Monday, October 13, 2014

I Don't Know How to Aggie Football...

But I gave it the old college try!  Or should I say the "ole" college try since we were playing Ole Miss?  OK, this is getting bad, even for me.  Jeff won tickets through his employer for the big game, and even though we knew we'd be pretty tired from waking up super early that morning, running 9 miles, and the game not starting until 8:00 that night, OF COURSE we would go.  We don't turn down free tickets, especially good seats in a sold-out game.  As it turns out, there was a record-setting crowd of 110,633 people in attendance, so it was pretty cool to be a part of that.

Texas A&M University, home of the Aggies, is steeped in tradition, many of which we are unfamiliar with.  If you attend this school, students go to a "fish camp" (freshmen are called fish here) where they indoctrinate you with all of the traditions, songs, and Aggie ways.  Since the only Aggie ways we've picked up on have been through living in this community for the last 14 years, we don't know a lot.  No matter, we still had a great time both before the game as well as during, although the Aggies didn't play very well.  The crowd was fun and getting to watch the band in person at half time was awesome!

We took the free bus to the game - you get on it at the mall, which is really close to our house.  We figured it would be nice to not have to deal with traffic and parking on campus.  We waited in line for about five minutes before boarding our bus - they crammed us in like sardines:
 We were standing in the aisle...packed so tightly that there's no way you could move. 
 This was our bus.  People in red and blue are Ole Miss fans.
We wandered around the Corps of Cadets quad - Jeff tried to get me to pose with the cannon but I would have felt like an Aggie imposter, so we just took a picture of random strangers instead.
Jeff in front of Kyle field - you can see the new part behind and to the left of him, and the older part to the right.  They've been doing renovations to the field during the off-season - it's looking really nice!
We watched the Corps march in - the band came first, followed by the rest of the regiments.  This shot shows just some of the tailgate tents in the background - they take tailgating seriously around here!
The band - so cool!
The cannon being brought in - I'm not sure if it's the same one that was being used for pictures before.  They shoot it off during the game whenever an A&M touchdown is scored (spoiler alert:  we did not hear it go off very often).
 In our seats with our giant tub of popcorn.  Neither of us were feeling great about food (dang, that runner's gut lasts a long time) - we split a burger outside the stadium and also shared a bottle of chocolate milk.  There were a lot of BBQ options available, but while it smelled good, we weren't up for it.  Salty popcorn hit the spot - I think we managed to eat close to half that bucket!
 Pre-game.  Picture taken by Jeff's coworker Lisa, who had the seats in front of us.  Fun fact:  the section we were sitting in will be imploded on December 14th, as part of the Kyle Field renovations.  Why do I know the particular date of implosion?  Because it happens to be the same day as the BCS Marathon/Half Marathon.  Normally part of the race goes right by Kyle Field, but that won't be happening this year!
Getting ready to start - I think there was singing at this point?
The mascot, a collie dog named Reveille, is  on the field...
 And here come the football players!  Along with fireworks - I wasn't expecting this!
Pretty sweet fireworks show both on the field and above the new Jumbotron.
 The game did not go well for the Aggies.  So let's just leave it at that, and with a picture of game via the ginormous Jumbotron.  We had fun with the people sitting around us - the man next to me decided to make lemonade out of the lemon of a game and started high-fiving everyone whenever the Aggies made a first down.  Celebrate the small victories!
 Half time - the band. 
 They were doing an intricate diamond design - I don't know how they pulled it off without running into each other!
 The Aggie band looked EXCELLENT out there!
 I was taking this picture when Jeff asked me why I wasn't taking a picture of the field...
 So here you go...two views of the block T.

We ended up leaving shortly after the fourth quarter started and a fumble resulted in Ole Miss scoring again.  The line for the bus was a lot longer this go-round, but it still moved fairly quickly and we were home just before midnight.  Long day, but a fun one.  I'd do it again!

20 comments:

  1. Wow what a cool event! They don't do events this way here not even at soccer games which is the biggest sport here in Holland. Great to see how it's done in your city, thanks for sharing.

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    1. College football is a ridiculously huge event here. Hard to fathom it's not that way everywhere! ;)

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  2. So glad you had a good time. I was fortunate enough to see Aggies vs Texas at Kyle Field a few years ago, along with VIP passes to some of the tailgates. Dave's cousin is a big booster and got us great seats. It was a bucket list experience for me.

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  3. SO SO SO FUN.
    I have a number of friends with children in the aggie band!

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  4. Looks like so much fun! I would love to go to an Aggies game with my dad some day! He is a T A and M alumni!

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    1. The alumni REALLY seem to enjoy the game - your dad would have a blast!

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  5. How fun - seems like you really had a great time even if you didn't know the traditions.

    After a 9 mile run you guys should be really hungry and wanting to eat throughout the day! Runner's gut is the reason I stopped using GU and Gatorade. You really shouldn't be suffering from that hours after running and if you are on a regular basis, you should evaluate what you're using for running fuel. Sometimes simply switching brands (or using real food instead) will make all the difference!

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    1. Hard to believe that one GU and a few organic Honey Stinger chews could mess up my stomach so much. It feels like it shuts down. Actually, I wish I had that feeling during the week (haha, says the person who has dieted for far too many years)!

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  6. I am a huge football fan, but the band is always the best part. Mizzou fans share your football woes. We didn't hear our cannon AT ALL because we were shut out by Georgia. We're saving our best plays for Nov. 15:)

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    1. Nov. 15th - LOL. It's looking better and better for your team, I'm sad to say...

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  7. The size of the marching band is amazing! I think I would have enjoyed it too, even with not understanding football!

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    1. It was an event, and really, you don't have to understand a lot of football to feel the energy and excitement (OK, and disappointment) in the stands.

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  8. What an awesome day! You did more on Saturday than I've done in the last several weekends! #jealous!

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    1. It was a busier-than-usual Saturday for us, that's for sure!

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  9. Hmm, I'm not a college football fan myself (my alma mater didn't have a team), but you make it sound so fun! Fantastic pics too. When I go to any sort of sporting event, I only seem to capture beer and hot dogs. :)

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  10. I love pro football, but the only thing I like about college football is the marching band. Those shows are amazing!

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  11. WOW....the band formations are AMAZING!!!! Have a wonderful week Shelley!

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  12. My daughter was a Fish Camp counselor for three years and then a camp director. She bleeds maroon!!! It wasn't a good showing for the Aggies, but they'll get it!

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