Illini @ Duke Sat Sept. 6 - Road Trip Thread

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#26      
I was heading to a wedding reception during that game. Talk about a mood killer.
I remember only catching the end of coworker's wedding (& OSU fan) as Illinois was beating Ohio State and we didn't dare leave the bar early to miss the end of the game. Made the wedding exit & the reception though.

Priorities are important

not sure what year that was, but while I lived in Florida from 1988 to 1994 & we owned OSU during that time....thinking maybe I need to retire to Florida soon.
 
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#27      
Thanks for starting this thread! I'm planning to go. Took the fam to our UNC game in Chapel Hill 2016 and at UVA in 2021 and went home 🤬. Looking forward to a totally different experience this year 🤘
Would love to meet up with some fellow :illinois: in Durham!
 
#28      
Thought I'd begin a thread for this road game. Visitor-side tickets are abundant via the Duke athletics Web site and (compared with most power conference games) fairly cheap:


Just bought our tickets this morning (dead-on 50 yard line in Section 7 for $62 each) and can't wait to drive over from DC.

Visitors are apparently in Sections 3-7 on the east side of the stadium (which is the visitors sideline) per @GatorMcKlusky 's post on Thursday:


See also @MDchicago 's post on Friday:


Hope to see a sea of orange there!

:illinois: 🏈:alma-mater::ms:
Immensely helpful --- see you there in Section 7!!
 
#29      
Thanks for starting this thread! I'm planning to go. Took the fam to our UNC game in Chapel Hill 2016 and at UVA in 2021 and went home 🤬. Looking forward to a totally different experience this year 🤘
Would love to meet up with some fellow :illinois: in Durham!
I'm looking forward to a postgame celebration with orange-clad brothers and sisters. My daughter and I are going to a concert north of DC the night before. Then I'll get up at 5 and drive to Durham with her and @Retro62 to make the noon kick. She'll be a senior at VT but will be proudly wearing her script Illinois T I bought for her several years ago.

So I'll be the guy having had no sleep and a dozen Red Bulls in my bloodstream by mid-afternoon. But sporting a wide smile in the wake of our victory.

Was really hoping for a late-afternoon or evening game. 😵‍💫
 
#30      
I'm looking forward to a postgame celebration with orange-clad brothers and sisters. My daughter and I are going to a concert north of DC the night before. Then I'll get up at 5 and drive to Durham with her and @Retro62 to make the noon kick. She'll be a senior at VT but will be proudly wearing her script Illinois T I bought for her several years ago.

So I'll be the guy having had no sleep and a dozen Red Bulls in my bloodstream by mid-afternoon. But sporting a wide smile in the wake of our victory.

Was really hoping for a late-afternoon or evening game. 😵‍💫
What concert?

Capt. Rat & the Blind Rivets, featuring the Rivettes?
 
#31      
My senior year. We were awful (3-7-1), though inexplicably we managed to tie the conference champion (MSU) on the road and lost to Michigan by only a FG at home. Beat the cellar dwelling Badgers. Lost to the cellar dwelling Mildcats.

I think about that season frequently, the bottom of the four-season, post-Rose Bowl Mike White slide. It's in stark contrast to where we are now.
Seriously, how did we go from Tony Eason and Jack Trudeau to Shane Lamb, Brian Menkhausen and Scott Morh?
 
#32      
Seriously, how did we go from Tony Eason and Jack Trudeau to Shane Lamb, Brian Menkhausen and Scott Morh?

Jim Bennet was the heir apparent to Trudeau, but he surprised everyone by suddenly quitting the sport. I have no idea whether he would’ve been of the Dave Wilson/Eason/Trudeau mold or more like Lamb/Menkhausen/Mohr, but his departure definitely started us down the path of the latter.
 
#33      
What concert?

Capt. Rat & the Blind Rivets, featuring the Rivettes?
Some guy named Mac DeMarco. I have no idea who he is.

I'm 59. My daughter is 21. The fact that she texted me out of the blue in May and asked me to go with her because he's a fave of hers and it would really make her happy to share the concert with me made me (1) nearly fall out of my chair; (2) euphoric as my heart overflowed with gratitude.

However, I told her that @Retro62 (whom she knows) and I were planning to drive to Durham that evening to see the Illini game the next day. Her reply: "I'd be up for seeing the game with you if you can leave on Saturday morning."

For that memorable 24 hours with her, I will gladly subsist on 4-5 hours of sleep, IV caffeine continuously for ~ 10 hours, drive four hours at the break of day, and sit in the blazing Sept. NC sun to share the Illini game with her and my bro.

BTW, I just looked up Mac DeMarco. He grew up in Edmonton, and is a big Oilers fan. I lived in Calgary for a bit in the late '90s, drove up to the Northlands Coliseum back in the day to see the Oilers a couple times, and am rooting for them to bring the Cup home to Canada for the first time in 32 years. So he seems home team already.
 
#34      
Some guy named Mac DeMarco. I have no idea who he is.

I'm 59. My daughter is 21. The fact that she texted me out of the blue in May and asked me to go with her because he's a fave of hers and it would really make her happy to share the concert with me made me (1) nearly fall out of my chair; (2) euphoric as my heart overflowed with gratitude.

However, I told her that @Retro62 (whom she knows) and I were planning to drive to Durham that evening to see the Illini game the next day. Her reply: "I'd be up for seeing the game with you if you can leave on Saturday morning."

For that memorable 24 hours with her, I will gladly subsist on 4-5 hours of sleep, IV caffeine continuously for ~ 10 hours, drive four hours at the break of day, and sit in the blazing Sept. NC sun to share the Illini game with her and my bro.

BTW, I just looked up Mac DeMarco. He grew up in Edmonton, and is a big Oilers fan. I lived in Calgary for a bit in the late '90s, drove up to the Northlands Coliseum back in the day to see the Oilers a couple times, and am rooting for them to bring the Cup home to Canada for the first time in 32 years. So he seems home team already.
Mac DeMarco is good! I haven't kept up with him in awhile but his first two major albums ("2" and "Salad Days") were big hits with the PBR/American Spirit crowd (of which I was a part) during my college years.
 
#35      
Some guy named Mac DeMarco. I have no idea who he is.

I'm 59. My daughter is 21. The fact that she texted me out of the blue in May and asked me to go with her because he's a fave of hers and it would really make her happy to share the concert with me made me (1) nearly fall out of my chair; (2) euphoric as my heart overflowed with gratitude.

However, I told her that @Retro62 (whom she knows) and I were planning to drive to Durham that evening to see the Illini game the next day. Her reply: "I'd be up for seeing the game with you if you can leave on Saturday morning."

For that memorable 24 hours with her, I will gladly subsist on 4-5 hours of sleep, IV caffeine continuously for ~ 10 hours, drive four hours at the break of day, and sit in the blazing Sept. NC sun to share the Illini game with her and my bro.

BTW, I just looked up Mac DeMarco. He grew up in Edmonton, and is a big Oilers fan. I lived in Calgary for a bit in the late '90s, drove up to the Northlands Coliseum back in the day to see the Oilers a couple times, and am rooting for them to bring the Cup home to Canada for the first time in 32 years. So he seems home team already.
I am very happy for you! I am also 59, my daughter, 24 and we are looking for someway to spend time together. We were playing pool, but that stopped.
 
#36      
I hope you soon discover something else with her.

Mine is our only child, and we've always been very close. I never had a sister so raising a daughter was a bit of a science experiment for me. I'd initially assumed I'd have her for around 11-12 years and then she'd disappear until her mid-20s. It hasn't turned out that way at all, for which I'm regularly grateful. The fact that I finally made a college football and basketball fan out of her by her sophomore year at VT is among my proudest accomplishments!

Bonus: she's partial to teams having orange as a major color, so will fit right in on Sept. 5.
 
#37      
Some guy named Mac DeMarco. I have no idea who he is.

I'm 59. My daughter is 21. The fact that she texted me out of the blue in May and asked me to go with her because he's a fave of hers and it would really make her happy to share the concert with me made me (1) nearly fall out of my chair; (2) euphoric as my heart overflowed with gratitude.

However, I told her that @Retro62 (whom she knows) and I were planning to drive to Durham that evening to see the Illini game the next day. Her reply: "I'd be up for seeing the game with you if you can leave on Saturday morning."

For that memorable 24 hours with her, I will gladly subsist on 4-5 hours of sleep, IV caffeine continuously for ~ 10 hours, drive four hours at the break of day, and sit in the blazing Sept. NC sun to share the Illini game with her and my bro.

BTW, I just looked up Mac DeMarco. He grew up in Edmonton, and is a big Oilers fan. I lived in Calgary for a bit in the late '90s, drove up to the Northlands Coliseum back in the day to see the Oilers a couple times, and am rooting for them to bring the Cup home to Canada for the first time in 32 years. So he seems home team already.
The Baller Dad move is to learn his 2 most popular songs and out of nowhere sing along with them at the concert. Your daughter will gaze at you like, “I need to find a man like my pops someday.”
 
#38      
my 3 kids are all in their 30’s . looking back , not sure i have ever attended a concert with any of them . ever .
sporting events with my boys ? yea. lots
with my daughter? , not too many .
 
#41      
Were you playing in the APA? If not I'd strongly suggest it. Playing in my 23rd consecutive year currently. Love the team format and it's been a great way to spend time with, and make new friends.
 
#42      
My senior year. We were awful (3-7-1), though inexplicably we managed to tie the conference champion (MSU) on the road and lost to Michigan by only a FG at home. Beat the cellar dwelling Badgers. Lost to the cellar dwelling Mildcats.

I think about that season frequently, the bottom of the four-season, post-Rose Bowl Mike White slide. It's in stark contrast to where we are now.
too bad Jeff George had to sit out for transferring, the 87 defense was stellar. Oh what could have been....
 
#45      
How’s it coming? The calendar is flipping.
Limited progress. :LOL: Had a family reunion trip last month and she played me some of Mr. DeMarco's music in the car en route. We'll spend 10 days together in August on a road trip before she heads back to school and I'll have ample time to listen to some more with her.

No worries. I'll cram for the exam in late August if it comes to that.:oops:
 
#46      
Yeah, RG's scheduling was a mystery. As stated previously, I was a huge apologist for the Mizzou series in St. Louis ... as a young fan, I felt cool around my Iowa friends when they would play some patsy on Labor Day Weekend while we would play a rivalry game vs. Mizzou on national TV with a cool neutral site setup. However, looking back, there were three huge issues about that series for me:

1. We just were not ready as a program to take on that type of non-conference game every single year. As others have said ... we needed cupcake schedules to stack wins.
2. On a related note, the timing of it being the VERY first game every year was a disaster. That game should have been a shoe-in for Week 2 or Week 3, allowing both teams to get a warmup home opener vs. a smaller school.
3. The setting of the dome was just less than ideal. Football on Labor Day Weekend should 110% be played outside. I understand fans rolling their eyes at football games being played in baseball stadiums, but if that game ever returned to St. Louis ... it should definitely be at Busch Stadium.

The quintessential RG schedule screwup for me will always be playing Western Michigan in Detroit in November, though. :ROFLMAO:
Man, for being a self-professed football guy, RG decidedly was NOT overly smart when it came to running a football program.
 
#48      
Secured tickets and booked flights out of StL yesterday! The GoDuke athletic site has plenty of great tickets in the visitors sections (Sections 3-7) at much more affordable costs than SeatGeek or any other site. If anyone hears of any pre-game Illini gatherings, please post!

I'm buying our tickets today, also from the Duke website. Anyone else going to book theirs on the west side to avoid some sun? Looks like I can get them beneath the pressbox/suite area and maybe get some relief by halftime.
 
#49      
I'm buying our tickets today, also from the Duke website. Anyone else going to book theirs on the west side to avoid some sun? Looks like I can get them beneath the pressbox/suite area and maybe get some relief by halftime.

I’ve been to their stadium. With a noon start, I’m afraid shade will be scarce regardless of where you sit. Would rather sit in the sections behind our bench (sections 3-7) and make some noise amongst Illini fans than be surrounded by obnoxious Dookies in their sections.
 
#50      
I’ve been to their stadium. With a noon start, I’m afraid shade will be scarce regardless of where you sit. Would rather sit in the sections behind our bench (sections 3-7) and make some noise amongst Illini fans than be surrounded by obnoxious Dookies in their sections.
Agreed. The sun won't be behind the press box affording shade on the west side until the game is nearly over. Much prefer to bake on our boys' side.
 
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