Stanford Memories: The End of a Streak

Bumped. GO BRUINS. -N

First off, let me begin by wishing a Happy New Year to my fellow members of the Tribe and anyone else for that matter. Hopefully this (Jewish) New Year brings us Bruins more joy on the all playing fields, more than last year (though it will be hard to top 2 NC's and a CWS finals appearance). But back to the matter at hand. As everyone here knows by now, the school formerly known as the Indians comes to Pasadena this Saturday. Sure it marks the home opener and yet another beginning at the Rose Bowl, but for me it signifies an end.

As a recent graduate I made the tough decision to do my master's not at UCLA (hardest decision ever) but to do it at Columbia. This means I will be 3,000 miles away from the action. It also means I will not be able to play (as a band alum) or listen to Sons/Big C when the team rushes the field for the first time or Mighty when we score in person. The ironic (or coincidental, which one is it English majors?) part is that my first college football game ever was a Stanford v. UCLA game.

That first game I went to was all the way back in 2001 as an 8th grader and Stanford Cardinal supporter (grew up in Palo Alto, give me a break). That day is what many people here refer to as the downfall of UCLA football under Toledo, and luckily for me I was not involved in that. However, it all caught up to me when I gladly decided to be a Bruin in 2006. Since the first two home games of that season were against Utah and Rice at home before school started, I didn't road trip down because of lack of tickets or idea of what to do (I was in the band). However, for the next four years, it was my last time missing a game in Pasadena that involved our Bruins. Turns out, that not only was my first game ever involving Stanford and UCLA but so did this one.

The September 30th date at the Rose Bowl was nothing short of amazing, because we were able to blank a (horrible) Stanford team, and get a great start to the school year. Since then, I had never missed any game by the football team in the Los Angeles area. I road tripped from the Bay Area for BYU and Tennessee before school started the following two seasons, and even took guests from Israel to the SDSU game last year (they already want to come back).

The streak I have built at home ended up being 24 home games in a row, 8 road games (Notre Dame, Cal, Stanford, U$C, Arizona), and 2 bowl games (Emerald and Vegas). I have gotten spoiled by getting to be there for the good and bad times, and watching the Kansas State game (though away) at an alumni party in NYC was hard enough. I am still debating how decked out I will be this Saturday night or where I will watch it, but there is one thing I know I'm going to do. Represent and cheer my heart out. My plan B is to live vicariously through my brother who will be flying down that morning to go to the game.

To end this all on a positive note, here is a picture I took from the 2008 game, with the great drive at the end, which I was lucky enough to be a mere 10 yards from on the sideline:

Lets hope that once again our Bruins come out on top in front of a large crowd at the Rose Bowl, Go Bruins!

P.S I am planning on flying cross-country for the Arizona game