Recap of the night: crash a home game, have a blast, do the student cheer, make some new friends, tailgate like nobody’s business, stumble back to my dorm.
Being college football season and all, I probably should attend a college game. Especially since I work for Stanford University. And especially since there’s only 1 week, 3 hours, and 2 minutes left until the exhibition games start.
My co-worker Kelly must have heard my thoughts. When I walked into the office this morning, she smiled and dropped a plain envelope on my desk and walked away.
“You’re a student. Standing in the Red Zone seats. 30 feet away from the sweat, tears and field. Just be careful of those Stanford kids. They’ll kill you with their claps or fan cleats if they found out your secret.”
The start of the Stanford college football season: I joined my fellow Stanford peeps and stood the entire game (found out sitting was an abomination). Amidst all the chants I couldn’t make out and cheers I couldn’t mimic, I got my first taste of college athleticism and learned a few thing about college football:
- The $12 frozen lemonade I guzzled down like a 7-11 Slurpee on ‘Free Slurpee Day’ was epicly expensive.
- The school mascot, the Cardinal “Stanford Tree” was epicly terrible. He (I could tell it was a “he” by the half hairy leg showing) was masquerading the sidelines and distracting the team.
- The students’ red and white dyed hair smelled epicly terrible, stronger than many of the girls’ perfumes.
- The cheerleaders, not to be confused with the dancers called “The Dollies,” were epicly off-sync.
- The almost entirely student-run band (one guy stood out and looked like a college lifer) was epicly large, spanning the entire student section. Who there didn’t play an instrument?
- The sound of the brass instruments playing in unison—trumpets, mellophones, trombones, percussion, bass drum, snare drums and tenor drums—echoed through out the stadium, bringing an epic uproar and wave.
- The fact that this was the first Stanford football game of the season and had immediately sold out as soon as tickets went on sale, was epicly announced on the main billboard in neon colors.
- The sight of tail-gating and half open beer cans from Friday was epicly intoxicating just to be around.
At the end of the night when I was meandering back to the Caltrain, I found myself surrounded by a sea of white and red, and for just a minute, I felt a part of the Stanford tradition.
