I Have Said It Before & Now I Shall Say It Again

Ah, the repeat.  The intellectual equivalent of Saturday night's dinner being Tuesday night's leftover meatloaf (full disclosure demands that I acknowledge (a) meatloaf is in fact one of my favorite foods; and (b) a Congressional investigation would be launched if a single slice of Tuesday night's meatloaf lived to see Saturday night in my house).  

October 25 is one of my favorite dates on the calendar.  Thirty-four years ago, I was a sophomore at CU-Boulder and got to bear witness to the Buffs defeating the Nebraska Cornhuskers at Folsom Field for the first time since Eisenhower was in the White House.  It is a story I so enjoy telling that I shall do so again right here, right now...

Tuesday, October 25, 2016

10 25 86...Forever

Boulder Daily Camera

October 26, 1986

Thirty years ago today, I sat in the student section at Folsom Field and bore witness to what remains - three decades later - the most extraordinary sporting event I have ever watched live and in person. For on this very date thirty years ago, the Colorado Buffaloes sprung the upset on the third-ranked and undefeated Nebraska Cornhuskers.  Prior to that historic October afternoon, the Buffs had last defeated Nebraska anywhere in 1967.  Even more daunting was the fact that the Buffs had last successfully defended their home turf from the Huskers in 1960.   

At game's end, the scoreboard at the south end of Folsom Field read "20 - 10" and its lights remained illuminated for the week that followed.  Every night, after dinner, when eight or ten of us would head out to Farrand Field to play our daily, spirited game of two-hand touch, we would gaze to our east and see those lights as they continued to publish the game's result to the world.  It was as if the University was afraid that once the scoreboard's lights were dimmed, the game's result would somehow be invalidated.  

 They need not have been.  Thirty years later, it remains what it was, which was the foundation upon which a program was born.  

 I still smile simply thinking about it. And thinking about the coaches and the players who not only made it happen but who then shared the fruits of their hard work with those of us whose sole contribution was standing in the stands and cheering ourselves hoarse.  

 Best case of laryngitis I have ever had.  

 -AK 

Fun coda to the original telling of this tale.  In 2017, I ran in the Marine Corps Marathon, which took place on Sunday, October 22, 2017.  Shortly after completing it, Margaret and I hopped the Amtrak Acela home to New Jersey, with Jeff and Gidg (she ran it with me).  The next morning, the Missus and I got up, hopped into a mini-van we had rented, and commenced a three-day drive cross-country to Colorado so we could bring Rob a car full of his childhood treasures.  Two weeks to the day after the Marine Corps Marathon, I ran (along with Gidg, Stella, and Wilma) in the New York City Marathon. If you are eagerly awaiting the publication of my book "Why Driving Cross-Country Immediately Following After Completing One Marathon and Less Than Two Weeks Before Completing A Second Marathon Is The Best Training Plan Ever", buck up.  It will be a long time coming.  

Our stopping point for the night on the second day of our journey was a town called Lincoln, Nebraska. We ate dinner in a very nice little place downtown. 

As it was the eve of the anniversary of "20-10", I dressed appropriately.

AK in Lincoln, NE (10/24/2017)

It is still the most enjoyable spit-laden meal I have ever had. 

-AK