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McNeese72
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I made the trip up to South Dakota for the game on the team's charter flight. The plane for this trip was a Sun Country 737-800 that was only about one year old.
We flew up Friday to Sioux Falls, SD where the team spend the night in a Sheraton. Friday night, Duge and a few other parents kidnapped me, took me to a Brazilian Steak House named Carnival, and force-fed me. Thanks, Duge, it were goot!!.
Saturday morning I got up, checked out, threw my suitcase underneath in one of the team buses, and rode up to Brookings with Chris and Joyce Buchanan to catch some of the Hobo Day Parade. I'll post some pictures of the parade later. After the parade, we headed to the SDSU Tailgate area and met up with this gentleman. His name is Terry Schroeder and his son is a star defensive end, No. 97, for the Jackrabbits. Unfortunately, his son had substained an high ankle sprain in an earlier game and wasn't available to play against McNeese.
Here is a shot of the group that shares the tailgate area with Terry. The woman in the white shorts hugging the other woman and the man directly behind her are WR JaRon Harris's parents. (We got to know him very well in the game :-) ) Left of Cbuck (in the blue and gold McNeese jacket) is Terry Schroeder. Right of Cbuck is Glen Fox who is the dad of Wr Glen Fox Jr. Also, Danny Batten, Sr, not in the picture, tailgates with them and his son is DL Danny Batten, Jr.
They were good hosts, fed us, and gave us drinks. Thanks, guys, we appreciated the hospitality.
Going through the tailgate area, the McNeese fans blended in with the SDSU fans because our colors are almost exactly the same. Also, something we have in common is a tradition of cowbells. Too bad, since they joined the Gateway Conference, or whatever it is called now, due to conference rules, they aren't allowed to bring cowbells into the game. If we ever do a home and home again, you SDSU fans be sure to bring you cowbells to Cowboy Stadium where cowbells are still allowed.
Below is Glen Fox, Sr.
These fans had an old school bus dressed up in SDSU colors and were heading to their tailgate spot. One of the SDSU fans told me to note that it was a "short bus". :-)
Chris, Joyce, and I wandered away to take a few pictures of the tailgate area and to find the visitor will call window for Chris to pick up his tickets. Below a few pictures looking down the roads of their tailgate area. They are not very many travel trailers and RV's like in our tailgate areas. One reason is that they are disadvantaged in that they are only allowed to tailgate for about three hours before the game. Then the tailgate area is closed for the game and they have to leave right after the game and are not allowed to tailgate after the game. It not like ours where you can arrive after noon on Friday and have to be gone by noon on Sunday.
Shortly later, we ran into this two. They are like the Mardi Gras King and Queen of Hobo Day, Weary Will and Dirty Lil. I think that these two were the ones honored at the game. Of course, I could be wrong again.
Next, we passed by the Chain Gang's tailgate area. These are the guys that work the the yard markers during the game. I was told that they get paid to do so by being given a tailgatge spot. I like their theme. Men of Vision.......Mr. Football First Down Marker Guy. I didn't get to meet them at that time but I later heard from one of our radio guys that they were looking for me.
When we found the will call table and Buck was getting his pictures, I saw this propane tank that was supplying the concession stand that was just begging for me to take its picture.
We ran into Duge and his wife there and I took them back to Terry's spot to introduce them. While there, Terry was grilling chicken and shrimp on a stick. He twisted my arm and made me eat a few (or a lot). :-) I asked him where the shrimp came from and he said, "Sam's". Thanks again, Terry.
And I met their tailgate's guard dog. Any tailgate area that has a weiner dog as a guard dog had got to be a good one. :-)
I decided it was time to head to the stadium to take a few pre-game pictures. I first ran into and took a picture of Jordy Johnson, who I guess is a student-coach or something like that now.
I noticed Dr. Daboval and friends walking on the sidewalk below the East stands and took a picture.
Below, a shot of both sides of the Coughlin-Alumni Stadium before the stands filled up.
Rb Terez Jackson stretches a little bit before catching kickoffs and punts.
A shot of SDSU's scoreboard. It is a Daktronics scoreboard like ours. Daktronics is based in Brookings, SD so I wonder if they got a good deal on theirs.
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