my ducks first game was at Boise State. #16 Oregon @ #14 Boise State
it was on the first thursday of september 2009
PREGAME
i left seattle early thursday morning, my dad drove so i slept in the back seat
when i woke up, we were in eastern oregon as the sun was rising, it was soooooooo beautiful! it was so beautiful in fact, i pulled out my phone and texted ‘good morning’ to my friend Austra White cause i just felt so good
its a new day, start of a new season so i’m super excited. more excited than normal because my ducks are ranked and our first game is on the road against another ranked team!
when i got to boise, idaho around noon, it was really hot out!
with a few hours before i have to get ready, i jumped on a bed in my hotel room and took a nap, ahhh! i knew it was gonna be a long day/night so i slept for like 3 hours
when i woke up 4 hours before kickoff, i took a shower and got my ducks gear on
then for the first time ever, i painted my face for an oregon game. with my green and yellow warrior paint on, i was all ready to enter enemy territory!
right before i left for the stadium, i texted my friend Mia Young telling her she should watch the game because i was excited and it was a big game for my ducks. i don’t know if she watched, but hopefully not because of how we played!
anyways i got to Bronco Stadium, i quickly got swallowed in a sea of blue orange and white
this was boise’s biggest home game in school history and i knew that and i could tell by how juiced their fans were
boise is like a smaller oregon, their fans are passionate to the level of SEC fans
anyways i found some oregon students and hung with them
when the oregon team buses came, i was all pumped! the players all looked serious, so i figured they were focused and locked in for battle. i was hoping some would atleast crack a smile at the boise fans just to show them who’s in town
after the team arrived, the oregon students and i walked over to the entrance to wait for the gates to the stadium to open
while waiting, the boise st cheerleaders walked by so all of us, including me, got down on our knees and asked them to marry us (mocking ian johnson). they all said no to us, but each of them did give us a hug so that was pretty cool! so if you’re reading this, i’ve gotten a hug from a boise state cheerleader! to all the boys, are you jealous??
when the gates opened, the students and i went and sat in the north endzone bleachers cause thats where our seats were
finally the teams came out for warm-ups, oregon in their all white stormtrooper look. i was excited to see my ducks again. i only went to 2 games in 2008 so it had been 11 months since last being at a game so i was like super amped!! it didn’t hurt at all that the last game i was at was when boise beat my ducks in our house.
because we were ranked #16th, i knew 2009 was our best and only chance to dethrone USC and get into the BCS, so i was pumped like never before
before the game, this boise girl came up and talked to me a little bit, it was friendly. she wished me good luck and i wished her good luck and yea!
the boise state crowd had alternating color sections, so one section wore all blue, and another wore all orange and another wore all white, it looked super cool! the section i was in was all orange except for the oregon students and i
after the national anthem was played, planes flew overhead that was cool!
when boise state came out, the place exploded like ape shit! the bleachers were shaking like crazy! when the ducks came out they booe’d like i can’t explain it!
THE GAME
oregon got the ball first. when we had the ball, it was insanely loud! (remember boise’s stadium only fits 35,000)
when we had the ball, the bleachers were shaking and they have these pads on the fences seperating the crowd from the field and the boise fans were leaning over just POUNDING on the pads it was crazy!
the intensity of boise fans is only surpassed by oregon, otherwise they are second to none
in the first half, oregon only got like one first down, so because our offense was struggling their crowd kept getting louder and louder and crazier! boise is a nightmare to play at for visiting teams.
i gotta say, husky stadium may be louder than boise because its twice as big, but boise SOUNDS louder. and let me say this, i’ve been to husky stadium a few times now and its loud, but it doesn’t scare me as a fan. boise is scarier more frightening to play at especially at night. remember, i’m not on the field i was only a fan, and as a fan i was spooked by Bronco Stadium, thats saying something
boise state got up 19-0 in the 3rd quarter and i thought we were toast because of the crowd and our offense was shut down. but then somehow we scored and got the two point conversion to make it 19-8, so i started thinking maybe we’re a team of fighters, and we’ll come back in this haunted place
for a moment, it seemed to surreal. down 19-8, jeremiah masoli throws a deep ball to wide open jamere holland. catch the pass and at the least its 19-14 boise and we’re in it to the end. but nope he dropped it, and even if he caught it, it would’ve been neglected because they’re was a holding penalty on oregon. just not meant to be for us
but then in the 4th quarter, oregon is driving again to make it a one score game. near the 20 yard line, masoli hands the ball to Blount on 4th and 1. he doesn’t get it and there goes our last hope of a comeback. if masoli keeps that ball, he gets the first down easily and we stay alive. but nope its not our night, not meant to be
when the game ended, boise won 19-8 and i was crushed. they simply wanted that game more, it was their biggest game ever.
then across the field i saw Blount punch boise player Byron Hout and yea, i saw it live from my seat.. not much to say about that, i think everyone knows the story so yea
POST GAME
while walking out of the stadium, the same boise girl that i met before the game ran into me and we talked again and hung out a little bit. before i went back to the hotel, she wished me luck and said that she hopes my ducks can end USC’s dynasty and get to the rose bowl. i said ‘thanks’ and wished her luck and i told her that i hope her Broncos can get to the BCS Title game. so yea, i made a friend in Boise 🙂
(for some reason, i was always shy around girls at high school, but at the same time i had no trouble talking to college girls.. i don’t know why that was but i always made friends easily with college girls)
when i got back to my hotel, the loss started settling in and it was crushing!
i thought there’s NO WAY in hell we’re gonna get to the Rose Bowl, not after how we just played.. i thought “there goes our only chance to dethrone USC”
the loss hurt so much that i texted Austra and she had to calm me down because i was just simply a basketcase
when i finally went to bed, i looked up to the stars outside and made a wish. the wish i made was this, word for word this is how i said it:
“i hope Mia Young didn’t watch that game because i’d hate for her to watch Oregon because of me and see them play like shit while knowing i was there at the game”
the next day, i just stared out the window on the drive home. my dad tried telling me jokes to make me laugh to get my mind off of the crushing loss, but it didn’t work
it was only when i thought of Eden Eernissee’s concert i saw a few weeks earlier that i was able to smile and refocus on life outside of oregon football
thats the entire story
it’ll always be in my memory that i traveled from my home in seattle all the way to boise, and saw the darkest moment in the history of oregon football from the 2nd row of the north endzone bleachers
what i didn’t know at that time was that this was just the start of a journey, a journey which started in hell and would end in heaven (pasadena)
it was the start of the greatest journey in my young life, the best 3 months of my life
here are highlights from the game
adamkendall2 