players could not hear the play call on the 3rd/4th down stops. Not something you hear or equate with DKR.

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