A week ago today we traveled to Corvallis, Ore., to watch the Oregon State Beavers play the Stanford Cardinal in Pac-10 college football. We bid on a package at a church fundraising auction last month that provided us with 50-yard-line tickets, a parking pass and assorted other goodies, along with the chance for my husband to revisit his alma mater.

Driving in to town, Harry remarked on the changes and pointed out his dorms and the scenes of his undergraduate escapades. Entering our assigned lot, we passed elaborate tailgate party set-ups, some boasting generators to operate TVs with satellite dishes. Scents of grilled food filled the air along with the sounds of broadcast pre-game shows, excited laughter and shouts and the occasional rendition of the OSU fight song. Bright orange was everywhere: t-shirts, flags, blankets, hats — and liberally smeared on faces and other body parts.  Walking to the stadium, we joined a sea of fans caught up in the excitement of Game Day on a beautiful, sunny fall afternoon.

Harry hadn’t been back for a game since he graduated 30-plus years ago, when then-Parker Stadium (now Reser) had a smaller capacity and dowdier profile and the Beavers were embarking on a decades-long stretch of losing seasons. I attended college at a much smaller, 3,000-student state teachers college 20 miles up the road, and our football team, though quite successful, played in a single-grandstand stadium similar to what one finds at a good-sized high school. The last time I had observed this kind of big-time college football hoopla first hand was 30 years ago while attending graduate school at a different OSU — Ohio State University.  

Because of high demand for tickets (even students had to enter a lottery for a chance to snag a bleacher seat) and a lack of funds (I needed to eat, after all), I never actually attended a game. Walking down fraternity row on game days, though, exposed me to all the “pre-function” revelry, complete with one alum’s crimson-and-gray van bleating out the school’s fight song whenever the horn was honked. I’d sit in a study carrel in the deserted library tower half a mile from the jam-packed stadium, hearing the roar of the crowd with every great play. Posters of quarterback Art Schlichter adorned the walls of the campus bookstore, and it seemed the whole state lived and breathed Buckeye football. I’d certainly never seen anything like it in Oregon!

In the intervening years, though, it seems that Beaver fans gained the ability to match their Big Ten brethren for boisterousness and devotion (if not insanity!). The 40,000-plus fans that packed the stadium cheered, stomped, booed and sang (as the situation demanded) with impressive enthusiasm, leaping to their feet at the slightest hint of a break-out play so as not to miss a thing (though the presence of the jumbo-tron made that unlikely). All of that, plus our great seat location, the perfect weather and the 38-28 win over Stanford, made for a really fun, exciting day.

I’ve noted the discussions in the GT “Mail Call” letters and responses to John’s blogs about sporting events being great opportunities for bonding with business associates and schmoozing with clients. I can certainly see that being true, especially at a baseball game or if one has access to a suite or box. The one thing that ran through my mind last Saturday, though, as I put in earplugs to try to lessen the hearing loss from the pre-game music blaring at deafening levels in the stadium, was that a college football game would NOT be the ideal situation for a little light business talk!

Hope you have the opportunity to take in a game on a crisp afternoon sometime soon!

– Patty Vanikiotis, proofreader