Monday, January 07, 2008

LSU!

I'm a big LSU fan, as my brother's family lives outside of Baton Rouge, and I've visited there quite a bit. I've even been to an LSU-Alabama game at Tiger Stadium. I am super happy about tonight's LSU victory.
~
Also, I notice that Baton Rouge talk radio was on the money when I listened in August, and they said LSU was a serious contender for a national championship. LSU had two losses this season - both in triple overtime. That's kinda a cool thing to have on your team's record for the season. Such a think will not happen very often.
~
Here's one of my earliest ever blogposts, from October of 2003:
~
Every college team coming onto the field is a good moment. When LSU comes out of their locker room, a video feed goes out to 100,000 fans, who jump to their feet and begin to build the din of noise.
~
On video, fans watch the still out of sight players walk down a short ramp and touch a tasteful "Win" sign as they squeeze through ancient multiple window-paned double doors(unchanged, I bet, since the stadium was built) and assimilate under a goal post(anchored by two posts in the ground, again, as if this is 1948).

The LSU band has formed extra-thick parallel columns on the hash marks, walling an alley from the goal line to the 25 yard line. Each column is a full 5 yards of thickness, and is dense with horn players and flautist packed in a tight formation. The columns are imposing. They convey power and strength.

The fans are fueled with alcohol and adrenaline. They are screaming for their team. And now the boys start through the columns, not wildly and out of control, but slowly, like a composed and formidable lava mass, which spreads when it exits the mouth of the volcano, and devours the earth before it.

And now the band blasts the familiar and exuberant notes as noise in the stadium crescendos into a louder roar- like that of a jumbo jet approaching and passing directly over your head. Scowling tiger roars can be dimly heard over the stadium loudspeakers.

It is all quite wonderful, and worth the price of admission.

No comments: