I must admit, my home bleeds blue. Even my two year old knows how to spell out, and chant THE cheer. C-A-T-S, CATS-CATS-CATS. We will order take out, and plan entire weekends around football games, basketball games, Big Blue Madness, and whatever else BBN entails. We brave freezing temperatures, or sweltering heat to go tail gate at Commonwealth, with thousands of booze soaked fans, hoping that AT LAST, Kentucky will have a winning football program. We turn off the cell phones, put up all the breakables, and tell the kids to "earmuff" it, when Calipari and his boys are back on the court. Did I mention that UK cheerleaders are seriously like the most amazing bunch of athletes in the world? The things that those people do are INSANE, and they have won Nationals for basically the last twenty-something years.
Whatever the sport, I have to say, being a Kentucky fan isn't something you acquire, you're born into it. From a young age, you are programmed. I can name coaches that died before I was born, games that were played when I was in diapers, ( One word: Laettner) and still get tears in my eyes when speaking of my memories regarding the "Comeback Cats", THE 2012 Championship Team, and of course, the awe inspiring tournament run of the youngsters from 2013. Yeah, being a Kentucky fan is tough. We have a lot expected of us, when it comes to Big Blue Nation. It is really something spectacular, and unless you are a part of it, it is hard to understand. After last night's (heartbreaking) loss to Florida, I slumped on the couch, tears in my eyes. My husband and I barely spoke to each other, we just went to bed. Both of us took it right to the heart. It got me to thinking, wow, how great is it to love a school, and athletic program so much, that it has that kind of effect on you.
I made the mistake of telling my husband about this post before starting it. I made it this far before I gave in and threw him the laptop.
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FINALLY! This is Kyle. Thank you all for supporting my wife's blog. I am proud beyond words. I was so proud of her for this post in particularly that I hijacked it. I apologize in advance for not being as articulate as Courtney, but here is a list of 5 struggles that every die-hard UK fan can understand.
1. ESPN Commentators:
Watching any Kentucky sport on ESPN is like being a Baptist and going to your local catholic church and having the priest give you the play-by-play of your church's sermon. You'll understand what is going on, but you're probably not going to agree with the commentary. UK fans rarely see the game in the same light, but what can you do? Buy something like this. Radio Sync - Tom Leach For Life!
2. Backseat Coaching:
Mark Stoops and John Calipari put in long hours. I know this because I put my time in analyzing what we did wrong and what we need to do in the next game, and they won't even let me make any decisions. We all have to talk about it the next day, whether we feel like it to or not. I have more stances on types of offenses and player rotation than I have political views.
3. Louisville:
I could have made this a ten-part list, but I decided to lump in "dealing with line beards" and "the smell of Crown Royal" in with this one. Seriously. We can't stand the Cardinals. They're UK's little brother, and one day we may all grow up and get along, but not today. I guess it's great for the state to have multiple successful NCAA programs, but they aren't UK.
4. Non-related Events on Game Day:
If someone tells me to save a date for something, I check a calendar and then the UK schedule. Have you ever been to a large event during a Kentucky game? Every man (and at lease half of the women) are on a cell phone getting updates. If you search every back room, there will be a group huddled around a television or radio. My wife already knows the drill, if we leave an event and the game is still on. Buckle your seat belt and turn the radio to 101.1.
5. Losses:
Some of them are close, and some aren't very close. Either way, they are accompanied by bouts of nausea, anger, and boundless despair. Great plays get us extremely excited and bad plays (or just plain bad luck) cause profanity and broken television remotes. When the final buzzer sounds with UK on the bottom, however, that feeling is indefinable. Even if it was, I refuse to try.
Courtney is right when it comes to being a fan of the University of Kentucky. Bleeding blue is something we just do. I can't speak for all of us, but I can't remember when I started to feel that way. The idea of loyalty and dedication to the program has always been around me. Not just within my own family, but in almost everyone I knew. The "team" was a staple of communication, right there with the weekly weather. If a game is on, everyone I know is watching. It isn't just a game or a sport to us. It is an embodiment of all the other things we've experienced, felt or taken away because of it.
I know what a basketball feels like when all the leather has been worn away. That came from hours of playing imaginary opponents on a dirt court, pretending I was playing for a championship in Rupp Arena. I never turned into NCAA talent, but at that point I believed it was possible. Did that make me a better person, or would I have better spent my time on my homework? Who knows, but its something that has shaped me, and its not something that I can't forget. Regardless of the struggles Kentucky fans endure, we accept the bad with the good and wait for game day. On On U of K!
Plainly spoken by two die hard Kentucky fans.
Labels: Basketball, Kentucky, UK
