Game Day 10-6-07

I am immersed in the subculture of big 10 football. I opened up the Columbus daily newspaper to see an entire 'game day' section covering the OSU-Purdue game at Purdue. The local news reporter touted the game I was headed to with Tom as a top game of the day to watch!

I drove along I -70 with cars touting both OSU & Purdue at 7:30 am even though the game didn't start until 8 pm. By touting, I mean flags on their cars and brightly colored football shirts worn by entire car. In Indianapolis, the exit to the University of Indiana was packed with fans headed to the Indiana-MN game [Indiana won 40-20]. Then as I head to Champaign -- drivers were wearing orange T shirts for the UIllinos - Wisonsin game which started at 11 AM - a bit early for many of the local residents. Tom greeted me wearing orange and had an orange T shirt he had purchased for me [even our tickets had said 'WEAR ORANGE'. Tom and I had plenty of company as we arrived at the stadium partially into the 2nd quarter. I was one of a number of parents in the student section --this was 'Dad's weekend' -- the Fall parents weekend. The fans were extremely enthusiastic at the sold out crowd [Tom had bought my ticket on the internal face book on campus]. Most everyone was in Orange with a few tough souls wearing the bright red of Wisonsin -- even some in the students section but less than 5% of the entire crowd. It was a great game, close down to the last minute with a final score of U of Illinois 31, Wisconsin 24.
The local paper opening front page on Sunday was all about the game with the possibility of a bowl berth for the first time since 1989 mentioned. Big question: how high will Illinois be ranked?