Today is a bit of a milestone for Mr. F and me–forty years ago, November 22, 1969, we went on our first date. And what did we do? We went to the USC-UCLA football game, of course. Little did the 17-year-old Mr. F know that this activity would be a thrill for me, but that other girls might not share that view. As always, the game was amazing, with the Trojans winning 14-12 on a last minute reception by Sam Dickerson. Apparently, forty years later, fans are still debating whether he was inbounds or not–certainly there was no review in those days.
Sam Dickerson's 1969 Game-winning Catch Is Still Debated
Mr. F was being recruited by both schools at the time, so had received the tickets as part of the recruiting process. We enjoyed many other dates that year attending sports events–including floor level seating for Bruin basketball games, which allowed us to marvel at Lew Alcindor (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) and his teammates.
We’ve been back a few times to watch the USC-UCLA football games, and this year’s looks like it should be pretty exciting, too. We won’t be attending in person, but will probably be watching on television. Who do we cheer for, you ask? Well, we really can’t lose. Mr. F ended up competing for UCLA, and all three of my degrees are from UCLA, but he went on to get two master’s degrees from USC. Daughter Karen earned a master’s at USC and competed for their track team, setting both indoor and outdoor school records in the shot put. Because USC was so kind to my family, I have to admit I like their style and generally root for them. I’m sure social psychologists would have a good explanation for that.
5 Comments
adugandzic · December 1, 2009 at 4:37 pm
Of course USC was good to your family! It’s an extremely expensive school that takes very good care of its students. They have a wonderful alumni network and I do agree that many intelligent, talented people come out of there. I have always been a UCLA, fan however, so I was really disappointed with the turn out of the game. While Neuheisel definitely did not make very many smart decisions, I have to say the the USC players acted atrociously at the end. Rivalries can be really intense and emotions run high, but those guys were jumping around, yelling “look at the scoreboard” like 10 year old kids on a playground. As grown men who likely want to pursue a football career, I think they should have shown way better sportsmanship than they did. At the end of the day, it’s just a football game, and USC won’t be going to the Rose Bowl anyway, so why not be mature and just play the game?
DillonDelatorre · December 3, 2009 at 11:54 pm
That pretty amazing you guys have been together for as long as you have. congrats, i hope i can can come close to that, and its pretty sweet you got to watch Lew al cindor (Kareem) play for the bruins, he is one of the best and one of my favorite basketball players oif all time and john wooden’s bruins were amazing bakc in the day, but i do like USC also, not a big college fan, but its really cool that your hubby got to dgo to all those amazing events and let you partake… I am jealous 🙂 very amazing game you got to go to, that catch.. wow, got to watch history.
benadamshome · December 4, 2009 at 6:35 am
I don’t know from USC or UCLA. I can’t get into college football. What really touched me about this post is the personal memory that is so powerful.
My wife of 12 years (my partner of 17 years) and I have many personal memories like this. It is quite a thing to realize that a date or an event is just one step on the journey.
And it is these memories that make a life.
Thanks for making me a little weepy this morning!
Ben
my website: HealthPanda.com
my blog: Blog.HealthPanda.com
MakeyvaD · December 4, 2009 at 9:10 am
It’s amazing how life is full of memories and how you can remember your very first date doing something you both enjoyed. It’s also amazing how you both went to different universities for awhile and then still ended up together, because I know it could be tough dating an athlete sometimes. Then your daughter going the same school probably felt really good, because you both could kind know the type of environment she was in and probably felt like she was in really good hands so that’s amazing how children can follow in their parents footsteps to a certain extent.
Roger’s View of the World, Love and Seafood Gumbo! » Rule 1: to be happy, marry the right person · November 22, 2009 at 10:47 am
[…] 80 years and what they attributed to their mutual long living attraction and love. Laura also blogged sweetly about the date… so what’s a guy to […]
Comments are closed.