Game Day!

I went to my first UT game ever. Three years in Austin and 4 years in Waco, and it finally happened. I was invited to go to the game by Blake and Robin, a fabulous couple from Houston that I hadn’t ever met. Now I must admit that typically I don’t take people I don’t know up on offers like this, but something told me that Blake and Robin were good “peeps.” I was right.

UT Game Day is a major event. The game was at 11am. My friend Meghan and I met up with Blake and Robin promptly at 9:30 and headed to tailgating central. When I was at Baylor, I never tailgated. At the University of Michigan, we would hang out at someone’s house in route to the game, but never what would be considered “tailgating.” We went to the Horns Fans tailgate on campus. Apparently the
organizers of Horns Fans, have been running their tailgate for years. The organizers stake out their spot the day before the game. Set up includes two tents, a smoke pit, hi-def televisions, seats, and a burnt orange vehicle. On the morning of Game day, the fans come in droves. We joined the see of burnt orange (I had a burnt orange tie-die number on), ate, talked, and people watched. I ran into some lawyersI knew from in and out of town. Small world.

After the tailgate, we headed to the stadium for the big game.

Sidebar: UT debuted their jumbotron, aka the largest HD-TV in the world. The jumbotron had subtitles, .
a huge screen with the game showing as well as a huge screen for advertising. Everything you ever wanted to know about the game was shown somewhere on the jumbotron large enough for everyone in the stadium to see

Austin in August at 11am is anything but cool. Thankfully there were people passing out hand fans (like from old church days) for a little relief. With in minutes Robin and I were baking. Meghan was wearing jeans and needless to say she was already broiled. We stayed for a quarter and a half and then couldn’t handle the heat any longer. The score was 21-0 UT when we headed out of the stadium.

We watched the rest of the half at the alumni center in the air condition. The alumni center is right next to the stadium and has televisions in every room for your watching enjoyment. As half time began, the fans peacefully stormed the alumni center and Blake, Robin, Megan, and I made a wise move. We headed to Matt’s El Rancho for queso (with guac, pico and beef), air condition, and second half game watching.

All in all it was a great Game Day: Blake and Robin were awesome, I tailgated for the first time, UT won 56-7, and we had queso.

Good times.

-RXW