Saturday (at the OU-Missouri football game), a couple of Missouri fans showed up in our section which usually contains only OU season ticket holders. These guys were loud enough and energetic enough to grab the attention of the Mizzou band seated three sections (about 50 yards) away. M-I-Z they'd chant and the band would answer back: Z-O-U. The third quarter, when Missouri came back from a 7-point deficit to a 1-point lead (via several OU mistakes) was pretty excruciating. Made me appreciate all the folks who travel to away games -- don't know if I'd be okay with watching my team where 80,000 fans are screaming for the other guys.
It was the OU homecoming game and one of the things about the homecoming game is that band alumni get to march alongside the regular band. I don't know if it was intended to appear that way, but the alumni march turned out pretty cartoonish. You first saw slim, in-shape, young 'uns marching in crimson-and-cream uniforms in perfect rows and diagonals. And following them ... a bunch of beer-bellied folks in white polo shirts and navy-blue pants occupying twice the lane width and a little off in space and time. Another thing I can't see myself doing -- putting myself in a position where physical comparisons with 20-year olds are so facile.
Count me a little scared of competition.
I guess I'm not too worried about appearances, because I've marched in the Alumni Band several times. But I have passed on the opportunity the last couple of years. Not because I don't want to look bad - it's because I'm too out of shape to march the length of the field AND play my horn at the same time. The last time I tried it, I thought I was going to have a heart attack.
ReplyDeleteBesides, my upper deck seats are much nicer than the end zone seats where they stick the old band geeks.