[1] Keith, a friend of mine from FAU (Florida Atlantic University) [2] had some extra tickets to the FAU Owls [3] game at Pro Player Stadium [4] down in South Florida (about half way between Miami and Ft. Lauderdale). I knew Spring [5] wanted to go so I passed the invite on to her. Keith managed to produce two extra tickets and Spring convinced me (“Please? Please? Pretty please?”) to come along as well.
Keith showed up around 3:00 pm in the family conversion van with his brother T, coworker MM and MM's significant other CM. We piled into the van, and took the [DELETED-Florida Turnpike-DELETED] Ronald Regan Turnpike down to Pro Player Stadium. Parking was easy as it wasn't a large crowd. Upon emerging into the stadium proper, I saw that it was **SPC** vs. **FAU**.
“Wow!” I said. “I didn't know I was playing against the Owls.” **SPC** being my initials and all.
“Um, they're playing St. Peter's College,” said Keith. and we found our seats (7^th row, just off the 50 yard line) fairly easy. Then Keith, CM and I headed off to find food.
Expensive food at that. The two cheese burgers and Cokes I got for Spring and I cost close to $20 (ouch) but since they have a captive audience I suppose they can get away with such hurtful prices. As the mighty hunters returned with food, the game started.
I will admit that I spent a fair amount of time viewing the cheerleading squads (FAU had three squads out on the field, St. Peter's none) and not really paying attention to the game. That's okay, since Spring was viewing the cheerleading squads as well. The FAU Owls' mascot handler was also cute (she was helping him navigate the stands to prevent him from tripping).
By halftime, the score was 19 to 0, and not in FAU's favor. To start the Half Time show, a few Hooters [6] girls came out, slowly followed by the Hooters Owl waddling (and waddling he did—the costume crotch was only a foot or two off the ground) out. Two lucky contestants had to race up and walk around a baseball bat five times, then toss two hula-hula hoops over the Hooters' Owl; the owl had a preferred preference towards the girl contestant, but in the end, the guy won.
Then, to the music of Orff's Carmina Burana [7] the Hip Hop Kidz [8] took center field for the rest of the show. Spring picked out the littleist kid out there had a cast on her right arm, yet she seemed to still be enjoying herself.
Second half—more cheerleading watching. About the only real excitement of the whole game came when St. Peter's was 2^nd down at the 1 yard line—FAU managed to keep them there and prevent a score by St. Peter. Unfortunately, the FAU drive from their own 1 yard line did not lead to a touch down, although the FAU defense kept St. Peter's from scoring at all during the second quarter.
But the FAU offense couldn't score to save their life. So the final score ended up being 19-0.
[1] /boston/2001/10/27/fau8.ticket.png
[3] http://fausports.fansonly.com/sports/m-footbl/recaps/102701aaa.html
[4] http://www.pro-player-stadium.com/stadium.html
[7] http://www.classical.net/music/comp.lst/works/orff-cb/carmina.html
![[1] /boston/2001/10/27/fau8.ticket.png](/gemini.conman.org/boston/2001/10/27/fau8.ticket.png){kind=link}