The Savage Traveler: A Special Trip to the Cotton Bowl

Thu. Jan 1, 2015: This was the Big Day and the whole point of the trip. The shuttle bus left at 7:30 to take us to the Tailgate, which was held in a large hall a short walk from the stadium parking lot. At the door, some people still needed to get a wrist band. And the person putting them on was none other than President Lou Anna Simons herself! First we found four seats at a table right inside the door, so it would be easy for Rick and Lynette to find us. Then we got right in line for the buffet breakfast as they were opening up so we had hardly any wait at all. As we returned to our seats the lines quickly became quite long. It was a full Texas breakfast with wonderful cinnamon rolls (which they quickly ran out of L) and there was an open bar with beer, wine and frozen margaritas but it was a little hard to get too excited about booze that early in the morning! The band from the President’s Reception the night before was again playing and the same Alumni people welcomed us and started getting us pumped up. Our table was shared with two brothers-in-law from Muskegon, one with his daughter and the other with his son. We chatted with them until Rick and Lynette got there and immediately found us. From that point on, we picked up as if we had just seen them the night before. It was so wonderful to see them!

After eating we went back into the icy rain to walk to the stadium. Lynette was forced to take her “too big” purse back to their car so Rick, Marv & I made our way in without her. Our tickets suggested entering at Gate K which brought us to an escalator up one level and nearly to our seats. AT&T stadium (the Dallas Cowboys’ stadium) is a two year old, state of the art, no expense spared, billion dollar venue. The hallway we walked to our entrance was carpeted, there were large picture-posters on the walls and it was as quiet as an office building. Glass doors opened to our section and then the noise hit us and we saw the famous 50 yard long video screen hovering over the field. It is unbelievably huge and has great resolution. The roof is retractable but it wasn’t open because of the weather. Because this was the “Goodyear Cotton Bowl” they had a remote controlled small scale Goodyear Blimp floating around with cameras mounted on it. The teams were practicing on the field and we could watch them and look around and get our bearings. Most of the MSU fans and band were together in one corner of the stadium and we were probably outnumbered about 7 or 8-to 1 by the Baylor fans. Since Waco is only about 90 minutes away, this was like a home game for them and they had shown up in droves. Baylor also had a real bone to pick because they felt they should have been in the top four for the championship playoff. And for three quarters of the game, I thought so, too. Their quarterback, Petty, had a quick-fire delivery and managed to connect on pass after pass, and our defense just couldn’t seem to contain the receivers. Our defense was doing better on their running game, though, so they looked very one dimensional but effective. Connor Cook, on the other hand, was having trouble controlling his passes and we were doing better with the rush than with the passing game. Early in the fourth quarter we were down 40-21, and had not scored after the first quarter until late in the 3^rd. Ken was texting me that we should go to a bar somewhere to watch the other bowl games, and I was cringing as I thought about how much money we had spent on the trip. Marv will explain what happened then:

I think most of the MSU fans were at the point of just wanting MSU to make it respectable. If things continued as they had, it looked like we might end up losing by 30 points. But in the last 12 minutes the MSU defense kept Baylor out of the end zone and even blocked a field goal, which led to a drive for the winning touchdown. The first of MSU’s three 4^th quarter touchdowns came with about 12 minutes left. That was followed by a successful onside kick. Cook then threw a horrible interception, but the defense held. This was followed by a second touchdown drive. Baylor’s next possession ended with the blocked field goal attempt, which popped into the waiting arms of Williamson who ran it back past midfield. The final MSU drive following the blocked field goal was not pretty. There were too many missed passes by Cook. But he threw a perfect pass to Lippet on a 4^th and 10 that kept the drive alive, and then three plays later threw the touchdown pass that tied the game. The extra point put MSU ahead for good. Baylor got the ball on the 25 with 17 seconds left, a daunting task, but not impossible for Petty. The MSU defense really showed up, with two sacks followed by an interception by Riley Bullough. GAME WON! There are lots of good stories that come out of a game like this but the one I like best was that it was Marcus Rush’s last game. He had started 53 in a row, a new Spartan record. He has always been a good solid defensive end but never got the notoriety with Shilique Calhoun on the other end of the defensive line. Well, at the end of this game Rush was the one that blocked the field goal and he made one of the sacks of Petty to seal the victory. What a great way to end a career!

We stuck around for the very low-key trophy presentation and then walked back to the buses, where we bid farewell to Rick and Lynette, after getting their assurance that they’ll come visit us in EL where we can show them around campus to see all the changes. It took a very long time to get out of the stadium traffic and onto the freeway but since we were in the warm bus with a load of euphoric fans we didn’t really mind. We got back to the hotel around 5:30, where a buffet dinner was ready for us right inside the doors. We joined a table of very enjoyable strangers and spent a long time just rehashing the game with them as the crowd dwindled and the dinner was put away. We finally got back to our room about 7:30. Marv was semi-interested in going back downstairs to watch OSU vs Alabama at a bar, but I was too, too exhausted. We needed to pack and had to get up at 5:45 to finish packing, eat breakfast and get on the shuttle back to the airport at 7:00. As it was, we didn’t even make it to the end of the OSU game before we collapsed in bed.

Fri. Jan. 2: We made it downstairs to have breakfast at 6:30 only to find out they had changed the bus departure to 7:45. UGH! We really could have used the sleep. But we lingered over breakfast and talked to new friends, finding out that OSU had beaten Alabama to qualify for the Finals against Oregon playing for the first National Football Championship. That meant that MSU’s only two loses for the year were against the two teams that will play for the Championship! It will be interesting to find out what our ranking is after that game Jan. 12. Everything from then on was just as slick as going to Dallas had been. We had an even better box lunch, which we ended up taking home and eating. A tailwind meant we didn’t need to stop to refuel and we were back in Lansing in just under two hours. Because of the small jet there was no wait for our baggage and we hopped in the car and drove home, euphoric over the wonderful trip to the Cotton Bowl!