My favorite Stanford sports moment is pretty obscure. It was the Oregon game in Will
ingham's first year. Stanford won in their first OT game, although I don't remember the score and that isn't what was memorable. This was the first time Jacketrette asked me to take her to a football game. (She attended a few games in utero in both California and Georgia; and was taken to Bobby Dodd Stadium at Historic Grant field as a 3 year old; but as a 4 year old she asked
me for the date.) She had a floppy hat, bag of carrots and some crayons, but she spent the entire game charming the former Dollies I used to sit with in Section DD. By the end of the game the only question was with whom she would go home. The promise of a burger and chocolate shake at the Creamery meant I didn't have some dicey explaining to do to Mrs. Jacketree that night.
Another favorite Stanford sports moment arrived a decade or so later when she and I were in the new stadium on a blazing hot day watching H
arris' squad get their lunch handed to them by whomever - maybe Wazzu - when she took off near halftime. Don't even remember if it was before or after. She returned sobbing. 'Trette, sometimes football teams just suck and sometimes they pull out of it and sometimes they don't, but this isn't worth getting worked up over. That's not it Dad. I just saw [random high school dude who should be staying away from my precious daughter] and I broke up with him. We had a heart to heart over another burger and shake and I think I posted something somewhere to the effect of "Man, my daughter had more breakups at the game than our secondary did." Throw away snark line, but a C
al buddy of mine saw it published on some national blog. He thought it was hilarious, as did the 'Trette. She wrote about both of those afternoons in a memory book she gave to me on her wedding day, about 15 minutes before she paced like a caged tiger in the green room as everyone in the procession was in the procession except the two of us. "Dude we can be in Canada or Mexico before they know we're gone." "Thanks Dad."
Something jogged another memory the other week. This would fall under the category of satisfaction more than joy, but as you may recall, Stanford christened the new stadium losing against Navy. Jacketree Junior went with me to that one. As a young kid the plan was to go to Bellarmine and play baseball for Stanford on enough of a scholarship that Dad didn't have to sell his own blood every day to make it work. That all changed after the game when some Midshipmen in their summer whites chatted us up for quite some time on the way back to the truck. JTJ said nothing until we pointed its nose homeward. "Dad, do they play baseball at Navy?"Â
He wouldn't play baseball at Navy, but he would play football there and based on what his shipmates said of him in the 2016 Lucky Bag (USNA's yearbook), something else stuck on that fall evening back in 2005. He's listed with Company 8, because, well, that was his Company.
Quote:[Jacketree Junior], USMC Ground
[Jacketree Junior] is probably the biggest sports fan that has graced Bancroft Hall. Hell be sure to take endless jabs at the professional teams his friends support, but they better not mention a single negative thing about his. In part due to his late night sports watching, [JTJ] probably slept less than anyone in the Class of 2016. One time, for unknown reasons, he fell asleep on the stairs in the Laboon Center for over two hours. During second class year, he became a science experiment for skin doctors across the country, having contracted the worst case of hand, foot and mouth disease since Nam. His good friends wonder how he is able to walk, let alone run, with the kettle-bells he keeps on him all the time. In all seriousness [JTJ] is an awesome dude who is always looking out for his friends, unless he is watching Stanford football.
