Skip to main content

The Chicago Classic

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!”




















Comments

Popular posts from this blog

R.O.P.E. in Accra, Ghana- July 2024

Joining Rites of Passage and Empowerment (ROPE) has been key in helping us find community out here in the Berkshires. No sugar coating- this county is both white, rural, conservative, racist and full of theatre, music, the outdoors, and pockets of loving, open-minded people. Massachusetts may be the most liberal state in the US, but we are far from Boston. Here, minutes from New York and Vermont, the sounds of performative equity can be heard from the tone deaf school administrators who "don't see color" and have voiced that "race was not an issue till we brought it up", to the lack of representation in politics, restaurants, stores, and general day to day. We have lived in places across the country, and have yet to stumble upon a place that felt fully welcoming. I don't say this to complain, it is merely a statement of my lived experience thus far and an acknowledgement of the work it takes as a Black woman to make friends, have meaningful relationships, g...

After you clean your room...

This evening Cassidy revealed to me a small secret to keeping her occupied. After dinner she asked me if she could watch a show. We don't have tv, but we do have netflix through the wii on our tv and we watch all the greatness that PBS and Nickelodian have to offer! Except for Caillou because I think he's kind of whiny. Anyway, she gets to watch limited amounts of Diego, Dora, Dinosaur Train, Super Why, Word World, etc and sometimes we throw in some Cosby Show for good measure. She'll pick two shows and watch one, 20 minute episode of each and then we call it good. Well tonight when she asked for a show, I told her she could watch one episode of her favorite after she cleaned her room. She went into her room and as she started putting toys away, she started playing with them. She'd go to put books away and start "reading" them. Twenty minutes later she'd start putting crayons away, then start drawing with them. Ten minutes later she'd start putting awa...

Back 2 School 2024/2025

 The start of a new school year is scattered and quite full as we begin the fall with a bang on multiple campuses.  We gave Savannah a few options for her start to middle-school. She was at WES for 3 years and had made a solid, core group of friends- super strong connections! All of them were headed to the zoned school of Greylock regional, grades 7-12. Going to Greylock wither friends would mean we would have to drive her, school choice does not provide a bus. It would mean she could not do all the things because of the commute and our schedules, her options to get involved would be limited. If she chose to go to the school we were now zoned for, she would be walking distance to Miss Halls and could do alllll the things- go for it! Join every club, try out for the plays, do all the sports.  Y'all already know, Savvy chose her friends lol. It is hard. And she is so happy. And never complains, because she understands with this choice, her options are limited. We have been ...