Friday night, party time, at the Santa Clara Marriott:
My bag didn’t make it. Lost somewhere between Tucson, LAX and an undistinguishable megapolis Bay area airport that from the air looked like San Jose but could have been Thousand Oaks or even Burbank but certainly not Bakersfield.
Hope I don’t have to purchase gift shop items, which, when checked, start at $7.95 for tiny toothbrush and $5.95 for enough toothpaste for one application.
Forget about new clothes; once, when my bag was lost in the Portland, Ore., airport on UA-Ducks trip, I had to visit a nearby mall just to get outfitted for game day. Never did get reimbursed. Wore Nike running shoes with non-matching slacks to further cement the image of sportswriters in Oscar Madison mode.
Isn’t a road trip fun?
In old days, Friday night on the football road used to be THENIGHT (plural) of the year.
The scribblers from the newspapers would gather at some spot for several steins of Octoberfest-type liquids, followed by a summit at the team hotel where, until 2 or 3 a.m., no one ever kept track, we would continue the Octoberfest with assistant coaches, sports-info middle-men and voices from the radio and TV.
I will not mention any names, including that of Tom Duddleston or Marc Lunsford.
Once we even visited the Sigma Alpha Epsilon house in State College, Pa., to do our version of “Animal House’‘ with naive Nittany Lions. Had blurred vision for two weeks thereafter.
Now there is no mixing of UA people and media people. Stoops people said we couldn’t be trusted. Adios.
Anyway, tonight’s fun activity is waiting for a Southwest Airlines guy to deliver my lost bag. Could be one of those phone calls that never arrive.
In the lobby tonight I mingled with the football team and coaches from dear old alma mater Utah State, which is the designated victim for Saturday’s night loss at Dick Tomey University down the road at San Jose State.
Dont’ recognize a single USU player or coach, except for soon-to-be-fired head coach Brent Guy. In my early years, the Aggies held their own with everybody — even BYU – but those days are long gone. Aggies are awful. Bruce Snyder, ex-ASU coach, was the USU coach then.
Good old days.
No buzz in Bay area megapolis about Stanford-UA game. Never has been. Not even in Elway days. Gotta go back to Ernie Nevers days, 1920s, to get fix on when Stanford football game buzzed the Bay area.
What is Ernie Nevers now, 100? 200?
That’s how the scribblers usually feel on the Saturday morning on one of these roadies. At least 100 years old.
The odds on my lost luggage arriving anytime before Sunday’s return flight to Tucson?
Fifty-fifty.
Can’t wait for the Nov. 8 trip to Pullman, Wash., where odds are 50-50 for sleet and 50-50 for speeding ticket from Spokane airport to Pullman.
