On Saturday evening, Kevin, his brother and I headed out to east Orlando for a University of Central Florida Knights home football game against Boston College. Kevin graduated from UCF, but this was his first game in their on-campus stadium. Back when he attended, the football games were all held in the Citrus Bowl near downtown Orlando.
Although I didn’t go to UCF, I don’t have any problem cheering for the hometown team.
Thanks to Kevin’s brother, we got suite tickets, which allowed us to go into the IOA tent prior to kickoff. The tent was catered by Howl at the Moon, and we got to snack on mini foods. Miniature foods are more fun to eat than normal-size food.
We walked around campus, said hello to some friends and checked out the UCF swag at the bookstore. Eventually we headed up to the box suites, which provided an amazing view of the field. Kickoff was at 8 p.m., and there was a nice breeze in the air. It was a really nice evening.
They also fed us very well in the suite. (Not that we really needed even more food!)
Although everything was delicious, what really impressed me was a UCF student-led effort to get everyone to wear red bandanas to the game to celebrate former Boston College lacrosse player Welles Crowther. Welles was known for wearing his signature red bandana, a gift from his dad, wherever he went. After graduating from Boston College, he became a New York City firefighter. It wasn’t until after all of the events of Sep. 11, 2011, unfolded that people were able to retell the story about how a man, who tied a red bandana around his head to cover his face from the smoke, saved their lives. He made three trips back into the South Tower and passed when it collapsed.
They brought out his family members onto UCF’s field and seeing everyone waving their red bandanas in the air was an amazing and moving sight.
All in all, it was a great evening topped off with a UCF win at home.
Weekly Workout Summary
- Monday-Stationary bike
- Tuesday-Arms and treadmill run
- Wednesday-off
- Thursday-off
- Friday-off
- Saturday-Arms and Stairmaster
- Sunday-Treadmill run and walk Parko
Yikes—not the greatest workout week! This definitely needs to be fixed for next week.
Do you cheer for any college teams of schools that you didn’t go to? Kevin really likes UCF and Miami, so I’ll cheer for them if they’re not playing any of my teams. Since I lived in Chicago and Indiana, I also root for Northwestern and Notre Dame (and no, I don’t want to talk about the Michigan game).
