Every Man A Wildcat

A friend of mine from down here in the land O' the longhorn had the nerve to tell me I might enjoy a UT tailgate as much as one back home. I attempted to joke with the guy, telling him he didn't know squat about tailgating. Then he asked me to give him some examples of a K-State tailgate and why they are so great...three hours later he acted like he wasn't impressed. So I told him one tailgate that always stuck out. This was easy. November 11, 2006. KSU vs. UT. My younger sis, Lauren came up to see if KSU was where she wanted to be when she went to college. There really was no other option, so this was just a good excuse to go to a game with her big bro. We showed up a few hours in advance...I drank...a lot. We went into the game. Beat UT, stormed the field and had a great time. Then, for good measure I told him what I did the next year when we beat UT again, which ended up being the same scenario as the first except apparently I stormed the neighbors yard...and then their living room...in other words, an equally good time. His rebuttal, K-State sucks and we have a very old man for a coach...real classy guy. Then I said some things I now regret, he countered with some phrases I hope he regrets...Then I don't really remember what happened after that. Everything kind of went red and hazy...when I awoke the next morning I was in the backyard with all of my K-State gear on...and my friend hasn't been much of a friend as of late...he had it coming.

After this little episode it really got me to thinking. The old saying is true. Every Man A Wildcat. This has been preached to me since birth. And I guess that's the reason I am the forever optimist that every K-State football team will be the surprise team of that year and somehow, someway make their way back to a bowl game and get people to say, "Oh yeah, these guys were good not too long ago." But after spending that opening college football weekend exactly 676 miles from where I normally would be on a Saturday morning, and then watching my beloved wildcats get beat by some form of a Ragin' Cajun, I finally took a step back and told myself, "It might be a while before they get to where they need to be." It is a very hard pill to swallow. I didn't agree with what old Ronald was trying to do when he was around, but even then I still thought during those three years, we always had a chance to be pretty good. And by pretty good, I mean if we didn't have to play any kind of defense (which we didn't), we would be owning the Big 12.

I do understand that I am apart of the spoiled Wildcat generation. The part that is accustomed to bowl games every year and not being apart of any kind of shellacking or ugly, ugly, ugly loss to some team from Louisiana. (It looked like a bad high school game) I will never be able to fully understand what my parents and all other fellow K-Staters went through B.S. (Before Snyder or Bull S**t, whichever you prefer...still taking into account this is a family oriented blog.) These people in my eyes are the greatest fans you can find. Going through that bad of times and still being a fan is amazing to me. But I was lucky enough to witness how badly all of these people wanted to win. Going to some great games...Nebraska 1998 and 2000, both great games, all the glorious KU beatings, Texas 2006, sorry Meg and Nate. And then when our family (Who, by the way, are probably as big of K-State fans you'll ever meet) brought our horrible curse to the bowl games, which we would drive very, very long distances to watch, and then get to see a different team show up and get their arses handed to them. But during all of those bowl games I would always get the chills. Seeing 45,000 K-State fans at the Cotton Bowl, or 40,000 at the Alamo Bowl, and around 35,000 at the Texas Bowl, I got to witness first hand how much K-State football meant to so many people. I also got to see how these people would react after coming so far to see so little. Needless to say, I learned the true art of cussing at K-State bowl games.

Despite those games, and the outlook of this season so far, I will still support this team as if we were in contention of going to a good bowl game. That right there is called great parenting.
So Wildcat faithful, know this. When all these hippies down here don their burnt orange and sing their fight song (which by the way is to the tune of I've been working on the railroad...found that out last weekend at the bars and made fun of it until the large Texan decided it wasn't funny anymore), yours truly will be purple clad roaming the streets and doing the wabash all by my lonesome...but I know you will all be there in spirit...that meaning with some form of an alcoholic beverage in hand...Go State!