SOUTH BEND, Ind. ““ Seven a.m. at Notre Dame and two stereo
systems within 20 feet of one another were already blaring.
One was belting out the Notre Dame Victory March, the other
screaming Jimmy Eat World. With three whole hours of sleep on my
side, I rubbed my eyes and was handed a beer no more than ten
minutes later. Game day had begun.
And this…this was considered a late start.
Now, I’ve had some great times at the Rose Bowl in my
three years at UCLA, and this is, to take nothing away from Bruin
fans who are outstanding, but the all-weekend experience of Notre
Dame vs. Michigan was college football in its purest form.
Trite as it sounds, it is true for so many reasons. Kegs and
Eggs, the event kicking off what strangely felt like both the
longest and shortest day of my life, was just one of them.
With the game still over six hours away, throngs of green-clad
students made their way over to my buddy’s apartment complex
to begin a ritual which could simply never happen here at UCLA.
That’s not a knock on us, either. Put simply, game day at
Notre Dame is what it is mostly because the football stadium is on
campus. And until the Bruins ““ actually, I should say unless
the Bruins ““ ever get a true home in Westwood, we’ll be
unquestionably missing out.
It’s not just about the drinking either. Strange as it was
for me to see more stomped aluminum than grass on the ground in
some places, something else was clearly in the air.
Yes, fundamental differences between Notre Dame and UCLA abound.
And no, it’s not reasonable to expect our obviously larger
and more diverse campus to instantly turn into the mecca of college
football. (Pause while reader seriously thinks about anything in
Indiana being referred to as a “mecca.”)
But the fact the Rose Bowl is anywhere from a 30-minute to an
hour drive from campus is completely debilitating. It means, unlike
at Notre Dame, the checker in the grocery store line might not be
talking about the big game, or some people might pick studying over
committing an entire Saturday to a game.
Honestly, is there a worse existence than driving
four-inches-per- hour on those Pasadena residential streets after
melting your T-shirt into your torso at a UCLA loss where
it’s 320 Kelvin? If there is, I’m convinced it has to
involve Carrot Top and Joey Buttafuoco in some capacity.
Sure, we still get sizable crowds with thousands of students,
but the fact remains the distance of the Bruins’
“home” (the Coliseum is actually closer to Westwood)
prevents football from being everyone’s thing Saturdays
during fall quarter.
I’ve talked to scores of people who would gladly take
three or four hours out of a Saturday to watch the Bruins play, but
feel they can’t afford to spend twice the amount of time
usually necessary to see a game at the Rose Bowl and get back to
campus.
Of course, I’ve also paid too many $40 tickets and lost
too many I.M. fields (actually, just one, but it still makes me cry
myself to sleep at night and no, I’m not ashamed to admit
that, thank you very much) to know parking is just one of the
things standing in the way of an on campus stadium.
It’s a shame because walking from your bed to a football
game on a Saturday afternoon, through the tailgaters and classroom
buildings are truly an experience we all deserve.
It could still happen ““ new Athletic Director Dan Guerrero
could at least put an on campus stadium on the long-term
fundraising agenda ““ but until I win the lottery,
you’ll have to live vicariously through the events of my
weekend.
The game was outstanding, the entire weekend was outstanding,
even the guy who wouldn’t stop quoting Varsity Blues in the
Irish student section was outstanding in his own bizarre right.
In between this dude yelling, “Things change, Mox,”
and “I don’t want your life,” for no apparent
reason, I paid witness to a great game and some untouchable
traditions.
One of the most clever is the Notre Dame staple of waving keys
on defensive third downs, or so-called “key plays.”
Another is the entire student section uniformly making a stabbing
motion and imploring “kill, kill” when the opponent
takes possession, all to the tune of the Star Wars theme.
Between the third and fourth quarters, the students honor Coach
Tyrone Willingham by making a “W” with their hands and
chanting “Ty, Ty, Ty” while the band plays the 1812
Overture.
And other than seeing a guy at a party with an Adam Vinatieri
shirt jersey (it sounds like I’m just trying to be funny, but
such a thing actually did occur), the best part of the whole
weekend was coming back after the win.
All it took was ten minutes and my two feet.