Going into our Austin weekend, I bet my husband that UCLA would cover the 15pt spread. "Sucker's Bet", he thinks to himself.
On a warm, humid Saturday afternoon which looks to add "sweltering" to the adjective list, we walked up to the stadium trepidaciously through a sea of "burnt orange" tailgaters. What can we expect from these Texans where football and religion are one and the same?
We find our eBay-enabled seats and are thrilled that they are just 10 rows up from the end zone. We are also facing the ginormous Trinitron which provides instant replays when they favor the home team and fan pans when they don't. However, our seats are smack dab in the middle of the section -- orange to right of them, orange to left of them, orange in front of them!! Luckily, we were able to find our little pool of blue, like an oasis in the desert.
The game itself? Surreal. Longhorns turning over the ball again and again. The Bruins actually taking advantage of the situation. That large cloud that shielded us from the sun at what would've been the height of the heat turned out to be a dark cloud for the Texas fans. Though large turkey legs defined the stadium menu, legs were what seemed missing for the Austin offense. UCLA ended up pulling off a most unprobable victory winning 34 to 12. Eleanore covers her bet by 54 points and wishes she had dusted off her Vegas bookie list.
And how did the fans take such a disappointing loss? How did they treat the minority of Baby Blue in their stadium? On their streets? In their beer gardens doing the 8-clap? At their pecan festival? With utmost grace and class. The fan motto is, "Respectful, Friendly, Passionate" and we of the Laker state have a thing or two to learn from it.
After paying only $13 for 4 beers, 1 gin and tonic, and 1 large diet coke at a bar called Jacaklope and noting the 1 bar per person ratio, we all now want to move to Austin. "Keep Austin Weird" may not be their slogan forever but this city's got some legs and THAT you can bet on.
