Couple of Coffees

Some fine, fall football

Jonathan and I attend Oregon State Beavers games on many Saturdays in the fall. The procession down to Corvallis with my inlaws, Beavers flags flapping in the wind, is part of our autumn ritual. I do love college football, and it's so much more interesting to watch live. To be a part of the chanting and screaming. We're just a few faces among the hoards wearing orange and black. That anonymity, and its accompanying sense of community, are a change from living our independent, solitary lives.

My friend Dave taught me about college football, but that's another story. So's the one about how I mistakenly gave a few of our wedding guests the impression that, post-ceremony, I had been watching a football game, rather than being photographed for posterity. Oops. Really, I wasn't watching the Michigan-Oregon game. We staged those photos of the last two minutes in the fourth quarter, I swear.

In any case, I'm no sports writer, but yesterday's OSU's victory over number-three ranked USC was an excellent game. The Beavers held on to win it 33-31, despite a fourth-quarter rally by USC. I can't remember the last time I spent most of a game on my feet, cheering and clapping and breathlessly awaiting the outcome of the next play and the one after that. A lot of the usual problems and unnecessary penalties were absent in the Beavers' play, and even better, they had a fierce energy. A determination. The more they got going on the field, the more we all clapped and screamed our heads off. It felt a little historic. And the victory, it turns out, was historic. USC had previously held a conference record of having won 27 consecutive Pac-10 games. The Oregonian's headline this morning proclaims, "Hello, Giant Killers II." It also touted the victory as "what will go down as one of the greatest victories in school history."

As students charged the field (twice mistakenly, before the game was officially over), and then in one wriggling mob once the clock ran out, we headed out of our seats and back to the car, swarming with the other fans, talking to each other, laughing. The yellow leaves on OSU's campus fell from the trees onto the walkways, and the sky was blue, the air finally crisp after a morning of fog. Everyone was elated. Except, I suppose, USC players and fans.

To paraphrase my father-in-law, yesterday was a perfect fall day. I'm glad we were there to partake.

posted by Laura the Writer @ 9:28 AM