BYU vs UW--The Away Game Experience

Last week I got to go to my first away game, even though it was right here in my home town. Usually when I walk the streets of Seattle I feel right at home, and those walking around my are my neighbors--fellow Seattle-ites and Northwesterners who understand the rain, the Mountain, and the traffic in the I-5 corridor (or at least we try to understand it). However, on that September day I was the enemy.

The away game experience started with the team fireside at the Kent Stake Center on Friday night. That was a homecoming of sorts since that was where I went to my first Youth Conference and Youth dance. The building was packed and the fireside was great. I really like Coach Mendenhall's vision of what BYU football is about--a way to do their part to share the gospel and help the players on the team to grow more than just athletically. The team sang "We'll Bring the World His Truth" for a musical number and as they sang "We are as the army of Helaman" I thought of the real Army of Helaman and wondered if they looked much different. Now I'm not saying that's why they win football games or anything, but I do think it's neat that before a game they do a fireside. I doubt that the UW football team was doing the same thing that night.

Game Day started with a lot of traffic. If anyone ever goes to a Husky game, be prepared for traffic. There just aren't a lot of ways to get to the UW campus due to its position on Lake Washington. I finally got to campus, running later than I wanted to be, and found that the parking lot where I had planned to park--for probably $25--was full. Great! Now what was I going to do? I followed a sign that said there was additional parking on the main campus, but wasn't sure I was going the right way on the rabbit warren-like roads of Seattle and I was running late and in hostile territory and--I was a little anxious when I saw a cardboard sign to my right--parking $10. I quickly changed lanes and parked right next to some BYU fans who also had just arrived. Seeing those BYU fans I felt much better. I had identified some allies.

It was during the trek to the stadium where I experienced the bulk of that hostile environment. I caught up to a group of Husky fans and overheard one offering the other a beer. Then someone noticed me in my blue "Fully Invested" BYU shirt and cautioned the other not to swear because "there's a Mormon behind you." I should have said "Thank you," but I just smiled and continued walking. I encountered more BYU fans along the way and tried to unobtrusively stay near them, but then I took my life into my hands. I entered the main parking lot (where I had originally planned to park) and encountered the Husky tailgaters. As I quickly walked through that sea of purple I had one fan ask me, "Are you fully invested?" "Yes," I replied. "Fully invested to lose?" "No," and I continued walking. There was a little booing, and one guy started going off about mites or something. I think we was trying to make a biblical reference, but I didn't understand what he meant at all, so I just ignored him. Finally I spied my objective: the big blue and white banner identifying the Cougar tailgate party: "Cougar Town."

Being in that little haven of Cougardom felt a little like being back in Provo. Everyone was in blue and white and even the food reminded me of BYU events. On the other side of the chain link fence Husky fans were booing and yelling some, but not too bad. I quickly ate some food and then it was off again to the stadium.

Husky Stadium is somewhat confusing at first, and definitely different than Lavell Edwards Stadium. The whole lower portion is concrete with wooden benches--no foot stomping on those to create that awesomely loud thunder, which in this case was good for our team. There's a track that runs around the stadium, so though I was only a few rows from the front in the end zone it was still probably 30-40 yards to the actual field (it felt really far away). Their video screen is lower and maybe bigger, which is good because we wouldn't have known what was going on without it because of our angle and distance. I sat with the Cougar section and even though I didn't know anyone personally it didn't matter--we were all Cougar fans. We were as loud as we could be when it counted, yelled BYU, and sang the fight song at the appropriate times. I don't know how other visiting team fans rate at Husky stadium, but I thought there were a lot of us and that we did a good job cheering on our team. I really had a good time, and it was a good game. That last defensive stand was in our end zone and we absolutely couldn't believe it when they blocked the extra point. (We were so loud I couldn't hear anything about the penalties at the end of the game, though I did see the football fly way high in the air after the Husky touchdown).

One bad thing that happened during the game was when the Husky player went down and had to be taken off the field by ambulance. As we were watching and hoping he was ok and trying to confirm that it wasn't a BYU player I noticed some commotion on the field down to my left. There was a woman there talking to a security guard on the field, then trying to pass him and run on the field. She was dragging him across the track and he was valiantly trying to hang onto her. We figured out she was the hurt player's mom and some people started yelling "let her in." Finally someone on the sidelines noticed and a trainer near the hurt player broke away from the group and motioned for her to come on the field. She ran as fast as she could all the way across to almost the other end zone. It was kind of hard to get back into the "get him! get him!" mentality after that, but we didn't have to for long since that's when we turned the ball over on like the one yard line.

After the game we were just basking in our win, yelling and singing the fight song. Both teams come out and leave the field at the same place (which was just down to our left), so the Cougs were waiting for the Dawgs to leave the field when they kind of gathered together. I don't know if it was planned or spontaneous, but instead of just leaving the field they started running back down to the opposite end zone. I then noticed that there was a bank of Cougar fans down there and the team started from that point and ran along the edge of the field from there to the tunnel. We went down as far as we could get to the field and cheered and waved. The players gave "high fives" to anyone they could reach as they came along--like they were saying "thank you for coming." After they all left the field a lot of us just stayed and hung out--avoiding traffic, standing in the shade, and/or avoiding UW fans and revelling in our win. I called Andrea and Shannon to talk about the game and get their impressions of what the tv announcers said. When I finally left the stadium there was still a bunch of Cougar fans outside watching for the players as they came out of the locker room to the buses. I stayed there for a bit and then decided it was time to walk back to the car since I had somewhere else I needed to be in Seattle that night. There were no incidents on the way back to the car and I barely made it to my next event (after still waiting in traffic. I swear I sat in the same spot for 20 minutes). The next day I was back in Seattle and it felt normal again.

I had a GREAT time. Even though I was "by myself" I really wasn't with all the other BYU fans. I love BYU, I really do--for more reasons than just BYU football. I will always be thankful to Heavenly Father for that childhood dream coming true. GO COUGARS!