- September 2nd, 2015, 9:10 am
#489966
Wasnt sure the right place to post this, but it falls under my excitement for game 1 in Williams Stadium so I will put it here.
With all of the talk about our fanbase and growing up, and the most recent news of Coastal beating us out in a race to the FBS, I wanted to share what Liberty Football means to me. I do this once every other year or so, and its more for me than for you, so thank you for reading.
In 2004 I sat in the stands , as a freshman, with 900 people and watched Ken Karcher lose a game in the 90 degree weather. It was the most miserable experience of my sports life. I grew up going to VAtech games, and I think I even drove to tech that same day for a night game with my dad. Over the next few weeks, I was watching Virginia Tech play on TV, they were consistently ranked in the top 25 and I kept telling folks how dissapointed I was in Liberty's football team. It was a long year , Im not sure we won a game. We hired JB, fired Ken and pulled up that awful carpet. Danny Rocco came to town. I was doing well in school (no reps, and good grades), but several of my friends were leaving Liberty because it wasnt the right fit. My JMU buddies were talking about their parties, a few friends at tech were always going to games as students and tailgating , I had nothing similar to talk about.
Then a freind of mine introduced me to flamefans.com (2005). I started following the programs, I found other people to talk sports with. I adopted Liberty as my team, I quit wearing Virginia Tech Football, or Duke Basketball shirts. I would go to practices and sit in the stands as Rocco gave me the weird stink eye. It became my college idenity. When my JMU and VaTech and even Radford freinds were talking about how awesome their college was, I would tell them about how we just got a transfer DE from UVA that was going to the NFL. As I grew into my fanship the program was growing into a winner.
To make this long post longer, Liberty Football and flamefans are the reason I loved my college experience. I loved the University Mission, convo, campus church, and all that, but sports spoke my language as a college student. I am forever greatful to Jeff and Jerry , Sr and Jr for their vision of having top tier college athletics for LU students to cheer for. TBH I would have transferred, been kicked out, or just had a terrible time at LU if it werent for the sports programs. I then started gettign plugged into several other of the schools ministries.
Lots will change the next 10 years in terms of LU athletics, but I love reflecting back on the last 10 years. Carpet Field, One Cinderblock Press box, Visitors running down the side of a hill to the stadium, not winning any games, its been a wild ride to where we currently are. I really look forward to the season, and think this team can make a deep playoff run. See you at the Bill on Saturday. #GoFlames
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