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Saturday, January 19, 2013

Year End Wrap up for 2012

American hero, icon and personal inspiration John Winger, prior to joining the Aaaaaaarrmmmmmmyyyyyyy once so eloquently stated “And then, depression sets in…….”. And so the season comes to a close and we all find ourselves with a huge void in our lives, some of us more so than others.

I got to get in shape!


First of all, I would like to thank all the loyal readers of this blog and all the e-mails I get from you with encouraging words and props. If you didn’t read it, I would not write it. I truly enjoy doing this as a hobby and hope to keep you all as readers in the future. We nearly doubled the total page views this year over the first 4 year total! I still need to turn this into something that pays for my retirement without changing the nature of it! Ideas please? Most importantly I want to give thanks to my loving supportive wife Amy, for allowing me to have this hobby. Those lonely nights she spends without her big lug of a husband next to her, sawing logs, and dreaming of tailgate heaven full of endless college football Saturdays, beer n brats, and more fun than anyone should be allowed to have, must be tremendously tough on her. Please understand this hardship that she undertakes. I have come to the realization however, that as long as I don’t interfere with her hobby, which happens to be draining my credit card at the local malls, all will remain good between us! Amy also serves as my second set of eyes before I send out each week’s write up and I am forever grateful to her. This was a Banner year for the Tailgate by all accounts. Below are some of the accomplishments that we achieved:

Statistics:

12 Regular season games attended – (New record)

3 Bowl games attended – (New Record)

8 New Stadiums where I attended a game – (New record)

4 additional D1 A stadiums visited and toured

2 D1 AA Stadiums visited

Personal consumption:

• 99 Bottles of beer consumed – (Weak I know, I could do this in one weekend back in the day)

• 10 Bloody Marys

• 3 flasks of Jamesons

• 32 Bratwurst & other sausage products chowed down

• 25 hamburgers

• 10 chicken sandwiches

• 20 chicken wings and legs

• 10 bags of chips

• Breakfast scramble tailgate (First ever)

160 members that participated in our Tailgates – (New Record)

100,000 pair of boots were viewed – (new record)

1 Table cleared in 2 seconds flat! – World Record

6,000 + new unique page views on this blog (new record)

Recap of the games and tailgates attended:

SEMU at Central Michigan University

Boise State at Michigan State

Wisconsin at Oregon State

Arizona State at California **

Boston College at Army *

Arizona State at Colorado

Utah State at San Jose State

Mississippi State at Alabama

Oregon State at Stanford

Oregon at California

Notre Dame at USC

Army v Navy

Navy v Arizona State (Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl) **

Wisconsin v Stanford (Rose Bowl)

Notre Dame v Alabama (BCS National Championship)

* Most exciting game watched

** Bargated

It is hard to say which Tailgate was the best this year since they all provided a tremendous amount of entertainment, laughs, fun, camaraderie and great food. I met a lot of great people for the first time in addition to spending time with regular members of the Tailgate and family. It was a magical season for me personally again to follow Notre Dame through the amazing season they had. Boise State had another solid season while rebuilding under Coach Pete. My local team, San Jose State recorded 11 wins for the first time ever. I could not have asked for a greater season. I know I will not be able to duplicate or exceed what I did this year in the future, however I will be attending some great games and venues as the planning is already underway.

Most memorable Tailgate/Game moments 2012:

• Feeding starving CMU students and hydrating them with….H2O Bobby Bouche!

• Sis running out of beer at Michigan State and then square dancing with me

• Storming the field in Corvallis with West Point Wiggins after the Beavs upset the Badgers

• Finding Drubaca on his garage floor after the Cal/ASU game

• Hearing Wiggins and Colonel Voytek Karaoke until 4 AM with a pending 7 AM revelry for the Army – BC game

• Rich Lawson’s tailgate rig and bash at Colorado

• Beating the SJSU Spartan mascot in beer pong and playing flip cup with Reinke and crew


.The Alabama weekend with Alabama Al and Tennessee Tony and Little Boy Blue
 
• Table clearing incident at Stanford witnessed by DQ, Casty, Rabago, K2, Dru, Reinke, Sweet Lou and Desimone

• Rowdy Randy’s great stand in performance when I was on vacation

• Listening to Trojan Al’s story of USC back in the day and hanging with Fritz “Foster Brooks”, Snooki, the Sitch and the Major

• The whole Army Navy weekend and Tailgate with friends and brothers Brian and Billy

• Finding out I got a BCS championship ticket for face value!

• Lance Corporal Wintersteen making new friends at the Kraft Bowl and inspecting boots

• D Seals getting his ring cut off at the Rose Bowl and grilling something identified only as Meat

• Having the Governor bend my ear until sunrise at the BCS weekend!

Superlatives:

Hero of the year at the Tailgate – The father who got the BCS ticket for Christmas

Stain of the year - Pete Carroll (why not?). It was good to see him slink and slither out of Atlanta this week. Sherman he is not!






Coolest New venue I went to - Tossup between Alabama and Army

Hard to beat the setting at West Point

Tailgater of the year - (attended most tailgates with me) - 4 way tie West Point Wiggins, Brother Brian, Wannstedt and Drubaca

Tailgater trophy!


Most bizarre incident – Well this tribute by the Atlanta Rythm Section from the 70”s was quite prophetic for the love story between Manti and Lennay 35 years into the future.







2013 projected Schedule

The Grove at Ole Miss
Death Valley, Clemson















• Northwestern at California (8/31) – Join us if you are local, we will be renting out a parking lot near Peace Park in Bezerkley

• Iowa at Iowa State (9/14) meeting up with the old legend of Laurelglen Tom Byom

• Texas A&M or LSUat Ole Miss (10/12 or 10/19) - A big crew has indicated they want to go to this one. All are welcome…if I allow you and you are cool and popular

• BC at Clemson (TBD) – Sister Patsy and BC Pops’ Tailgate extravaganza with Lobstuh Tails and Prime Rib!

• San Jose State Homecoming game (TBD)

• Boise State Home Game and Tailgate blowout (date tbd) all Boise parents, let’s make it happen this year!

• Undetermined PAC 12 game at a stadium I have not been to (ASU, UoA, WSU, OU or Utah) on a week night only

• Notre Dame at Stanford (Thanksgiving Weekend)

• Army Navy

• Kraft Bowl

• Unknown BCS Bowl:

Here is an extremely worthwhile charity from an American hero and big time college football fan Colonel Willy Buhl, USMC. Colonel Buhl is the Commanding Officer of the USMC Wounded Warrior Regiment. The link is below and there is a tab if you would like to help toward the cause:

http://www.woundedwarriorregiment.org/Mission.cfm

Hit of the week:


 
Well that about does it. The white coats are here to take me away as it is intervention time! Have a great off season and you will hear from me in August unless something really big happens…like Spring Football or I visit some cool stadiums…..help! They are taking me away..ha ha ho ho he he to the funny farm……

I need college football!

Until then,

Happy Tailgating!



2 comments:

  1. What a season, Danny! I'm sad your blog has come to an end for now. Can't wait for September! Sis

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sis, I am glad you not only enjoyed the blog but were a big part of it this year with your particpation Labor day weekend. Hopefully Sparty will have a great season next year.

    ReplyDelete