Like it was yesterday

Given that it's College Football Bowl season, it's the time of year when I recall one of my favorite memories of my life (and the best football game I've seen on the road) -- the 1987 Rose Bowl between Arizona State and Michigan, in Pasadena, California. To date, it's the only bowl game I've been to, and it will be hard to top. In late 1986, the Sun Devil football team was having a terrific year, and all of us fans were enjoying the moment as our team surprised everyone with upset wins (including a road win over heavily favored USC at the LA Colosseum -- another game I attended) on the way to the Pac Ten conference championship. In those pre-BCS days, the champion of the Pac Ten was required to play the Big Ten Conference champion, and that year our opponent was the mighty (and tradition-laden) Michigan Wolverines. It was our school's first Rose Bowl appearance -- we had several chances to make it before, but always stumbled on the last game of the year against our hated rival University of Arizona, thus knocking us out of the game. That was not the case in 1986, and so my (then) girlfriend and I made plans to go to the game. She had family that lived in SoCal, so we made arrangements to stay with them over the holiday break; her cousins and best friends were joining us at the game, so we had quite a group of revelers together to take in the whole experience. And what an experience it was! From the car trip to SoCal, driving with and through caravans of other ASU fans (it was an 8-hr road trip), to the NYE dinner at a subtle-yet-trendy SoCal restaurant, to the game itself -- it was a magical time and I remember telling myself to be sure to take it all in, for future reference, and I'm glad I did. At that time in my life, my youthful arrogance (as we all had at that age) could have easily controlled my mindset of this being the way it will always be, as in To Be Expected Every Year, but for some reason, I was not wanting to take that path, and I told myself to look at it all as if I would never be here again, and it turned out to be the right decision.
The Rose Bowl stadium was an incredible sight to take in -- as we walked towards it from the parking lot, I remember seeing the ouside facade, the same facade that you see on TV whenever a game is broadcast, only this time I was actually there, and it was right in front of me. I remember our seats not being what most would consider to be great, and Critical Me would have been annoyed any other time, but No, not today, this was The Granddaddy of Them All, and I was here, with great friends, all of us immersed in booze-flavored joy, merriment and comraderie, as I had always wanted to be, and I was not disappointed in any of the surroundings. To top it off, the game itself was equal to the task as our Sun Devils rallied from behind to upset the Wolverines and win the Rose Bowl, in front of thousands of gold pom-pom waving ASU fans. It was an incredible sight. I brought the Nikon with me (as I usually did) and took a ton of pictures, but as great as the photos were, they could not match the actual experience. I was glad I was there to see it all, and so was most (if not all) of my fellow ASU fans -- one of the nice things about going to a school that is not a perennial football powerhouse is that, when the rare time comes that your alma mater does make the Big Show, the memory means so much more than if it's an every-year booster-club requirement (and remember what I said before about Familiarity Breeds Contempt). Plus, it helped that we won the game -- I'm sure it was not quite the same for fans that went to the 1997 Rose Bowl game that ASU lost in the last seconds.
Regardless, it remains one of my best memories of a sporting event, and one that I will never forget. It would be interesting to see how my recollections compare to yours and any similar events...