From: fierro@uts.amdahl.com (Doug Fierro)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.football.college
Subject: A Cal fan who went to Seattle- you know the story... :-(
Date: 12 Oct 92 20:58:02 GMT
Reply-To: fierro@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com (Doug Fierro)
Distribution: usa
Organization: Amdahl Corporation, Sunnyvale CA


  The only blemish in the trip is that we lost to the Huskies.  Typical Cal
loss- they make stupid mistakes that good teams can take advantage of.  I
can't even remember the last time I saw a muffed kick-off in the end zone-
college or pro- but leave it to the Bears to put themselves in a hole against
the number 1 team in the country.  You can't make mistakes like that and expect
to win against the Huskies in their own stadium.

  We flew in to Seattle Friday; the weather for the whole weekend was
excellent- no rain or fog at all!  Seattle is a very beautiful city.  You
Stanford fans should make the trip up when you play Washington.  It's a lot
like the Bay Area.  We flew over the Washington stadium on final approach
to the Seattle airport, which is about a 15 minute drive south of the campus.
Driving to the hotel that afternoon, we realized that no one speeds in
Washington.  What's the deal?  I guess I'm used to California drivers.
We ate and hung out Friday afternoon at a place called Steamers on Alaskan
Way, which is right on the water.  Since it was such a gorgeous day, we 
ate and drank outside- right next to the ferries that take people over to
Vancouver B.C.  Great seafood and an excellent view of Peugot Sound, which 
is the bay up there.   
That town eats and breathes purple- I mean who else are they gonna cheer for 
in Seattle- the Seahawks? :-)  The Husky purple and Gold permates everything 
up there, from the campus to downtown Seattle.  Little kids, big kids, old
ladies, restaurants, stores, hotels, you name it.  A husky fan is to be found
on every corner.  The fans, however, were surprisingly friendly and calm for 
a city that sports the number 1 college football team.  We weren't sure if 
they were pleasant to us because they did not view Cal as a threat, or if the 
people up there are just plain nice.  I would hate to see the day that the 
Huskies actually lose a game at home- it would probably devastate the whole 
city.  Prince would love Seattle- purple everywhere!

  That night, we headed over to campus to drink.  The campus area was pretty
boring by college standards- we hit a few bars on 42nd street I believe and
a place on University Way.  A lot of seedy bars around there- if you like
topless dancers Seattle is your town.  And if you like drinking beer too-
there are three breweries in the Seattle area- Ranier, Red Hook, and Olympian.
I guess only Milwaukee can rival the town when it comes to beer.  I went
to see my greek house up on campus there and they said that Fridays are pretty
much dead around campus.  The few houses I saw were huge and amazing- a real
fraternity row.  They were actually amazed we made the trip up there.  I
can't say there were a whole lot of Cal people in Seattle that weekend.  Seems
like we were all on the same plane :-)

  We got up for game day and headed over to the stadium, which is positioned
perfectly among the ocean bay and the campus.  The walk through the main campus
to the stadium was pleasant as well.  Some buildings reminded me of walking
through the Cal campus.  The whole campus is beautiful, clean, and rather
quiet.  The stadium is pretty ominious and it got very loud during the game-
especially when Chapman muffed the ball in his own endzone.  Gilbertson was
smart in taking the crowd out of the game in the first half- the fans were
almost lethargic up until the tie at halftime when it was 7-7.  When they
get into it, the sound is distracting to say the least for the opposing team.
The Cal section seemed so small.  It wasn't too hard to find reasonably-
priced scalped tickets.  Unfortunately our seats were surrounded by Husky
fans, but we weren't near the student section so we weren't harassed.  In
fact no one rubbed the loss in at all.  It's almost sickening to be so
patronizing.  The only way it seemed these people would slander us in any
way was if Cal won.  But the better team one that day.  I don't think they
are 19 points better than us, but they are better.  When their passing game
was shut down they made the necessary adjustments.  Their special teams
made the big plays.  Cal didn't make the big plays (Jones's leap for the 
pass at the end of the second half would have put Cal up 14-7. I was sitting
right there near the endzone and he should have caught that pass.); instead
the Bears made the big mistakes.  You can play sloppy against a team like
Kansas, but not the Huskies and expect to win.  By the way, Lincoln Kennedy
is larger than life- I have never seen such a tremendous individual.  Wait
until this guy gets to the NFL!  (He's a Washington O-lineman (tackle?) I
believe)

  So that night we went to drown our sorrows at the Red Hook brewery.  You
had to be proud that night to be sporting Cal clothing, but what the hell.
We ate dinner earlier at a great restaurant (Dukes) on the water and caught 
the Braves/Pirates game.  Eating dinner on the waterfront at night with all 
the boats was great- just making the trip was worthwhile, even if we lost.
The people we talked to there again were very polite and went out of their
way to make us feel comfortable there.  Not one yahoo gave us a hard time
being Bear fans.  From there we went to Pioneer Square, which is the area
you want to be in if you want to do some serious partying/drinking in 
Seattle.  That place was great- live bands, cool bars, cute women :-)
That was our last night there.  In the morning on the way to the airport
we went up in the Space Needle and got the birds-eye view of the city
before we departed.  You can see everything from up there- the Washington
campus, the King Dome, Mount Rainer, etc.  It is great town to visit.
The needle was built for the world's fair in 1962.

  So you future teams that have to play the Huskies- make the trip up,
enjoy the town for the weekend, and have a good attitude before you walk
into the stadium.  If your team does not silence the crowd early, it will
be hard to try and come back from behind in the second half.  I would be
impressed with any team that can go in there and walk out with a win against
the Huskies.  It looks like Washington will be heading to Pasadena again
this year, but we'll just have to wait and see.

  Doug
-- 
                                                     Doug Fierro
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