Hampton versus Alabama A&M was a game we were not going to miss; particularly since we won’t be attending Hampton’s Homecoming this year. Matt may have been the first person to purchase tickets once they opened online! Saturday of the game may have been gloomy and overcast, but our spirits were high as we made our way via train to Soldier Field in downtown Chi-town.
No trip with even the most cheerful of toddlers would be complete without a mishap and ours appeared in the way of a horrid diaper rash and potty incident on the train! By the time our poor baby was crying in pain, huge fat tears rolling down her soft cheeks, she had charmed our fellow passengers around us and there was nary an irritated person among us. One long stop in the restroom and all was right again.
Here is what I appreciate about attending a Black college football game: people come from all over whether they attended the schools or not because they understand the deeper significance of supporting something once denied to us. An education. Watching two teams from HBCUs battle it out on the field, cheering the bands on, seeing old friends….that’s all great. But I like to think there is a moment when you walk into the stadium and see the colors and college emblems and smell the history and feel the pride. Or that could just be us since we work in higher ed.
Anyway, the national anthem was incredible! I think my favorite rendition to date. I’m sure people were not expecting a solo violin but it was a most pleasant surprise and change. The Black national anthem was beautifully sung and then we were off!
At least we were supposed to be. The first half was horrible! I was all excited about football and there was none of that being played! No defense. No pass completions. No scoring on our part. Turnover after turnover. No forward progression- can we please get past the 30 yd line? Just sloppy.
As luck would have it we sat in front of a lovely couple, Mike and Dana, from Atlanta who went to school with Matt. Matt and Mike were in the same freshmen hall so it was nice for Mat to catch up with someone and hear stories about their year. And Matt’s friend Eric drove in for the day. Plus Matt was able to talk to more of his friends during half time. Speaking of which, something happened during half time because the second half was much better!
I’m not going to discuss the battle of bands much. I was bored during Alabama’s show, I really liked Hampton’s performance better! But I will encourage Matt to write his own story about that. Being the music aficionado that he is, you would get a much better view of things from his perspective! And I will ask him to include how he felt when he was in the band section talking to his friend who is the director and he was swarmed by the clarinet section who was all a-twitter with, "Is that..are you... you wouldn't happen to be Matthew Jacob Aloyisus Smith?"
The pics you see below were hard to come by since we were told you could not bring in certain cameras and lenses. So we followed the rules only to see a whole lot of people sneak them in anyway! I doctored these as best I could! Then shrunk them for this blog so quality was not a priority, but enjoy anyway!
And we won in the last 6 seconds with a blocked field goal. 21-20. As Cassidy said all day and all night and all the next day, “Go Pirates!”
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