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11-0!
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P.T.
Barnum Contributing Writer |
All I ever wanted was a championship. As a genetically-crazed, lifelong sports fan, all I ever wanted was one championship, one perfect season. I have been haunted by this insane desire, with the Utah Jazz coming within a game of championship glory and the Utah Utes hoopsters blowing a 10-point halftime lead in the national championship game--both in a traumatizing two-month span in the Spring of 1998.
Two weeks ago I found myself, again, on the verge of having my sportsfan dreams come true. As many here in the Beehive State were aware, the University of Utah football team headed into its biggest game in school history. They were 10-0 with their deplorable rival BYU Cougars the only thing standing between them and their first-ever undefeated season. The stakes could not have been higher. If the Michael Moore event last month was a trainwreck of wild (political) zoo animals, this game was the bonfire of Utah sports fanaticism. And I was head fanatic.
Come
gameday, Saturday, November 20, I was a perfect volcano of emotions. I'd
pulled an all-nighter, mostly due to rabid anticipation & nerves,
and partially due to absorption in working on my homemade T-shirt for
the big game. [Decked with stenciled-in American flags, it reads proudly
on the front:"BUSTING THE Bull Crap System" (BCS), and on the
back:"UTAH UTES: AMERICA'S TEAM," in reference to their national
underdog status].
"College
Gameday," the biggest weekly college football show on TV, hosted
their broadcast in the stadium parking lot at 7 a.m. My good friend Bryant
Salmon, his brother Trev and I arrived at 6:30 a.m. along with 20,000
other crimson-clad hooligans soon after. The 20 degree weather deterred
us little, particularly given the prevalance adrenaline had assumed inside
my body.
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Elated U Fans Carry Away the Goal
Post
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Kickoff was at 5:05 PM. Due to a mishap in obtaining tickets, I was consigned to the "standing room only" portion of the student section. And due to my brother-in-law sneaking into the BYU band section, I was left standing all by myself. I was suddenly floored by anti-climactic it was: the biggest game of my life, the hysterical hype leading up to it, and here I am, all by myself, standing at the very top row of the gigantic stadium. In retrospect I found it strangely fitting however: complete solitude, perched on the mountain tops, fully relishing the significance with the most distant of perspectives--probably I'm just consoling myself though.
While
it was a dogfight through the first half (21-14 Utah lead), the dream
began to unfold early in the 3rd quarter. Ute field goal. Utah interception
near the end zone. 92-yard touchdown run next play. Fumble returned for
six more soon after. Before we knew it, my boys were up 45-21 with all
imaginable momentum. Let the pandemonium begin. The floodgates of 45,000
Ute fans began to burst. "B-C-S!! B-C-S!!" was the united roar
of the crowd! A surge of euphoric exhiliration and pride suddenly filled
my veins, informing me suddenly that a dream was coming true.
An electric sort of buzz, confirmed by a mass of flashing cameras, surrounded
the playing field. The feeling that history was being made was as tangible
as the lights over head. Then the floodgates completely burst as all desiring
fans, myself included, were allowed to pour onto the field. An eruption
of University of Utah sports celebration was in effect. The BCS-busting
Utah Utes had blown out the BYU Coogers 52-21 to finish the season 11-0.
As I basked in the mosh pit of fellow Ute fans I honestly thought I might
get demolished by the massive crowd, during which thought, I thought,
"I'll die a happy man."
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