• The KillerFrogs

TCU vs Utah - A Family Affair

EVOfrogMR

Active Member
I'm finally headed out to SLC for the game. I am as thrilled as anyone on this board lucky enough to go, but for me this game has a little more on the line. I've been waiting for this trip and this game for more than a decade.

My little sister is a Utah grad and a solid Ute fan. She was an early part of the MUSS and even worked in the football offices for two years. Its a great sibling rivalry. I can't get too down on her though, as I wouldn't have found TCU without her. Her final two schools were TCU and Utah. She started off as a ballet major and Utah was affiliated with a better professional dance company. (On a side note, how many of you know that TCU has the nation's oldest academically acredited ballet program?) Even though she picked Utah, she was so impressed with TCU that my wife looked at and attended TCU for grad school. I transferred down from Marquette to TCU to be with her, and it could not have worked out better for all of us.

When I first arrived at TCU, I thought Utah and TCU still played in the same conference. I was not aware of the MWC breakaway from the WAC. I was seriously disapointed that the annual family rivalry wasn't going to happen. Finally in 2005 with the move to the MWC it was game on. Since graduating from TCU I've moved up to Chicago, and my sister went to medical school here as well. We started planning on annual trips to Ft Worth and Salt Lake until they scheduled the first 5 games in the series on Thursday nights! I have two small future frogs at home and with medical school my sister wasn't going anywhere mid-week.

For the first time last year, my whole family made it to AGC together. It was perfect. We went to Gameday as a family and we were even interviewed by a local news station from SLC. My dad was probably the proudest guy on campus. He was in his bright red t-shirt he had custom printed in 2005. It reads "TC-U-TES" in big block letters with "Dad" underneath. He'll be wearing the same shirt only in a much nicer PURPLE on saturday. He loved when all the Frog fans saw the red and he got to explain where his children went to school. (He's a Minnesota alum living in Florida, so it's a big deal for him to be able to talk with pride about a football team.) By the time we walked into AGC and saw the packed house, I was never happier at any sporting event anywhere, ever. Then of course the game started...

I've been waiting since 1999 to walk into Rice-Eccles with my family and yell my lungs out for the Frogs. On Saturday I'll finally get to do exactly that. If someone had told me then that by the time I finally made it both teams would be ranked in the top 5 playing a game with national title implications, I'd have thought they were dreaming. My family has had a lot of issues over these past 11 years, but we could always talk about the football. For at least one day, this game will bring us all together.

So if you see a man wearing a huge smile and a unique purple t-shirt walking with a daughter in black and a son in white, that will be us. I'm dreaming of a trip to Pasadena or even back to Glendale for the right game this time, but no matter what happens for 3 and a half hours on Saturday afternoon the day will be perfect.
 
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