Four years of CSU highlights

I’m not one to get into all the sentiment that usually goes on

with graduations. I also know that I will be a CSU Ram for life,

and I will be watching the Rams for years to come.

But there is nothing like watching collegiate sports while a

student. The tailgating, the trash talking and the comradery are

unique. I have thoroughly enjoyed watching CSU athletics as a fan

and a reporter during my time at the Fort.

Here is a short list of my favorites, in chronological

order:

2000-2001

– My first football game as a student could have been the best I

have ever seen. A year removed from the tear-gas blowout of

Barnett’s boys in Boulder, the Rams outlasted the Colorado

Buffaloes 28-24 in the last collegiate game at Mile High Stadium.

Fellow Cherry Creek High alum Matt Newton had the long ball

working. What a start!

– Watching my residence hall mate play CSU hockey. You have to

love the chant after a CSU goal, “He shoots, he scores, hey goalie,

you suck!”

– The Louisville music video for going to the Liberty Bowl.

Anybody who saw it knows what I’m talking about. “We gonna’ win,

“L” no!”

2001-2002

– The game at Hughes against then No. 8 Fresno State and David

Carr. Yes, the Rams lost this game, but it was the coming-out party

for everyone’s favorite “athlete-student” Bradlee Van Pelt. When

little man Pete Rebstock (from: Cherry Creek) scored late in the

fourth quarter to give CSU the lead, I knocked my friend over two

rows and it was the loudest I’ve ever heard Hughes.

– Partying at my house during the New Orleans Bowl. We were

taking shots for every time the Rams scored and for a few other big

plays. Needless to say, there were some drunk people there that

night (CSU 45, North Texas 20).

2002-2003

– Any victory over CU is a highlight. What made the 19-14 win great,

however, were Van Pelt’s antics of bouncing the ball off CU safety

Roderick Sneed’s head and saying it was the worst No. 6 team he had

ever seen.

– Staying up until 3 a.m. in London, where I was studying

abroad, to watch the ESPN game track on the CSU-Duke game in the

NCAA tournament. I wish I could have seen it live, but I wouldn’t

have traded it for my time in London, even if Seal was one of the

British telecast’s football “experts” for the Super Bowl.

2003-2004

– Enjoying all the perks of being a CSU football beat reporter

including: taking road trips to Albuquerque, Las Vegas, Laramie and

San Francisco, joking with fellow Collegian reporter Steve Latuda

about the smoke breaks and schmoozing that different members of the

professional media would indulge in, sitting down for a 25-minute

chat with Sonny Lubick and, of course, the free food.

– The one men’s basketball game I watched from the stands. It

was the overtime victory against Wyoming. The most electric

atmosphere involving CSU athletics is always the basketball game

against the ‘Pokes at Moby, and this one was the best.

– The standard quotes, e.g. “I got to look at the film,” said

Marcus Houston and “I thought our team played hard tonight,” said

Dale Layer and the not-so-standard quotes (e.g. “we should be able

to get (the shotgun snap) there. Hell, I could teach you how to

snap in about five minutes,” Lubick said after three fumbled

shotgun snaps in the loss to New Mexico.

So as I leave the Fort and CSU after the summer, my final words

will be to urge students to come out and watch a game. They are

about a lot more than just sports.