Saturday, October 26th, 2019

Happy homecoming Cyclone Nation!

Today I helped with the ISU Alumni Band for the halftime show, which marks the sixth year in a row that I have pushed LaVonne on the field while she plays her clarinet.  It was fun to see the stadium from ground level and really be part of the action.  It does make for a long day though going through the morning practice routine at the Bergstrom practice facility, taking group pictures with the Alumni band, going over to the Scheman building for lunch and the Alumni band meeting, doing the spirit walk to the stadium, and then performing at halftime.  As for the halftime show, it was fairly simple.  We "swung" onto the field between the north 25 and 30 yard lines.  They band played Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Free Bird", along with the usual ISU fight song.  We marched off, and that was it.

As for the game, it was a disappointing loss for the Cyclones, 27-34 to Oklahoma State.  Iowa State came into the game ranked #23 in the country and was about a 10 point favorite.  The Cyclone defense gave up 3 big-play touchdowns of 50 yards or more in the first half, which was hard to overcome.  I have still never seen Iowa State defeat the Cowboys in football, one of only two Big 12 teams with that distinction.  Today was the third time that I have seen Iowa State play Oklahoma State in football, with the other games being in 2015 and 2013. 

Wednesday, October 16th, 2019

Tonight I took Nolan with me to watch the ISU women's volleyball team defeat the TCU Horned Frogs in straight sets, 25-23, 25-23, and 25-12.  Today's game was the "Pink Match" for breast cancer awareness.  They handed out pink pom-poms to everyone, which Nolan thought was pretty cool.  We also split a popcorn to keep him happy.  The first two sets of the match seemed to be very close and hard fought, and ISU was fortunate to win both.  Then in the third set it seemed like TCU almost gave up, as the Cyclones cruised to an easy victory.

Nolan did get to take his picture with Cy, which was fun.  This is the second volleyball game of the season that I've been to, as I also took Maxwell to the home opener against South Dakota.

Nolan and CY!!

Here we are having fun with out pink pom-poms.

A view of the action against TCU.  The Cyclones are wearing pink, while the Horned Frogs are in black.

Saturday, October 5th, 2019

Today I went to the Iowa State football game vs TCU, where the Cyclones defeated the Horned Frogs, 49-24. 

The game was originally scheduled for 11:00 this morning, but due to heavy rain the kickoff was pushed back to 1:00.  That just made for more time to tailgate!  I enjoyed myself with the usual group (Kyle Perkins, Dan Becker, Ryan Butler, Chris Schroeder...).  The tailgate involved three canopy tents lined up with everyone huddled underneath them trying to stay out of the rain.  All of the grass lots were closed, so we were parked over in the paved section of vet med.  Originally I had wanted to bring Nolan to this game, but with all of the rain forecast for today it seemed best not to.

Once the game started, the weather had actually turned quite nice.  I sat with Brian and Sullivan Gleason, who had made the trip up from St. Louis for the game.  We had pretty good seats, between the north 30 and 35 yard lines on the west side, in section 7.  Brock Purdy played well for Iowa State, accounting for 2 passing touchdowns and 2 rushing touchdowns of his own.  The Cyclones also had a defensive touchdown by Eyioma Uwazurike, who scooped up a fumble on the 1 yard line, after the TCU quarterback was sacked by O'Rien Vance. 

Today marks the 4th football game that I have attended between Iowa State and TCU.  The Cyclones also won back in 2017, while TCU prevailed in 2015 and in the Houston Bowl back in 2005.