"It's Great to be a Tennessee Vol..."

...until last night that is - GO DUCKS!!

The day that we've been planning since right before Ashlyn was born finally came yesterday...the Oregon v.s. Tennessee football game at Neyland Stadium and we had tickets. Talk about an amazing experience to see our Ducks play against a SEC school! These people are CRAZY about their football...multiply that by 101,000 screaming fans and you've got yourself a CRAZY couple of hours! We had a BLAST getting to campus about 4 hours before kickoff to see campus and participate in Tennessee's traditions centered around their football team. The first was their "Vol Walk". All the fans line the streets from the torch statue down to the stadium to greet the team as they show up for the game. We got their early and enjoyed playfully bantering with Tennessee fans around us as the crowd got larger and larger. Then in the distance you could hear their famous "Rocky Top" song being played by the pep band and out of the blue they all started chanting..."It's great to be a Tennessee Vol...What's that?...I SAID...It's great to be a Tennessee Vol..." over and over at the top of their lungs.And the sea of orange creamcyles, as Rick described it, parted and the team walked off the bus and down through the crowd to enter the stadium. Talk about an adrenaline rush to have 1,000's of people chanting in unison in support of their team!Then we went over to the other entrance to the stadium for the parade of the entrance of the marching band. We were lucky enough to get front row seats along the curb right on a corner and got a GREAT view of the band. I LOVE to watch marching bands, boy did they get us pumped for the game...even if they were playing "Rock Top" over and over... and over. However, they did play Oregon's Fight Song during the Opening Field Show before the National Anthem!This is the view that we had from our seats when we got there 1 1/2 hours before kickoff. We laughed really hard when we got our tickets in the mail a couple of weeks ago when we saw how far up we were, 3 rows from the top in the end zone...but our view was AWESOME! The stadium was literally straight up (Blake climbed the stairs like a ladder) so the seats/view were great!It was great to see the enthusiasm that the Vols have for their team and the AWESOME atmosphere it created, that place was sooooo LOUD! The marching band, cheerleaders, dance team, mascots etc. did a great Opening Field Show before the game, which ended with the team running out of the tunnel onto the field. At this point we had to scream while talking with the person sitting next to us it was soooo loud.
Blake had a great time taking everything in, rooting for his team and enjoying the overall experience...notice Ashlyn isn't in any of the pictures? She opted to stay at Aunt Vicki and Uncle Marvin's house in northern Georgia rather than attend the game.There was a big storm that was suppose to come in that afternoon, but it had been sunny all day so we thought we'd get lucky...no such luck! A few minutes before this picture it was sunny and clear...those are NASTY rain clouds, not a dark sky because the sun went down!About 6 minutes into the game all of a sudden both teams, cheerleaders, officials etc. abruptly left the field and headed for the locker rooms. The storm had found it's way to the game along with thunder and lightning. So the announcer informed us we needed to evacuate to the neighboring parking garages or to the basketball arena behind the stadium. Was this some sort of joke? How do you evacuate 101,000 fans at one time?

Needless to say, the Ducks section was way up top (next to the JUMBO-Tron, I might add!) and there was no way for us to get out. It reminded us of being steerage on the Titanic...the announcer kept telling us to evacuate, but there was nowhere to go. Thunder, lightning and TONS of rain instantly soaking everybody and creating HUGE waterfalls down the stairways of the stadium. Where were the Duck fans? Still stuck at the top of the bowl sitting, literally as 1,000's of lightning rods riding out the storm...it was NUTS! Our shoes were COMPLETELY full of water and we were drenched! After about 70 minutes of "lightning delay" the boys were back out and ready to play some ball, even though it was still raining.At halftime we were tied 13-13 and excited about our chance of winning. Their marching band put on a 9/11 tribute for their field show, complete with music, a video presentation, NY fire fighters and Lady Liberty herself. After halftime boy did we stick it to them! So much that this is what the stadium looked like towards the beginning of the 4th quarter with 13 minutes left of the game. I snapped this picture when the announcer thanked all the loyal Tennessee fans for coming and to have a good night...what?!! There's still another quarter of the game to play people! Talk about fair weathered, poor-sports fans! They bolted at the end of 3rd quarter when we put so much up on 'em. But boy did that make it so the more than 10,000 Duck fan ruled the stadium! It was great!Final score, 48-13...take that SEC fans! Since the poor-sports vacated the building so early it was a sea of green and yellow leaving the stadium and walking back to our cars just like we were at Autzen. We were hootin' and hollerin', cheerin', high-5ing it and singing all the way out! What a great game...well worth the 4 years and 3 months we had to wait...GO DUCKS! We can't wait to see ya in Dallas next year!