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Sep. 9th, 2007 10:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
desoto_hia873Some people just can't leave the past behind. I guess I'd be one of them.
My high school boyfriend got me watching football because he was on his school's team. I discovered quite quickly that football is a really boring game unless you actually understand what's going on, so I learned the basics and learned to like it.
I did two degrees at the University of Guelph: I graduated with a BSc in 1988 and a PhD in 1999. During my two stints of time there, I went to a lot of Guelph Gryphon games. They actually won the Canadian championship for university football during my first year as an undergrad, though they've never made it that far in the playoffs since. Still, I remain a devoted supporter, despite the fact that I've never actually known anyone on the team, and the players are now young enough to be my sons. I sent them a fan letter from St. John's when they were having a particularly good year in the early 1990s. I made their very first webpage with my extremely rudimentary HTML skills and taught their coach how to use the internet. I've subjected various friends and family members to long afternoons in the bleachers in all manner of inclement weather, everything from stifling heat to pelting rain, driving sleet, and snow. And I'm still the only person on LJ with 'Guelph Gryphons' as an interest.
Jim and I drove to Kingston today to watch the Queen's University Golden Gaels take on my beloved Gryphons. It was another page in the 'lousy weather for a football game' annals as it rained almost the entire time. Guelph was in the lead at the half, but Queen's walked away with the victory in the end.
Still, it was nice to see the red and gold on the field again. (It pleases me that my red and gold scarf--made for me by a friend as a birthday present many years ago--can do doubletime as a Guelph Gryphon and Hogwarts Gryffindor scarf. :-) Most of the players on the team are rookies--it looks like Guelph is in a rebuilding year.
Truth be told, they're kind of in a rebuilding decade.
I wish they were contenders, and they will be again, someday. They have a new coach who used to be a Gryphon himself back in the day. They have a scrappy quarterback who can scramble with the best of them.
And, for whatever it's worth, they've got their mascot of the past 20 years, still up in the stands whenever she can get there and ringing her cow bell whenever they score.
Go, Gryphons, go!
My high school boyfriend got me watching football because he was on his school's team. I discovered quite quickly that football is a really boring game unless you actually understand what's going on, so I learned the basics and learned to like it.
I did two degrees at the University of Guelph: I graduated with a BSc in 1988 and a PhD in 1999. During my two stints of time there, I went to a lot of Guelph Gryphon games. They actually won the Canadian championship for university football during my first year as an undergrad, though they've never made it that far in the playoffs since. Still, I remain a devoted supporter, despite the fact that I've never actually known anyone on the team, and the players are now young enough to be my sons. I sent them a fan letter from St. John's when they were having a particularly good year in the early 1990s. I made their very first webpage with my extremely rudimentary HTML skills and taught their coach how to use the internet. I've subjected various friends and family members to long afternoons in the bleachers in all manner of inclement weather, everything from stifling heat to pelting rain, driving sleet, and snow. And I'm still the only person on LJ with 'Guelph Gryphons' as an interest.
Jim and I drove to Kingston today to watch the Queen's University Golden Gaels take on my beloved Gryphons. It was another page in the 'lousy weather for a football game' annals as it rained almost the entire time. Guelph was in the lead at the half, but Queen's walked away with the victory in the end.
Still, it was nice to see the red and gold on the field again. (It pleases me that my red and gold scarf--made for me by a friend as a birthday present many years ago--can do doubletime as a Guelph Gryphon and Hogwarts Gryffindor scarf. :-) Most of the players on the team are rookies--it looks like Guelph is in a rebuilding year.
Truth be told, they're kind of in a rebuilding decade.
I wish they were contenders, and they will be again, someday. They have a new coach who used to be a Gryphon himself back in the day. They have a scrappy quarterback who can scramble with the best of them.
And, for whatever it's worth, they've got their mascot of the past 20 years, still up in the stands whenever she can get there and ringing her cow bell whenever they score.
Go, Gryphons, go!
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Date: 2007-09-10 03:02 am (UTC)So now that I've babbled your ear off, I can understand your devotion to your team! :o) Did you have fun at the game? Am so impressed that you stayed despite the rain!
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Date: 2007-09-10 08:37 pm (UTC)I get to so few of the games these days that it would take a tornado to drive me away. Although I've always wanted to see a tornado, so that might not even do it...
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Date: 2007-09-10 04:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-10 08:39 pm (UTC)I hope I remember to pack more rain gear for the next game I go to, though. ::drips::