I also used to bowl, but this is not about that.
Last Saturday’s Ohio State - Michigan game reminds me football bowl season is almost here again. Yippee!
One of the best things I ever did relates to the Orange Bowl. No, I didn’t score the winning touchdown. But, every year when it’s Orange Bowl day (now night), I stop and remember that it was during an annual Orange Bowl game in 1985 when Karen and I gave up the terrible habit of cigarette smoking. It was the third quarter of the Washington vs. Oklahoma game. Neither one of us ever touched another cigarette. Not once.
In the late ‘90s, my son, son-in-law and I became big fans of the San Diego-based Holiday Bowl, attending several of the annual games in gorgeous evening weather. We didn’t have a team. We just loved the event. Well-run. Good teams.
One year we ran into a guy in the stadium parking lot wearing a red blazer. Turns out, he was the CEO of the Holiday Bowl. Great guy. A long conversation ensued. He was very instrumental in positioning the Holiday Bowl as an annual fixture on the football schedule. Mark your calendar. This year’s game is December 28.
Another of our favorites is the Quick Lane Bowl (formerly the Motor City Bowl), played in the neighboring city of Detroit. What a pleasure to attend an indoor bowl game in a warm and dry domed stadium. (Are you listening, Cleveland?) Semi-local teams we’ve seen play in that game are University of Toledo (my son-in-law’s alma mater) and University of Akron. We also saw my alma mater, UNC, one year.
But the granddaddy of them all is the Rose Bowl, and it was 2001 when Keith and I got up very early to attend both the Rose Parade AND the Rose Bowl game, where Washington edged Purdue. What a great day!
On a side note: Our family has a long history with the Rose Bowl stadium that started well before the 2001 game. We lived in Southern California after World War II. My brother’s junior college - John Muir - played home games in that huge venue. Can you imagine what the 100,000 capacity RB looks like with 1,500 fans at a game? We were there a number of times.
Beyond that, I have vague memory of playing in a flag football competition there when I was about nine years old. I mean really vague, but I’ll claim it nevertheless.
Yes, your neighbor and friend played in a Rose Bowl game (well, a game in the Rose Bowl....).
Next week I’ll tell you what it was like to attend an Army-Navy game.
DY: In Just a Few Words is a blog that comes out when something needs to be said or every Tuesday - whichever comes first. Davis Young is a communications professional who adds 50+ years of experience and perspective to issues of the day. His emphasis in DY: In Just a Few Words will be humor (a touch of sarcasm here, a pinch of facetiousness there...). Once in a while, he will touch on something a bit more serious - but hopefully not too deep or depressing.
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