I wasn’t expecting much as far as Boise State fans once we arrived but we gave our selves plenty of time to tail gate. Once we did arrived on campus I quickly discovered the cop’s and parking ticket sellers were setting the tone of the Toledo crowd when they asked for $10 for a $5 parking ticket I quickly called them out on that and they tried to act like they were joking, from there I quick discovered the cops were directing all discernable Boise State fans to the smallest and furthest parking lot from the Stadium.
We quickly ran into Boise State fans, they had driven 5 hours down from north of Grand Rapids the husband a converted Michigan fan by his wife and 3 son’s , he was a water fowl hunting guild, the wife was from Elko Nevada and had attended Boise State, they would pretty much represent a large percentage of those wearing Blue and Orange in Toledo this Friday night, from the U of M Grad who was there representing her sister who was a Boise State Professor, with her young son who was both an OSU & Boise State fan, dad had the bigger influence over their son who was an OSU grad, they had driven 4 hours up from Columbus. Then there was the large group of Wyoming fans that had driven from Larime
For the Wyoming vs. Bowling Green game the next day to support they Mountain West Brethren. Most people I would meet would fit into the above people most from Michigan and Ohio, . The neatest folks I ran into who had absolutely no attachment to either Boise State nor Idaho was one young family who had driven down the long haul from Munising Michigan whose two young son we raving Boise State fans who had converted mom and dad into members of Bronco nation. They just happen to ignore parking attendants orders and basically drove right up to the stadium and set up the biggest Tail gate Flying their Boise State flag they had purchased through Orange and Blue Store, they had more food then we all could eat more alcohol than a platoon could drink and in the epsn fan shot pre-game and during game. were shot there as it became a magnet for Bronco fans. While I was in a conversation about Bronco nation with Cleveland Sports Blogger Peter Pattakos
I can’t trash Peters lame post from yesterday to much as I was to beat down to even make one.
But at least his heart is in the right place.
Not long after the espn camera crew left it started, the Toledo folks reminded me why I don’t like ohio, they have no respect for themselves or others, there wasn’t a single good luck , thanks for coming, not single positive remark from the passers by young old man women or child. Nothing but insults taunts and vulgarity and it didn’t stop once we started in to the stadium, these folks really believed they were going to expose us, they really believed we they had this… all I said in response is 58-14 to which only expletives were their response. While sitting to the left of the largest grouping of Boise state fans left me surrounded on three side by Toledo people who believe it or not thought I shouldn’t cheer on my team.
I’m sure if I wasn’t a man of some size and a clear look of I’m ready a couple of them might of wanted too but thought better of it. I had a pair of old men sitting in front of me before the game started we had some polite conversation, the gentlemen siting directly in front of me was a Toledo Grad and ISU grad at first not believing this I put him thru a shorten version of 20 question about Pocatello, bye the way he was one of 5 ISU grads I meet there. While the old fart was realistic in one hand he had put $500 on Toledo taking the points, even though he had a hatred for Boise deep in his soul which he claimed came from his time at ISU, no matter how civil the conversation would be at times he couldn’t help himself to be an Ohioan from time to time obstructing my attempts to take photos and video by putting his program in my face, when Boise put up that second to last touchdown I thought he was going to cry and he and his pale quickly left, it should be said after the score went to 13-6 his belief in a Toledo victory was already completely gone. All he was hoping for was that they would keep it below 20.
Two rows back of me there was a group of older former Rocket players and you could hear them talk about Kellen and Doug all very positive. When Doug Broke the first tackle on the screen play that lead to the second touchdown I turn to face the Toledo fans behind me raised my arms and said I don’t even need to look I have seen this all before Touchdown! I could see by the look on their faces it was.
At half I walked up to the smoking area and when I got there, a fight was about to break out between a Boise fan and a Toledo fan wearing all U of M gear, I quickly interjected me self to come things down, and I simple related my experience of what was like walking up to the Fed X stadium in DC how the Hokie fans delayed my entire in to the stadium not because they taunted me but because they welcomed me, wanted to feed me and talked about how great a game they believed this was going to be, I closed by saying we can all learn from them, and believe it or not that cooled the whole thing down and we all stayed and smoked together. I don’t know if the Toledo fan realized or not but I had saved him, those were some strapping Bronco fans I wouldn’t even tangled with and as I had assumed they were from Metro Detroit. Folks you have to understand the mentality of people from this area, they think just by living close to the D it makes them somehow tougher than everyone else, I have experienced this my self-years ago at a hunting camp up north long before I ever lived near Detroit.
They are usually some factory worker living in Sterling Height’s or some other non-violent suburb.
They certainly were people that made it from Boise and they mingled while with those whose claim to Bronco Nation was a passing attachment. One couple that stood out from Boise was one that were together with another couple dressed in all Toledo gear I never got the story on how these folks were friends but the Toledo couple came out to the game last year game and they were returning the favor.
The Boise Crowd, was much larger then I had suspected it to be, and based on the small number may be a 100 or less of the folks I had actually talked to I would say the make up 50% from Michigan 35% Ohio 10% Idaho the rest came from all over Maine, Pen, Wisconsin and Canada. Speaking of Canada I had the pleasure of meeting Tyrone Crawford’s family, what nice people you can tell they live close to Michigan because they had zero accent. Tyrone’s mom is my kind of people, and you tell the whole family really loves the young man.
Couple last observation, one sign of just how Midwest the Boise crowd was the cheerleaders were having a hard time to get them to do the none obvious chants, they could never get the go blue go Orange going, it would just turn into Go Blue ! 😉 . After watching the game at home I thought for sure you would be able to hear just how loud the Boise contingent was, especially when Toledo had the ball down near the end zone, but you couldn’t, but I assure you we were very very loud, and knocked the Toledo qb off his square more than once causing at least one delay of game.
Lastly something they didn’t show on tv was what Happened when Boise took the field, while the team was instructed on how to enter the field the Toledo band purposely walked through their entry and this could have been very dangerous for all involved as there was many small collision I found it to be very disrespectful. It’s included in the video attach to this posting.
I will follow up tomorrow on my thoughts about the game.
Looking through photo’s by news site I happened onto this shot of me and Billy Winn hand shake.
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