I love going to games at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem.
BB&T Field is the smallest stadium of the automatic qualifying conferences, seating only 31,500, but every seat is a good one. It is a very manageable 70 miles from my house on interstate highways. Visiting team’s parking is readily available at $8 the day of the game and adjacent to the stadium in the Lawrence Joel Veterans Coliseum, a simple five minute walk.
It is a perfect day trip for Your Faithful Servant.
- Get up at 5:30AM and pack the gear for the tailgate.
- Leave Hillsborough at 6:30 AM.
- Rendezvous with Chris, Tony, and Nikki in Greensboro around 7:45 AM
- Pull into LVJM Parking Lot at 8:25 AM.
- First beer cracked at 8:35 AM.
- Tailgate until 11:20 AM.
- Game runs from 12:00 to about 3:15.
- Back home by 4:50 PM to watch the SEC on CBS (and drink some more beer).
We had seats about 25 rows up at the 20 yard line. Really felt like we were right on top of the action. An entertaining game with good pace between two schools (and two outstanding coaches) with tiny fan bases that fight for their lives in this day of massive football budgets, facilities “arms’ races”, and out-of-control costs passed directly down to fans in the form of ticket prices, jacked-up hotel rates, and programs like STEP that throw loyal patrons that built up a program under the bus.
Weird mix of food. As usual, I delivered the goods mid-morning with my traditional Italian Sausage and Marinated Chicken entrees off the grill. However, given the early start, I also mixed in some bananas and breakfast bars and Tony added sticky buns. Not sure if I will ever again mix Bud Light Lime with bananas at 8:45 in the morning, but it was, hmmm, different. Plenty of brews and wine were consumed.
I have posted before that Duke is my distant-second favorite team. The emotional ties just aren’t there like they are with Pitt. The wins don’t feel as good and the losses don’t sting as much. These games are primarily an opportunity to spend good times with my kids – and the important people in their lives like Nikki – and they are great times.
As any parent, you are happy because your kids are happy. But I am also feeling a tinge of jealousy – thinking that maybe after 30 years of 6-6 and 7-5 mediocrity that maybe my Alma Mater can have one, just one, of these magical years.
This freakish sports year of 2013 – one in which my Pirates win 94 games and Duke wins the ACC Coastal Division – continued on November 23, 2013 on a beautiful Saturday afternoon in Winston-Salem, NC where I watched Duke beat Wake Forest 28-21.
Here is a Flickr Slide Show of that day. (Friendly reminder that you can display a full-screen version of the slideshow by clicking the “Play” button and then clicking on the four dot square in the lower right corner.)
