The Return of College Football

What day of the year gets you can't-sleep-with-anticipation excited? When you're a child, it's Christmas or your birthday. When you're an adult, it's your wedding or birth of your first child. For college students, recent college graduates and die-hard fans, it's the first game of the College Football Season!

No matter how they did last year, this year your team has your whole hearted commitment. You'll rearrange your classes, your job availability, even your wedding plans (guilty!) so that you don't miss the game.

The day dawns early, no matter what time the game. At my university, the tailgaters would begin to arrive on Friday for the Saturday night game. They arrived Friday only because school administrators won't let them park on Thursday night. Tailgating spots are sacred, handed down from generation to generation. When construction for the betterment of education threaten these spots, the 'neighbors' push together best they can to make room for their old comrades. They show up with their campers and tents decked out with all the comforts of home. Those that don't have season tickets will have their Direct TV dishes set up facing south to watch the game happening 100 yards away from them on their high definition TV's. The smells of Jambalaya, Gumbo, and BBQ fill the early morning air. All are welcome to enjoy the good food. I once brought my niece to experience the sights, lost track of her for about 10 minutes and when she reappeared, she had a plate heaping with rice dressing and fried chicken! The parade grounds are filled with people tossing all manners of flying objects around, Frisbee's, baseballs and of course footballs.

The attire is the school colors. No one would make that fashion mistake. The men with their polo shirts, baseball caps, kaki shorts and sneakers, the women with their girl jerseys, jean shorts, flip flops and team colored toenails. The men stand with their beers in hand, talking stats, who is starting, who saved or ruined the last game. The women sit in their camp chairs with beers in hand, talking about all the things in life women talk about. The college students will join up with their families or friends and the freshmen will assure parents they are still going to classes, and the seniors will count down the credit hours left.

As game time approaches, the air gets charged with excitement. The opposing team's fans will become fair game in "tiger baiting" chants. Unless the game gets ugly, tailgaters are usually civil, only fighting the good natured arguments about whose team is best.

Soon, the drums will start. The band is signaling that it's time to approach the stadium! As they form ranks and the cadence starts, the crowds part to let them through. The crush becomes thicker as the turn to the hill approaches. The auxiliary is smiling, sequins flashing. When the drum major reaches the oak tree, with the band stretching up the hill behind him, he gives the signal. The band halts, the drums begin the opening beats to pregame. Up and over to the left the horns play the first three notes, and the crowd erupts! Up and over to the right, again the crowd responds with cheers. Beer is flying as arms go up in that universal gesture of celebration! The song gets fully underway, and off the band goes, running and playing down the hill and into the stadium, leading the crowd behind them.

When the game finally begins, the sounds of the crowd are deafening. All through the long months of spring and summer, they have waited. Waited for the sounds of the band, the crowd, the whistles, the players slamming into each other - all the sounds that mean one thing. College football has begun!