Well, our 30th anniversary year of celebration is over. It was a memorable, fun and enjoyable time. It was also somewhat exhausting (more on this in a bit). And even with the 2014 UTSA football results not being what we had hoped, it was a year we will never regret or forget. Linda and I enjoyed every win and loss. Every tailgate, rain or shine. Every dinner. Every long drive or plane trip. Conversations. Smack. Twitter rants. Airport delays and RowdyTalk threads. We had the opportunity to meet some incredible people that we would otherwise have never met. From Pat, to John. The Cavanaugh’s to the Taylor’s. All with one thing in common: Support of the UTSA Roadrunners in anyway they can. It is a year we will remember for the rest of our lives.
Up front I want to thank Lynn Hickey and her entire staff. They spend countless hours promoting UTSA Athletics to the boosters and supporters. And even though Linda and I are not anywhere near the major supporters from a financial perspective, Lynn and her team supported us none the less. For this I am forever grateful in the memories that we will have of this special time in our lives. So to Lynn, Brandon and Taylor in particular, thank you for including us in some of your events this past year. It was very appreciated and will never be forgotten.
When we started the planning for last year, I was thinking it would be pretty easy. I mean, how hard can it be to attend just 12 football games in a span of over 3 months? Easy right? Well, we learned pretty quick that if we were just going to the games it would be easy. But to tailgate at every game was another story. For those of you who tailgate at the UTSA home games, think about this:
1) you know where you will be setting up, for the most part
2) you know the rules, lay of the land and what to expect
Well, when you are tailgating at an away game, most of that goes away. You don’t know what to expect. We found out fairly early that the “tailgating rules and guides” posted online are pretty much marketing fluff. It is language to protect the university. It is not reality. Case in point: at FAU, when we got to the lot that we had purchased parking passes for, the parking attendants were 100% lost. Our parking pass was foreign to them (they admitted it was valid but didn’t know what to do with it). And when we asked them where we could setup for tailgating they sent us to an entirely different lot that was “not for sale online.” Only for season ticket holders. Go figure. It turned out good for us overall, but WTF.
Another thing that Linda and I didn’t account for was how quickly a week would go by. We would finish a game. Unpack. Clean tailgating stuff. Plan menu for the following week. And the next thing we knew it was time to hit the road or pack the car for another game. From a work standpoint, I was struggling to keep up. I worked countless hours on the road to try to keep up at the office. But when the rubber hit the road, I was ready to go. Supporting the ‘runners. Ready for another outing.
So what does all of this dribble really mean? Well for one, if you have the opportunity and means to follow the ‘runners for an entire season: Go For It! It won’t be quite as easy as you may think. It will also be fraught with challenges and aggravation. But when it is all said and done it is worth every penny and every minute. It will give you memories and create friendships that you can never imagine.
So, yes: Linda and I have no affiliation with UTSA outside of our support of the athletic department.
Yes, we both had an incredible time following the football team this past year.
Yes, we have no regrets of spending our 30th with UTSA versus going to Europe or some other exotic type vacation.
Yes, we are proud to support UTSA and will continue to suppor them in the years to come.
And yes, we may just have to duplicate this for our 35th… but I’m getting ahead of myself.
So thank you to all of the UTSA fans, supporters, staff, etc that we have met this past year for supporting us in this special year. We look forward to seeing all of you in the years to come. But for now, let’s concentrate on 2015.
Go ‘Runners!!!!