A Quick Story

Per Request (by my son), I will tell a quick story before the Syracuse/ISU game gets under way.

Commandment 9: Thou Shall Know Thy Mascots

This also plays to rooting for the underdog.

In our first year here (2005), Marty and I had both been following Vermont throughout the America East conference tourney. We both liked the players and the coach. We both liked their chances to upset Syracuse in the first round. We couldn't wait for that game.

About 10 minutes before the game starts, some strange guy walks into our corner and asks me which screen we are going to put the Syracuse game on. The exchange went something like this:

Dude with mullet: Which TV is the Syracuse game gonna be on?
Me: We're watching the Vermont game on that TV right there.
Dude with mullet: Why would you call it the Vermont game?
Me: Because we're going to root for Vermont.
Dude with mullet: Why would you do that?
Me: Because this is March. You always root for the underdog. You always root for upsets.
Dude with mullet: Not if you're a Syracuse alumni, you don't.
Me. Well, good thing I'm not a Syracuse alumni then.

As the game went on, and it became clear that Vermont was going to take it down to the wire, we got louder and louder in our support of Vermont. Marty even developed a Catamount impression. It is a quite impressive growl that might actually scare off some predators in the wild. We would make him do it every time Vermont would hit a big bucket.

Vermont hit a three to send it into overtime and after a big three to take the lead with about 5 second to go the dude with the mullet stormed out of the bar...never to be seen again. Keep in mind that his team still had a chance to win the game at the time he left.

Since then, we have made Marty do an impression of every lower seeded mascot that wins on Thursday and Friday. Although, sometimes he doesn't quite make it until late on Friday night. We look forward to the Friday night montage.