A Sea of Gold and Black

The Big 10/ACC Challenge is a marker of the beginning of one of my favorite times of the year – college basketball season!!! This year my Wake Forest Demon Deacons were matched up against the #4 (AP) Purdue Boilermakers….and West Lafayette is only a little over 2hr from Chicago…so clearly I could not miss the opportunity to cheer on my beloved Deacs in person.

I invited my dad and one of his good friends, took the afternoon off, and we headed south. Unfortunately I forgot my camera and phone in my car, so no pictures. Oops! The drive was pretty uneventful except for the hundreds (seriously) of high tech windmills that dotted the farmland – wow, more windmills than I ever saw in Denmark.

My Boiler friend suggested a great restaurant/bar called Scotty’s (shout out to Lynne) where we had a great pre-game dinner…then it was off to Mackey. We were up near the top, but I swear, there is not a bad seat in that stadium. Purdue and Wake are the same colors and it was crazy to be surrounded by gold and black, yet have them cheering for the other guys – nuts. There were probably about 15 or so Deacs there, many proudly sporting their tie-dye. Surprisingly, most were seated in our section…as the Purdue fans behind us commented “there are like 10 people from Wake here, yet we are sitting in the middle of them all.” Ha! Go Deacs!

The Deacs did not come away with the victory, but it was still great to watch them in person, and with Bob and Dean, two of my favorite basketball coaches!!