Gopher fan for a day (or two)

What's a man to do when stuck at a hockey tournament in the middle of Minneapolis when his team is knocked out on the first day of competition. Well you can take one of three routes, you can continue to support your team while staying relatively neutral at all games, you can be a hockey whore (like a certain short girl I know) swaying your loyalties to whatever team fans are the closest, or you can pick a team based on whatever factors and ride with it. So as I got up Friday I was faced with a question who do I support now that I had decided that my usual college hockey attire was going to be retired.

Well let's be honest with ourselves, I'm not cheering for Wisconsin, ever under any circumstances (except maybe Wisconsin against Ohio State, in which there's a better chance of me hoping for a natural disaster to wipe the arena off of the map) I'm not cheer "Let's go Huskies" unless those Huskies are wearing Black and Gold because that's just confusing. So really I only had two options North Dakota or Minnesota. I wasn't trying to agree with Dirty, and I've always been thought to never bite the hand that feeds me, and the Gopher were literally feeding me so it was a no brainer, for the next couple days Rob Green was going to be a fan of the Golden Gophers. Besides with the level of arrogance that I already had I was a natural.

Let me tell you now, it's not easy being a Gopher fan in the middle of the Twin Cities, there's just so much pressure. From the second I walked into the parking lot on Friday morning for the GPL tailgate, I had people wanting to shake my hand and women wanting to hug me, of course that may of been more because I was me then because of the jersey I was wearing, but being the center of attention among that many people is a burden that I hope very few people have to suffer through.

Although I did wear a maroon and gold jersey I kept my reminders that I was in fact a Tech fan, I kept on my black and gold Tech hat, mostly because I didn't have a maroon and gold one, and I carried a Tech flag in my pocket, anything to keep me from becoming a hockey whore. I received a lot of interesting looks that day and I think mostly because of the mismatched jersey and hat but regardless I met a lot of people. And then came Friday where the unexpected happened when the teams took the ice there was not a doubt in my mind that not only was my team going to win, but it was in fact the more talented and naturally gifted team on the ice. I'm sorry lately I've been expecting my Huskies to win and they have been doing so, but honestly knowing beyond the shadow of a doubt that they were the best team in the building is a new feelings, it's kind of creepy.

Saturday I was a quasi Gopher fan, I wore the jersey but I wore a ref jersey over the top. I even got to participate in the Gopher's pre-game march around it was definitely fun. I hate to admit but it was in fact fun and a good experience but never again. I learned something that day as Wheeler dove to put in the winning goal over Lammy's shoulder. It was an amazing goal and as happy that I was there to see it, it was nothing compared to Justin St. Louis's goal to beat Northern, or Tech winning in overtime at CC. At the end of the day I am what I am and that is Black and Gold all the way through.