From: chyang@litotes.engin.umich.edu (Chung Hsiung Yang)
Subject: Re: A Cal fan who went to Seattle- you know the story... :-(
Date: Mon, 12 Oct 92 17:45:16 EDT
Organization: University of Michigan Engineering, Ann Arbor
Distribution: usa
Originator: chyang@litotes.engin.umich.edu


In article <48lT03UOa9Bq00@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com>, fierro@uts.amdahl.com (Doug Fierro) writes:
> 
>   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

	I am glad that you had fun there.  That still seem like the
same town that I left for college four years ago.  

	Actually, UW woofers are nice people in general.  Friendliness
will be returned with friendliness.  Just look at the Nebraska-UW 
woofers exchange.  It wasn't hostile at all.  But if woofers are 
unreasonable, Husky woofers will woof back.

	I thought there were quite a few CAL alums in Seattle.  I guess
that they were wearing plain cloths that day :)  Glad you had fun.
I hope that CAL will do well the rest of the season.

Chung Yang

 -- 
>                                                      Doug Fierro
>                                       |\             UTS System Software
>   O                         __________|_\______      CASE tools development
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