Got to be my daughter. I grew up loving sports but because my dad was too ill to go, I never had the dad and his son moment of going to a game but I took my daughter when she was 5 to her first odu basketball game. The dean came over and met us and the cheerleaders bought her over a pizza and after the game, one of the players came over and give her a signed mini ball that she still has today and she is now studying for a degree in sports journalism. We now talk sports all the time and I am looking at sports through her eyes. It has been awesome

What is your story???

(05-01-2021 06:21 PM)jaybird44 Wrote:  Got to be my daughter. I grew up loving sports but because my dad was too ill to go, I never had the dad and his son moment of going to a game but I took my daughter when she was 5 to her first odu basketball game. The dean came over and met us and the cheerleaders bought her over a pizza and after the game, one of the players came over and give her a signed mini ball that she still has today and she is now studying for a degree in sports journalism. We now talk sports all the time and I am looking at sports through her eyes. It has been awesome

For me that would be my youngest son. He is such a great kid. When he first started showing interest in sports he was a freaking Duke fan. I had to help him to see the light. I took him to his first Syracuse game when he was about 8 or 9. That was the end of his Duke bandwagon journey. Today, he is a super rabid SU fan in both bb and fb, and somewhat lacrosse. My scheme worked, lol. But seriously, I just got home from his wedding, as he became a newlywed today. Im so proud of the kid. Now we have to work on my new daughter-in-law. She is one of those women who could care diddly squat about sports. But I will succeed. But my son is literally the coolest person that I have ever gone to a game with.

A few years ago now…. probably 2015 my fiancé, my son and I had the pleasure of tailgating with an awesome group of Syracuse fans. Among them were Cuseroc and TexanMark. We drank some Apple-pie and ate food Mark grilled. That was a good day….

(05-01-2021 07:49 PM)CardinalJim Wrote:  A few years ago now…. probably 2015 my fiancé, my son and I had the pleasure of tailgating with an awesome group of Syracuse fans. Among them were Cuseroc and TexanMark. We drank some Apple-pie and ate food Mark grilled. That was a good day….

LOL. Yes it was. I enjoyed the gift that you gave me for a couple weeks, lol. Although, I did not enjoy the outcome of that game, I believe that was when Lamar Jackson was a freshman and he destroyed SU as a backup freshman. I could be wrong though.

My parents. Vanderbilt vs. Memphis at historic Memorial Gymnasium in Nashville on Jan. 29, 1992. The Tigers won 72-70. My folks (they are elderly now and I'm blessed to still have them both) were both treated as prematurely born babies at then-Vanderbilt Hospital in the 1930s. My father worked at Vanderbilt Stadium selling popcorn and peanuts in the 1940s. My mother's great aunt attended VU in the 1920s and her brother was a student at VU in the 1950s. They love VU and our entire family does too (my brother is an instructor at the university now and my nephew attends; I once worked there part-time). But we also love the UofM, at which my parents met in the 1950s as students. Lots of emotions in that game. We all attended. Might be the last sports event my mother ever attended. Penny Hardaway and David Vaughn got the win for the Tigers. Vandy gave all. I love both universities. But I love my parents more.

Tell your family you love them.

(05-01-2021 07:21 PM)cuseroc Wrote:  

(05-01-2021 06:21 PM)jaybird44 Wrote:  Got to be my daughter. I grew up loving sports but because my dad was too ill to go, I never had the dad and his son moment of going to a game but I took my daughter when she was 5 to her first odu basketball game. The dean came over and met us and the cheerleaders bought her over a pizza and after the game, one of the players came over and give her a signed mini ball that she still has today and she is now studying for a degree in sports journalism. We now talk sports all the time and I am looking at sports through her eyes. It has been awesome

For me that would be my youngest son. He is such a great kid. When he first started showing interest in sports he was a freaking Duke fan. I had to help him to see the light. I took him to his first Syracuse game when he was about 8 or 9. That was the end of his Duke bandwagon journey. Today, he is a super rabid SU fan in both bb and fb, and somewhat lacrosse. My scheme worked, lol. But seriously, I just got home from his wedding, as he became a newlywed today. Im so proud of the kid. Now we have to work on my new daughter-in-law. She is one of those women who could care diddly squat about sports. But I will succeed. But my son is literally the coolest person that I have ever gone to a game with.

Cool story congratulations

(05-01-2021 09:32 PM)bill dazzle Wrote:  My parents. Vanderbilt vs. Memphis at historic Memorial Gymnasium in Nashville on Jan. 29, 1992. The Tigers won 72-70. My folks (they are elderly now and I'm blessed to still have them both) were both treated as prematurely born babies at then-Vanderbilt Hospital in the 1930s. My father worked at Vanderbilt Stadium selling popcorn and peanuts in the 1940s. My mother's great aunt attended VU in the 1920s and her brother was a student at VU in the 1950s. They love VU and our entire family does too (my brother is an instructor at the university now and my nephew attends; I once worked there part-time). But we also love the UofM, at which my parents met in the 1950s as students. Lots of emotions in that game. We all attended. Might be the last sports event my mother ever attended. Penny Hardaway and David Vaughn got the win for the Tigers. Vandy gave all. I love both universities. But I love my parents more.

Tell your family you love them.

Awesome story.hug your parents. I miss mine they have been gone dad 31 years and mom 10

(05-01-2021 07:49 PM)CardinalJim Wrote:  A few years ago now…. probably 2015 my fiancé, my son and I had the pleasure of tailgating with an awesome group of Syracuse fans. Among them were Cuseroc and TexanMark. We drank some Apple-pie and ate food Mark grilled. That was a good day….

Tailgating is the best

(05-01-2021 10:18 PM)jaybird44 Wrote:  

(05-01-2021 09:32 PM)bill dazzle Wrote:  My parents. Vanderbilt vs. Memphis at historic Memorial Gymnasium in Nashville on Jan. 29, 1992. The Tigers won 72-70. My folks (they are elderly now and I'm blessed to still have them both) were both treated as prematurely born babies at then-Vanderbilt Hospital in the 1930s. My father worked at Vanderbilt Stadium selling popcorn and peanuts in the 1940s. My mother's great aunt attended VU in the 1920s and her brother was a student at VU in the 1950s. They love VU and our entire family does too (my brother is an instructor at the university now and my nephew attends; I once worked there part-time). But we also love the UofM, at which my parents met in the 1950s as students. Lots of emotions in that game. We all attended. Might be the last sports event my mother ever attended. Penny Hardaway and David Vaughn got the win for the Tigers. Vandy gave all. I love both universities. But I love my parents more.

Tell your family you love them.

Awesome story.hug your parents. I miss mine they have been gone dad 31 years and mom 10

For me it was the late, great Chicago Bulls guard Norm Van Lier. We took in a UIC Flames game. He was the Flames' analyst that season, but wasn't doing the game that night. The coolest.

(05-03-2021 12:00 PM)Chuck_A Wrote:  For me it was the late, great Chicago Bulls guard Norm Van Lier. We took in a UIC Flames game. He was the Flames' analyst that season, but wasn't doing the game that night. The coolest.

That is very cool. I remember NVL. A fine player, indeed.

Harvey Schiller and Roy Kramer (not at the same time). Technically didn't go with them but had seats with them as the person who did attend with them invited me. Both were great to listen to and talk with, but when seated with them, or anytime you are in the President's seating area, whether in the Coliseum or the stadium, you have to tamp down the normal fan reactions to the game and politely clap with the gentility. Still quite an experience even if it is a somewhat controlled environment.

Easy - my son. The look on his face at his first college football game: priceless!

My only child, my daughter (now 20) at the time she was three. We drove down from Charlotte to Greenville, NC to see my JMU Dukes take on the Furman Paladins in a playoff game that eventually led to our first FCS Championship. It was a great game, a little chilly, and played at night. I carried her across the field after the game and a few players talked to her. After that game, a few years later, I was going to a game against the Tarheels with a buddy and she got it in her head that she was going and cried when I left without her, broke my heart.

I took my late father to his first college football game in 1993 when he was 54 years old. Louisville vs. Texas UofL beat the Longhorns that day 41-10. I still remember my Dad’s face that day. He was awestruck.

He’s been gone since 2005. I miss Dad everyday. If you still have your father, call him and talk to him. I sure wish I could call mine.

(05-04-2021 06:36 PM)CardinalJim Wrote:  I took my late father to his first college football game in 1993 when he was 54 years old. Louisville vs. Texas UofL beat the Longhorns that day 41-10. I still remember my Dad’s face that day. He was awestruck.

He’s been gone since 2005. I miss Dad everyday. If you still have your father, call him and talk to him. I sure wish I could call mine.

Jim,

You and I are about the same age. Being that Im now 57, it seems that your father died young. My biological father died in 2013 at age 67. He died 3 months before my maternal grandmother who partially raised me. Fortunately, I still have my stepfather and my mother. I took my stepfather with a group of us to a Syracuse fb game against Pitt back in 2012. That was his first time ever at a college fb game, although he had been to a couple of Bills games before.

I like to tease him about the way he was crawling on all fours by the time we got to our seats in the Dome, near the top. What really makes me laugh is the way he laughed at other old guys crawling on all fours. I had to remind him that that was "literally you just 20 minutes earlier." lol

I learned something about my stepfather that day that I would never take him to another game with me. He likes to root against Syracuse just to irk me. He would laugh hysterically at me every time Pitt scored a TD. Pitt beat Syracuse that day, something like 55-13. I love him but Never Again.

'Coolest' doesn't fit me, my family and extended family. We're all conservative, educated, hard working and generally not cool. My Uncle used to be a baseball coach, so based on the fact that he knew the largest number of people, I'd say he was the coolest.

(05-04-2021 06:36 PM)CardinalJim Wrote:  I took my late father to his first college football game in 1993 when he was 54 years old. Louisville vs. Texas UofL beat the Longhorns that day 41-10. I still remember my Dad’s face that day. He was awestruck.

He’s been gone since 2005. I miss Dad everyday. If you still have your father, call him and talk to him. I sure wish I could call mine.

My Dad is 73 with a long list of health problems - he’s currently getting treated for prostate cancer, heart disease and diabetes on top of being a survivor of both colon cancer (has been in remission for the last 20 years) and a heart attack. He’s at the point where I’m not sure if we’ll ever be able to go to a game together again, which makes me really sad whenever I think about it.

My Dad was never a big sports fan, but he’d indulge me because (as many of you can probably tell) I was a complete sports nut from an early age. We would go to White Sox games at old Comiskey Park and sit in the general admission area with the bright green wooden seats. The one thing that he’d always get me for a treat every game was a churro. I know that it sounds so simple, but for me as a little kid, this was an exotic delicacy that I only got to have at the ballpark with my Dad! To this day, any time that I see a churro anywhere, it takes me specifically back to that time and place as a kid with my Dad at old Comiskey Park.

I honestly can’t recall the specifics of many games that I went to with him, but I always remember the *feeling* of joy of being there with him. That’s what sports is all about.

(05-04-2021 10:41 PM)Frank the Tank Wrote:  

(05-04-2021 06:36 PM)CardinalJim Wrote:  I took my late father to his first college football game in 1993 when he was 54 years old. Louisville vs. Texas UofL beat the Longhorns that day 41-10. I still remember my Dad’s face that day. He was awestruck.

He’s been gone since 2005. I miss Dad everyday. If you still have your father, call him and talk to him. I sure wish I could call mine.

My Dad is 73 with a long list of health problems - he’s currently getting treated for prostate cancer, heart disease and diabetes on top of being a survivor of both colon cancer (has been in remission for the last 20 years) and a heart attack. He’s at the point where I’m not sure if we’ll ever be able to go to a game together again, which makes me really sad whenever I think about it.

My Dad was never a big sports fan, but he’d indulge me because (as many of you can probably tell) I was a complete sports nut from an early age. We would go to White Sox games at old Comiskey Park and sit in the general admission area with the wooden bright green seats. The one thing that he’d always get me for a treat every game was a churro. I know that it sounds so simple, but for me as a little kid, this was an exotic delicacy that I only got to have at the ballpark with my Dad! To this day, any time that I see a churro anywhere, it takes me specifically back to that time and place as a kid with my Dad at old Comiskey Park.

I honestly can’t recall the specifics of many games that I went to with him, but I always remember the *feeling* of joy of being there with him. That’s what sports is all about.

Dad stories are the best. I lost mine to leukemia induced by agent orange in '09. We had two places we went together but neither was a sporting event. We worked dogs hunting quail, he with a Winchester Model 12 12 gauge and me with a Browning Belgium made A-5. We'd watch the dogs point and then flush and try not to be too surprised by the sudden thunderous flutter of a covey on the rise.

Or we would hike into the woods at 2 A.M., kill our scent, set up in blinds, and watch the forest come alive as the first rays of the sun filtered through the canopy while we waited on the deer to come in from the fields to bed down for the day.

We never talked a lot, it was just being together for the same experience that was the touchstone. Dad wasn't a big sports enthusiast because he loved his state of the art fighter plane. He was a QB in high school but nothing turned him on like flying.

We didn't judge our hunts by the game taken, but by the tranquility of silent communication and teamwork, especially with the dogs. The only sounds we made when hunting were the quail calls we whistled when we were without the dogs. He'd do the Bob White and I'd answer with the female's call to her brood and we'd start at opposite ends of the field with the water source in the middle and call the birds together. For that he'd carry the A-5 and I'd carry a Remington .22. I'd flush the running covey with a rifle shot to the lead bird and he'd take them on the rise.

I never was a fan of flying and he chided me for that. He was never a fan of deep sea fishing and I chided him for that. Oh for one more round of one upmanship with my father! We always miss them, and I'm glad you still have yours Frank. But when they do pass you'll hear them still teaching you and whispering to you in your mind. I'm fortunate to have my dad and my grandfather still in my head. They point things out to me daily and do so from the past when something they said comes filtering through to a present situation. It's a comfort.