BYU Football....My, how you have changed

First, BYU played Houston last night in not so pretty of a game but a win is a win. Being 9/11, there were tributes throughout the game. On our way in, we came up on the ROTC carrying the ginormous flag!

I love that all the players line up with the ROTC guys to hold the flag during the Star Spangled Banner. And this is where I began to notice how things have changed.

Sorry, Yvonne, for getting it during your blink. Maybe I am blinking too!
Yvonne reminded me how long our family has been coming to BYU games. 42 years!  Yvonne was only 8 then.  When the new stadium was built, Dad and 2 of his brothers bought 16 seats all together just above the concourse on the 50 yard line.  For years we would gather on game day with Uncle Bob and Uncle Al's families and have a mini cousin reunion. We would update everybody on new weddings, babies, etc.  Mom was there to hand out her BYU Touchdown brownies everytime BYU scored. Some games she came with a box full of brownies and took every last one home if BYU didn't score. She showed no mercy!!!  BYU stadium policy changed and no outside food could be brought in. Uh oh...here comes change.  We got to know all the same people sitting around us, including Gail Halvorsen (The candy bomber of WWII).  The National Anthem was played by the Cougar Band and the entire stadium would sing out with pride.
Over the years, those sitting around us got old and quit coming or died. Uncle Bob and Uncle Al sold their tickets to Dad. The cousins grew up and are now grandparents. Brad has kept the 16 tickets in the family and we are assured of keeping these season tickets on the 50 yard line in section 134, portal PP for as long as we buy them every year. But things have changed. The Cougar Band didn't play the National Anthem last night. It was sung by a small group of 4 students? who showed off their vocal skills as we just stood there and listened. I feel more patriotic pride when I sing it myself. In fact, the Cougar Band played very little. There was no rallying of the crowd with all those standard band licks. The tubas didn't play "Popcorn Popping." Yea, the band played the fight song after each touchdown and performed a precise half-time show that nobody paid any attention to. Most of the music was provided over the sound system with constant commercials splashing in your face on the huge scoreboards. Oh wait....back-up to the half-time show. Remember when the Cougarettes came out in their sparkly costumes and wowed us with their lyrical dancing ability? Not last night. The 13 time national champions of Hip-Hop Cougarettes did their Hip-Hop routine with all the grunt kicks, head flings, and chest thumps they could muster. Wow. What a change. And let's talk about the commercials!! Really? A full blown commercial for Coca-Cola? Mother would have died!!!! (Oh, she did.) The one thing that hasn't changed? The crowd showing disdane for a bad call; but now there is the instant review that proved the fans were right all along, or not.  This made the game drag out a little longer. It was dragged out a lot longer by the ESPN Official time-out so ESPN could show their commercials to the television audience. The game was almost 4 hours long!! You can sure cause a crowd to lose their enthusiasm for the game that way. Okay. I am jumping off my soapbox now.

We did get to take part in the card stunt. (Back in 1972, I sat in the student card stunt section with my date, Keith Morgan.  You pinned your instructions on the clothing of the person sitting in front of you with the provided straight pin. Keith took his pin and torpedoed it into the guy in front of him like a tack. I was mortified!) They did away with the card stunts years ago but brought it back for a 9/11 tribute. It involved the entire east stands!!! No small doing. I wonder how much painter's tape (blue) they used to tape our cards to our seats before the game. JW. As you can see from the picture it was pretty darn exciting. We are sitting just under the "W" in "WILL" in the white stuff section. Yep. Pretty cool.

  The constant is and always will be family. Cousins (the next generation) still have mini reunions and catch up. So, the 16 tickets last night went to: Brad and Debbie; David F. and friend; Kimberly and Kyle; Chase and Jazmyn with Cory and Jazmyn's sister; Wayne and Yvonne; Luke and Anna; and Charlie and me. We will always love being together, whoever comes and uses these 16 tickets, and we will forever cheer for our beloved BYU (No matter how much she changes).