They're My Team!!!!

So those people who know me personally know that I am a sports junkie. I really enjoy healthy competition and really enjoy watching a well-played game of pretty much any sport (baseball, football, basketball, hockey, soccer, Frisbee, cricket, lacrosse....). I also have three teams that I refer to as "my team." They are any sports team from Boise State (My Alma mater and hometown school/team), the Chicago Cubs, and the Carolina Panthers.

I have pretty much followed the Cubs since I was old enough to know what baseball is and how to play it. I have vivid memories of watching the Cubs play with my Grandpa Hasfurther when I wasn't even old enough to start kindergarten. I remember memorizing all of the starting players' names on the 1983 and 1984 Cubs and I remember very well having the Cubs get my hopes up every year, only to have them crushed sometime before the middle of October (when the World Series starts....). I've seen them get eliminated in the playoffs five different times (I was in Brazil the other time they made it and could not watch or listen to any of the games, of course), and I've always kept my optimism (Does that make me technically insane????). I've stuck with them through the years because...well...they're my team. Every time they collapse, I look forward to following the next year and hope desperately that next year will finally be "the year."

Boise State has always been my team because, let's see, my dad graduated from there, my mom went there for a couple of years, I grew up in Boise, my brother graduated from there, my sister got her first degree from there, I have two degrees from there, I met my wife there and she just graduated from there....(you get the idea). I have lived and died with them for years (especially basketball and football). I've watched the football team endure the painful "streak" of defeats to the Vandals (most of which were close games), watched them break the streak and play for a 1-AA National Championship in the same year. I watched them change from a good 1-AA football program playing in a 16.000-seat stadium, all the way into a perennial top 25 football team with a stadium twice that size (and still growing). They have held their own in the highest division of college football, and are only the second mid-major school to appear in (and win) one of the prestigious BCS bowl games. I've attended more basketball games through the years than I can count, and I have vivid memories of watching Chris Childs, Arnell Jones, Tanoka Beard, Roberto Bergesen, Gerry Washington, Abe Jackson, Reggie Larry, and many others play in a packed basketball arena and regularly challenge for (and occasionally get) a NCAA tournament bid.

As for the Carolina Panthers, they have officially been my team for just a little over a week... :o)
I was making fun of my co-workers' teams (the Raiders, and the 49ers) when they said I had no room to make fun of their teams unless I chose a favorite NFL team to stick with. I promptly chose the Panthers and continued my teasing, all in good fun, of course.... ;)
I actually have followed the Panthers for awhile and rooted for them to make it to and win the Super Bowl a few years ago, so my choice was not really a "spur of the moment" thing, per se. Anyway, I've rambled a little too long. Just wanted to let any readers know a little more about some of my favorite things....