We have carried season tickets to ASU for a decade and this weekend’s game against BYU may go down as the most fun/exciting/intense we’ve ever been to. We have been looking forward to this match up since the beginning of the season but at the time, we thought both teams were mediocre. As both teams showed their strength throughout the season we were even more excited to go to this game. (Fun fact: The last time the BYU Cougars played at Sun Devil stadium was back in 1997!)
There are so many BYU fans in the valley and everyone we knew was going to the game. We tailgated before with a bunch of families and as you can see from the pictures we were a divided crew. Some were wearing blue, others were wearing black and gold and yet we all shared a tent and hot dogs and had fun together. Most of the those people would be happy to wear ASU 98% of time…unless they are playing BYU and that’s where their true allegiance lies which made it fun.
We like BYU. But we carry ASU tickets. And even as Steve (someone who attended BYU but doesn’t own a single BYU shirt) was putting on his gold Sun Devil shirt he said, “I don’t think I really know who I’m going to cheer for tonight – I guess I’ll know after the first touchdown, whether I was happy or disappointed!”
When ASU scored the first touchdown he was jumping up and down like a little kid and that is when he realized who he was pulling for!
We were so happy to have Hallie join us. She’s currently in home MTC which means she’s a missionary and has a schedule and online classes and then she has free time where she gets to be with us and still see friends and do activities.
When we entered the stadium Cannon asked if we could storm the field if ASU won – that was an easy yes. The chances of us winning were slim but if they could pull it off, we would for sure join the celebration on the field.
We knew there was going to be a lot of BYU fans – in fact the coach sent a video plea asking fans to make sure they only sold tickets to ASU fans. We needed home field advantage for this game! But as you can see from the stadium below, BYU blue was drowning out the gold. And it was loud. But ASU came out strong and pulled ahead in the first half and we started to have hope we could actually win. And then BYU came alive in the second half and the fans grew louder and louder.
They started to chip away at our large lead and suddenly a win seemed out of reach – but BYU had a major turnover and ASU just ran out of the clock…at least everyone thought they did. Fans rushed the field – even as large block letters scrolled across the jumbotron, “Previous play under review.” We stayed in our seats. This is what the stadium looked like when the officials announced there was one second on the clock and BYU now had possession. It took 20 mins to get everyone off the field and even then they were on the lowest level they just could be within the official play area. So the were squished together with toes on the line of the field as BYU threw one last hail Mary.
And when they came up short everyone rushed the field for a second time (many of them still standing on the grass!) and we had to join. It was totally worth getting stuck in traffic for a few minutes to witness the joy and excitement of being on the field and standing next to some of the hero players from the game.
We stood as a family in the end-zone enjoying the moment of being together for one last game (at least for a while). Our little team – who aren’t so little anymore.
We have been faithful fans in good seasons and bad (mostly bad it seems!) but this weekend it was fun to celebrate a big win.
