Posts: 483
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Joined: Dec 1969
I'll be there on Saturday, wearing my 2011 Orange Bowl T-shirt. Yes, I was there. I feel sorry for those who could not attend. For the benefit of you who watched only the game on TV, here's what you missed:
There was a event the night before on South Beach hosted by Adam Carolla, which included the Battle of the Bands. The VaTech band was in uniform and played their fight song and the Hokey Pokey. They had no idea what they were up against. LSJUMB then played outside amongst the restaurants. Best moment for all the locals IMHO was White Punks on Dope.
I, along with other Stanford fans, got to the then named Sun Life Stadium early to partake in the tailgate party on the mezzanine. We had plenty of time to roam around pregame and on the third deck, I saw a man wearing a white Stanford football jersey with a single sewn-on red stripe on the sleeve and the name "Shockley". I knew immediately what it was. I tapped him on the shoulder to confirm that it was from the 1972 Rose Bowl. I started to tell him the story of how I was a 13 year old at the time, and I knew nothing about Stanford, but after watching the 1971 Rose Bowl, I recalled how the player intros of the Buckeyes had majors like "general studies" or "PE" while Jim Plunkett was economics and Jackie Brown was poli sci. Hillary Shockley then interrupted me and called over Jackie Brown who was next to him. I told them they were both responsible for me coming to Stanford. I'm not sure who enjoyed that conversation more.
Post-game, we gathered in the southwest corner of the stadium to watch Luck, Marecic, Sherman, and Fleener being interviewed by Jon Gruden on that temporary platform. We then headed back to South Beach to the Fountainbleu, the team hotel. What a rush that was. But a real high point was when we left around 1:30 AM and there was Richard Sherman's mom walking towards us. We told her how happy we were that Richard chose Stanford and how he made a difference. She remarked she was proud about how much he grew. One of the best damn days of my Stanford fandom.