Navy Football Game

I love sports - that is no surprise. Now that baseball season is over, I have to focus my attention on other sports. That's why when I caught wind of the Navy-Northern Illinois football game this weekend, I was all ears. I love college football, but haven't been to a game since last year when we trekked up to Boston for the BYU-BC game.

On Saturday, we went to Annapolis to the Naval Academy for the game. It was great. The stadium was a lot smaller than most college stadiums I have been to, and it was definitely quieter as well. It was fun to be there for the jet fly-over (I haven't ever seen jets fly that low over a stadium), and then to see all the Midshipmen on the field (in full uniform of course) was quite the sight. We didn't think it would be very cold when we left that afternoon, but what we underestimated was how cold it would get when the sun went down! We didn't actually stay for the entire game so that we could get back to a ward activity, but we were ready to go (translation: find a Starbucks for hot chocolate) when the time came since we were frozen. We did figure out that standing was a bit warmer, since your butt wasn't touching the freezing bleachers!

The game was fun though - and Navy ended up winning. They definitely had some random things at the game though, and I'm not just talking about over 300 high school cheerleaders performing for the Half-time show. Apparently their mascot (even though they are called the Navy Midshipmen) is the Goat - and on the sidelines was this sign, a favorite of ours, that read "Give 'Em The Goat!" Not really sure what that means, but we thought it was funny. Then the favorite was this song that they sang, called "The Goat is Old and Gnarly." Wow, that's an interesting one. It was fun to hear the band playing "Anchors Aweigh" every time they scored a touchdown though. And yes, they did push-ups after the extra point kicks too.

Here's a picture of us just before we left (we actually went with a group of about 12 people, but since we left early this is the only pic I have) - it is really dark since the flash didn't kick in because of the bright lights on the field. Oh well. We had a great time!