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.
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