It was the perfect setting. 20 degrees, slight wind, falling snow and college hockey. An experience of a lifetime, BC v. BU, the greatest rivalry in college hockey, in one of the greatest, most historic sports venues in American history. From the opening trip to The Cask 'N Flagon (rated the #2 Sports Bar in America according to ESPN), our stop to Game On, the game, and our final bar hop the gameday experience was a once in a lifetime event.
To quote ESPN: With any luck, it won't be the last "show on ice" played at Fenway Park, and with any luck, I'll be there again.
Wonder who scheduled this? When I first heard that the Jets were playing the last game at Giants Stadium, I was shocked. Now, it turns out to be a brilliant decision. While the Giants played a meaningless last homegame in which they lost by 30 points, the Jets one meant something. Win, and your in. Lose, and its over. Jets playing for a shot to head to Cincinnati to play the Bengals. While the big game didn't live up to its billing - the Jets won 37-0 - the excitement of the stadium made the trip worth it.
I arrived via the Port Authority in New York City and, once stepping out to the Meadowlands three hours before kickoff, instantly felt the cold of a windchill making the temperature 0 degrees. This didn't stop the tailgating, however. With the cold weather I was shocked to see all the busses, RV's and cars lined up with fire pits a blazing. All over Jets fans were screaming "J-E-T-S Jets,Jets,Jets!" and Bengals fans trying to respond with "WhoDey? WhoDey? WhoDey Think Gona Beat Dem Bengals?" It was a battle of teams chanting against eachother, drinking and eating to keep warm, and nostalgia filling the air hearing about the memories at Giants Stadium. Halftime was filled with old Jets like Vinny Testaverde and Wayne Chrebet making appearances.
While I found tickets on Craigslist for 75 in the upper deck, I wasnt there for long. After the 1st quarter, my friend who was in the second section at the 50 yard-line informed me that he had two extra seats near him and I ended up sitting at the 50 yard line in amazing seats.
At the end of the 3rd quarter, and a Jets blowout, I left the stadium with an enjoyable experience. I walked and hopped on the bus back to Port Authority. From there I walked over to Penn Station and hopped on a midnight bus back to Boston. Though tired the next day at work from a long day of travel (especially after a whole New Years Weekend in New York) I appreciate my chance to be at the Meadowlands, to see history and add another memory to those that I currently have.
Most fans wouldn't be happy with a trip to the Emerald Bowl: a mid range, pre-New Years Bowl, played in a baseball stadium. Yet I was excited. I was going to get to see BC play USC, the local team that I always disliked, and close to my Christmas Trip in Los Angeles.
The trip started off with a morning flight from Los Angeles to San Francisco. 7:15 to be exact, a flight dominated by USC fans. After a quick trip to San Francisco in which my brother talked the entire time about his career, love life and more about his career. While he's the Junior in college I'm the one out of school, still not a convo I have every day.
At San Francisco, we checked into the Drury hotel near the stadium and took a nap, had some breakfast and began getting ready to head to the stadium. A quick stop at a liquor store and we were on our way to the tailgates. My good friend Dan Couch, who lives just outside San Francisco, set up an incredible tailgate just 5 minutes from the Stadium. His tailgate, spanning three spots, consisted of beers, brats and burgers. A perfect setting for a bowl game, sun was shining, food was great, and I was with a bunch of old friends.
Unfortunately, with about an hour before kickoff, things started to go downhill. The rain began to come, harder, harder and harder and the disaster of getting to the game on time set in. Waiting in a 20 minute line, in the rain, at a will call that was the other side of the stadium, is not a way to get ready for a big game.
Once we got in, thats when the excitement happened. We pulled into our fantastic seats behind the bc bench on the 20 yard line about 20 rows up. The seats were great and the game wasn't bad. While we went down 14-0, a few exciting plays brought us with-in 1 at 14-13. It was a wild few plays and a lot of fun. A few bad calls including a blatant fumble overturned and a roughing the passer call, and BC ended up losing 24-13 but not with a few more chances.
The night ended with a trip to The Kells, a local bar filled with a very young crew. While upstairs was quiet and peaceful, downstairs was filled with hip hop dance music and a wild crowd.
The next day in San Francisco involved a little football watching at a nearby sports bar, a trip to the Wharf which had fantastic eating and a little wine tasting and took a trip to Union Square for a little shopping. We finished off the night with burgers and beer at a popular San Francisco joint: Gordon Biersch. After filling up on a great local brew and a Giant Bacon & Mushroom Cheesburger.
While BC didn't pull it out, my overall trip was a lot of fun. I got to hang out with friends, see a great game, and enjoy the great city of San Francisco.
Coming from Boston, 77 and sunny couldn't have been more exciting. That was the exact weather in Arizona when I arrived on Friday afternoon to visit my brother and see the Arizona Wildcats take on the Oregon Ducks in one of the biggest football games in Wildcats history. Upon arrival the anticipation of the game was seen throughout. Students were donning their "Duck Hunter" and "Zona Zoo" shirts and talking about the game. The College Gameday Crew was set up and doing their traditional Friday afternoon show, and nothing else seemed to be important. I enjoyed the experience, and the campus. I saw the gameday site and the bookstore to look for Arizona stuff..
The rest of my day was a bunch of relaxing. I went to my brother's place after a little pizza at a popular joint No Anchovies. Living in Boston, I'm not used to being able to sit outside and watch Sportscenter on a Friday afternoon so that was a nice bonus. We then went to my brothers place to hang, grabbed some In-N-Out for dinner and a Keg for the night. Then we hung out and got ready for the festivities.
In order to introduce me to all of his buddies, my brother had a party at his place to see the guys and girls and enjoy what Arizona had to offer. I had a great time and it felt awesome to fell like a college kid again with keg stands, beer pong, and shots of cheap alcohol. The night ended earlier than probably expected, which worked out well because we had to get ready for College Gameday the next day.
On the East Coast, Gameday is at 10am, in Arizona its 8. Those two hours make a difference. After slowly getting out of bed at 7:30, and slowly walking over to the Mall, the site of Gameday, I came upon a sea of people. The scene was wild as students had been there since 4am and others were crowding to try to get on television The scene was wild with excitement as cheers were blasted when special guest Amanda Beard picked Arizona and boos when Lee Corso picked Oregon. After that, I went to a sports bar to watch my Boston College Eagles get smoked by North Carolina, and enjoy a few beers and chicken wings.
The rest of the day was dedicated to Arizona football tailgating, house parties and an early 1 hour entry just to be allowed into the Zona Zoo, the student section that was completely filled up by the 45 minute mark with anticipation. And these fans stayed loud the WHOLE game. 45 minutes before 30 minutes, 10 minutes, down 10-0 early, up 24-14 late and even the play before (and some time after) they lost 44-41 in 2OT. The game will be remembered for the Arizona fans that began to storm a little too early (up 7 with a minute plus left) or the 4th and 7 play hit by Oregon with 30 seconds left. I will remember it for the memorable back and forth performance. The big plays by both sides including a 75 yard touchdown pass for Arizona to go up 31-24, or the Oregon field goal that somehow hit the bar and went in. I'll remember the crowd, staying lowd and rowdy for four hours, and the anger the fans in the crowd showed to those that began to storm. It was maybe the most wild game I had ever seen live or on TV and I will remember it forever.
My weekend ended as it started. A trip to No Anchovies, watching 4 games on 6 Tv's, sitting outside enjoying the beautiful Arizona weather. The whole weekend was amazing and one I will remember forever. Because of the time I spent with my brother, my dad and the Arizona community.
This trip wasn't for the day or just the game, it was for the weekend. The first time I saw some roomates since college, embracing the city of Chicago once again enjoying the Holy War, and celebrating my birthday. Couldn't have asked for anything more.
Reunions are sweet, and I am slowly starting to realize that. As a recent Boston College Graduate, I'm still getting used to not seeing my friends every single day. In the dining hall. In the hallways. In the quad. In the bars. EVERYWHERE. I miss everything about college.
The one thing I will not miss about college is the pure joy we all had when we first saw eachother, and that we kept all weekend.
Since my junior year my buddies and I have run an annual Dudes Weekend. For this weekend we have all of our dads, brothers, friends etc in town for a weekend of good food, good sports, a lot of drinking and the chance for the guys to be guys with their old man. This year we decided to have our Dudes Weekend in Chicago for the ND game! (We actually made a video about it for class which I posted at the bottom of this write up)
While the official weekend didn't begin until Friday, I showed up to spend the night with the Chicagoians on Thursday night. We figured we'd go to the bar, get a few beers, watch the FSU-UNC game and relax for the weekend. Instead, we went to my friends bar where we ripped free shots, dollar beers and partied till 3am when we were forced out of the bar.
You could say we were a little banged up on Friday when we got up and embraced one of the best parts of Chicago - Deep Dish Pizza. Though it took a while and our pounding heads wernt happy about it, we finally got through the whole thing. The rest of the day was spent with slow entries of our friends, where they were all greated with a jump up and down hug, some yelling and a few tears.
Friday night, the real party started. After going to MARKET, Kenny William's new restaurant/bar in downtown Boston, we hit up the Lasalle Power Company and were greeted with recent grads, newly seniors and even the occasional 21 year Junior (and plenty of those that wern't quite 21 yet). The open bar event (which cost a cool 35 bucks) went from 10-1 with wild dancing, beers, mixed drinks and a lot of "how have you been's." With a smaller group of friends (some part of the "crew," though many couldnt last the night) and plenty of others we added along the way. Finally, at 3:15, we decided the night needed to be ended as we had a 9am train meeting the next morning.
After a rough morning, a long shower, and slowly getting dressed, we headed out in the rain and freezing cold, to meet our train to head to the stadium. Though we took a bus last time, we tried a new package led by Dodds Athletic Tours that gave us open bar and food on the train both ways, and a bus inbetween with open beer and snacks. Most trains, my bartender told us, were filled with quiet fans sipping on a few bloody marys and bagles and reading the paper... not ours. We were ripping drinks, shotgunning beers, dueling against fans (a drinking game that involves shotgunning beers and throwing them at ur opponent) and having just a good ole time. The same thing continued on the bus until we arrived at ND at around 1:00. Giving us 2 1/2 hours to gametime.
The tailgate came and went, multiple trips to the bathroom, more beers, brats, burgers and, more trips to the bathroom. There were "Lets go Eagles" chants followed by boos, beers being thrown at us, and the occasional guy that would get in our face, as if we actually wanted to fight.
Then, it was finally time to enter the famous stadium. The "home" of college football. Where legends of the 40s and 50s played and Jimmy Clausen reigns (?) now. We were entering College Football Heaven.
We had awesome seats, directly across from touchdown Jesus, upper deck corner where you could see absolutely everything. In the freezing cold and rain we sat through a tough BC loss after a drive that almost led us to victory.
For most people that would devastate you, I think on any other trip it would have done the same to me. Instead, we got back on that party bus, had a few waters, only to lead to the train with more mixed drinks, beers and even some wine (?). One friend got so drunk he passed out on the train and had to be brought back to his room, where he was then put to bed.
That night was just as wild as the others. I turned 23 :( at midnight and proceeded to announce that I was "no longer college age" as I was bought shot after shot from my dad, friends and people I didnt even know. Having all the guys and girls I spent the last four birthdays with at this event made the whole thing absolutely amazing and an experience I am happy about. For the third year in a row my birthday happened on a big weekend (See BC-Virginia Tech 2007) and I am very greatful. By the time the disaster finally subsided we headed back and got into our rooms at 4:00 that morning.
As I woke up in pain all I could think about was the awesome trip I had and how we had, once again, done it right. Dudes Weekend was a success!
I hope you enjoyed this recap of my trip to Notre Dame for the 17th Annual Holy War. Hope you follow me again for my next journey. Make sure to follow me on twitter @sportsbound, for up to the minute updates on all my sports ventures.
DUDES WEEKEND FROM 2007 - WEEKEND TOOK PLACE WHEN BC WAS #2 FACING FSU. ENJOY!
The weather did not exactly hold off for homecoming weekend in Happy Valley. The earliest snow fall in State College history blanketed the entire region starting on Thursday. Things then became more interesting as a text message was issued out from the university announcing that Penn State's vast grass tailgating areas were closed for this game due to the unfrozen ground and snow that caused some serious muddy conditions.
Lucky the university had a plan B for the situation. Local business and shuttle buses offered their services to make the game day happen, after all it was homecoming. And despite the obstacles the tailgaters still found their way in to the fray. It was an odd sight seeing throngs of people grilling and playing drinking games in the Target parking lot.
Fortunately we were staying only a about a mile from the stadium and decided to have our tailgate indoors. Food, was in abundance. Lasagna, wedding soup, shredded roast beef and homemade peach pies where all part of the game-day line up. Beer was the main beverage of choice, cans of Miller Lite paired with bottles of Yeungling and Oktoberfest style beers.
The game started at 3:30 and was a statistical domination as Minnesota fans barely had much to cheer for. In the end Penn State prevailed 20-0. Despite the challenging conditions there still was around 100,000 people at the game.
Homecoming weekend welcomes back fans of all ages all of whom seemed to have descended upon State College bar scene. There plently lines and the bars where packed, but we still managed to have a great time at both Bill Pickles Tap Room ($5 pitchers) and the Dark Horse. By 2:00 AM it was time to grab a slice of pizza and let everyone else fight over the taxi's. By 2:45 cabs were looking for customers and we made our way home.
It was not a typical football weekend at Penn State however the snow and the situation seemed to have made the memories that much more vivid. Leaving town on Sunday the sun reemerged behind a the gray sky. As October returned the crowds along with the snow left town.
I rained Friday and snowed Sunday, but Saturday afternoon was absolutely perfect. Low 50s and sunny - perfect weather to throw on a Northface and hit up the tailgate spots, and boy did we take advantage. BC tailgates unfortunately don’t start until 3 hours pregame, so a 3:30 game means that Shea Field (the most popular tailgate spot) didn't open until 12:30. To deal with this, we first went to a friends place down the street to start off with his families famous breakfast sandwich and an ice cold bloody mary.
After that, at 12:30, we took the truck (packed with our grill, table, chairs, speakers, new flagpole and tent and of course plenty of sausages, beer, Champaign and bloody mary’s) and headed to Shea Field. We arrived to Shea Field ready to party and had the perfect tailgate. Our spot was filled with a packed crowd, good music, great food, tasty cheap beer and mixed drinks, and great company. A few of our buddies (whose names I will not mention) barely made it to the game as the shotgunning, strong drinks and shots were just too much for them to handle - Who says that 3 hours isnt enough!
Game was as fun as a 52-20 game could be. Pure domination, fun crowd (until the cold snuck in) and plenty of celebrations. At the 7 minute mark of the 3rd quarter, however, BC went up 38-13 and it was time to call it quits in order to save our hands, feet and rest of our body. We packed up the group and headed over to Mary Anne’s, the most popular BC dive bar and indulged in some Busch Light bottles and Notre Dame – USC football.
This led perfectly into the post game tailgate, where we met up, saw those that stayed the whole game, those that left early, and even met up with those that didn’t go at all. At this spot we finished up the beers and food before heading out and passing out early.
While nothing amazing for the first trip of the Blog, a solid journey overall. A day of awesome food, great football, a fun time with friends and plenty of drinking.
