Maverick's Notre Dame Weekender

A Weekend to Remember
by maverick6

Growing up in Southern California I remember the great weather in November and the USC home games at the Coliseum. This past November I was able to relive those times, but this time with my wife and stepson. (photo left: SChrink, Maverick, Shara, mpron)

All year long I had been telling my wife if we could get tickets to the Notre Dame game that I wanted to go. As the season progressed I thought we would have to wait until 2008 to attend the home game with Notre Dame, but then fortune smiled upon us in the form of Chuck Morris, better known as Mojack. Mojack emailed me and asked how many tickets we would need, when I responded with "three" he said, "they’re yours."

I then contacted Brooks Wilson, whom I had met for the first time at the WSU game in Pullman, but who I had conversed with via the Thundering Herd Forum and emails. Brooks invited us to stay with him and Maureen, which we gratefully accepted.

We arrived Friday afternoon at Ontario airport where Brooks picked us up and took us to his house. I must say I was a little concerned with staying with Brooks and Maureen. As most of you know Maureen was recovering from brain surgery that was more complicated than they were led to believe. However, Brooks would not hear of us staying anywhere else. Boy, are we glad we stayed with them, Brooks and Maureen are great people and we are very fortunate to know them and call them friends.

Saturday morning we were up early and heading toward the Herd tailgate. I really didn’t sleep much that night, I was too excited about attending the Herd tailgate and going to the game. Brooks, Errol and the rest of the helpers sure put in a lot of time and work at the tailgate.

We met so many great people at the tailgate and I was able to put faces to many of the handles on the boards. We walked around campus, visited Heritage Hall to see the Heisman Trophies and the Crystal BCS Championship Trophy on display, and loaded up at the book store (what an operation) where we picked up just a few items to add to my collection of USC clothing. My wife was blown away with all the tailgates on and off campus. She has told everyone that it was a sea of tailgates on grass and concrete.

The game was everything you could want, if you’re a Trojan, and sitting with the Herd was just awesome. Cheering the players as they came out of the tunnel, thanks to Shorty4TheHerd, was great. I was standing around Grover, Mojack, sc alta loma and a couple of disappointed ND fans (just had to say that, hehe). TrojanRuss leading us through the air push ups every time we scored was fun, but at the end of the game when the whole stadium reverberated with the “We Are- - SC” that gave me goose pimples. Sure felt great going home knowing we destroyed the Irish.

Thank you, Brooks, Mojack and all the rest of you fantastic people we met at the Herd tailgate for a great weekend. For those that haven't attended a Herd tailgate, do yourself a favor and make plans to attend one this next year, you won't be sorry. I'm already making plans for next year -- hope to see you there.