Legend [16440]
TigerPulse: 100%
Posts: 14915
Joined: 1/26/99
|
Tampa story
18
18
Dec 8, 2023, 8:46 AM
|
|
When my son was in high school, I sent him to playoff games instead of going myself. He went to Miami with his aunt and Glendale with his uncle. When we made it to Tampa in 2016, I decided that I just had to go. I remembered wishing as a kid that I had been in Miami in 1981, and thought this might be my only chance. My son was a senior in high school. We made plans to go with my BIL and his kids, then my 14 year old (now a Clemson junior) begged to go. I couldn’t say no. My wife secured tickets and made a hotel reservation…in PAMPA, TEXAS! Thankfully we caught and fixed that problem, but we had another problem. The day before we were to leave, the seller from eBay emailed us and said that he had short sold tickets that he didn’t have, and could not deliver the tickets he had committed to sell. No tickets, two days before the game.
I started working the phones, with little luck. My BIL bought three on StubHub, but not together (3 together are hard to find). I bought a pair on StubHub, and prayed for a miracle. My brother came through. A former player, whose son played baseball with my nephews at Furman, had an extra with him. I paid him $950, plus the $3K for the pair. Our original tickets were $500 each.
At the game, we had two pairs and a single in the end zone, plus the single I had bought, which turned out to be on the Clemson 30, about 20 or so rows off the field. Our sons sat together, and our daughters sat together. They were 14 and 12, in sight of my BIL, who took the single, but separated. An older Bama lady said she would take care of the girls, and she sure did. I started out at the 30, sitting with strangers. I looked down to the sideline and was yards away from former players - CJ, Tajh, too many to mention. I texted my son and said “you need to be in this seat”, so we swapped and I sat with my nephew.
Well, you all know what happened, and it ended up a trip of a lifetime. It was stressful to figure it out and pay for it, but I will never forget that time with my family. All four kids on that trip ended up at Clemson; three are still there, and one (my son) graduated.
What a memory!! Sorry for the long post, but there is so much that I omitted in the interest of brevity. Go Tigers!
P.S. My daughter has now seen (in person) Clemson win national championships in both football and soccer…just like her old man.
|
|
50
