Bennett's First LSU Game

One of the great joys in my life before getting married and having the kids was growing up a diehard LSU football fan. I was always fortunate that my parents had a good group of friends, and we had seats with them at the 48 yard line twenty rows up. I was spoiled enough to sit with them (often in the aisle when the stadium marshals were not as strict) for essentially every home LSU game from age 2 until my freshman year in college. I was there for the highs (Earthquake game) and the lows (U of Miami), but I have never had a greater experience than the last few games bringing Elise a few years back (click for my post) and bringing Bennett last week.

Although I knew it would be a long day, I wanted him to remember it forever so we arrived in Baton Rouge about 4 hours before kickoff for last saturday's Western Kentucky game.


On the way there, Bennett took a power nap listening to the pre-game show. I let it happen since he would need his energy. When we arrived we had a bit of a walk from the parking spot to Uncle Jared's tailgate. He was great about the walks, asked about all the buildings, and just couldn't comprehend that hundres of people lived in the dorm we walked by. We made it to Jared's, which happened to be in the law school parking lot so I explained to Bennett that the school is where I learned to be a lawyer. He was not as impressed with any of that than with the 5-foot stuffed tiger on someone's car - you pick your battles, right! Here are my favorite regulars of my LSU game day stops over the last 10ish years - Uncle Jared and Aunt Erinn.

Next we walked by some of the frat houses (it was homecoming) and he was amazed at the huge paper mache constructions. Then we walked across the parade grounds, which must have been the biggest field of partying people that he had ever seen. In front of the Union a group had constructed at replica of Tiger Stadium out of donated canned goods, and Bennett was amazed. It was actually really impressive and I was glad to see it standing, and unguarded, when we walked by hours later.

Next was a walk by a few friends spots, then on to the Indian Mounds. I explained the historical significance of them, which led him to ask me yesterday if there were Indians under a hill that we passed in the car. Again, his mind is always going.

We hurried over to the hill to catch the band coming down, as well as try out the football throw and putting contest that was set up.

We also had dippin dots and Bennett danced to a LMFAO cover band. Wish I had caught a pic of that.

Perhaps my favorite pic, Bennett seeing the stadium close up (standing underneath the fighter jet outside the south endzone). He was amazed at the magnitude of the place.

We then met my buddy Bryan and his son Will (also his first game), and hurried into the stadium to grab our seats so we could watch warmups. As I did with Elise, i grabbed a shot of him, his ticket, and his first glimps inside Tiger Stadium.

What a moment!

He loved seeing Mike come around, was not ready for the fireworks, and could believe how loud the band and crowd were for the team running out onto the field. He learned the first down cheer, saw 3 touchdowns, and yelled D-Fence as loud as I expected.

Bennett and Will had a great time during their brief stay (we left at end of third, Will didn't see halftime), but Bryan and I were amazed at their food capacity. Bennett ate a tiger dog, my entire chic-fil-a sandwich, half a bag of popcorn, m&ms, and he and will tag-teamed some cotton candy (the cotton candy won).

Before we headed home we took one last ride on Mike, then made the walk back (shoulders the whole way), into Buzz lightyear pjs and into dreamworld. I hope he dreamed of his next LSU game.

Thanks for being the best buddy I have ever been to a game with.

Dad