Personal Connections to App State Football

[McLeansvilleAppFan]

I think I have told this story once or twice in one form or the other between this board and the old MMB. I hope you will indulge me one more time. My dad's birthday in on 27 August so the start of football season is often that same week as his birthday.

I have just finished watching the Inside the Locker Room video on AppStateTV as I type this. Watching anything about the Michigan game brings back memories of not just the game but of the entire 2007 season. My dad was in Hudson listening to the radio call and I was in Greensboro. After every score or big play we called each other on the phone. I think we talked through the entire half-time reliving the plays. After the second field goal was blocked my dad called and I hung up on him. I think I told him I could not talk right then. I remember running outside and yelling. My oldest daughter that is a freshman at App this year was very worried about my having a hear attack I was carrying on such. All I remember was some uncontrolled yelling in the front yard. At the time I don't think she realized what this game meant for Appalachian.

We made it to the Lenoir-Rhyne game. That was fun just to share the moment with 28,800 other fans.

For the Wofford game my dad had cable but I did not so he would give me phone calls after some of the plays. The phone calls were not as fun as the Michigan game.

My dad and I suffered through the Georgia Southern game on the hill a few weeks later.

For the James Madison game we were not going to the game due to save money for a later playoff game, assuming there would be another game that year. I remember driving on the loop around Lenoir and Appalachian being down and nearly out and we headed up the mountain for a Christmas Tree thinking how the season had turned up and down after such a wonderful start. I was thinking how the season could not end like this.

When that fumble occurred I pulled the car off the road just south of Blowing Rock and jumped out of the car. I was so excited the season was going to continue. Had there not been a pull over area (I think it was the old NC DOT loading area.) I might have just stopped the car in the middle of US-321. I was incapable of driving for a few minutes. In ways that memory means more to me than the Michigan game since we were able to share that moment together in the each others presence.

We made the Richmond Game (The AE Show.) My dad and I are not tailgaters. We would arrive early and walk around campus. Usually we would eat on campus and visit the bookstore and the library. My dad loved to read. Living in the neighboring county he was eligible for a App State library card, which we got him that day. We should have done that years earlier, but I had only recently realized that was possible.

Neither of my parents attended university. My dad was able to live some of the athletics through my sister at UNC-CH and with me at Appalachian. As we were sitting in the upper part of the west stands before the game started against Richmond I looked over at him and he was admiring his brand new library card. Just a very small piece of Appalachian State, but it was his official personal connection to the school. And he was proud of that connection because he was proud of Appalachian State.

Within a few weeks he started dialysis and a few months after that he had a kidney transplant. The doctors missed a very small spot in his bladder that must have been cancer because within a month of the transplant he passed away at his home in Hudson.

The day my sister and I cleaned out the house before the new owners moved in was the day of the LSU game in 2008.

Some of my best memories with my Dad for the few years before he passed away are connected with App State football.

[kickass143]

What beautiful memories. Thanks for sharing. If you have your parents around to spend time with...........Soak it Up!

[McLeansvilleAppFan]

What beautiful memories. Thanks for sharing. If you have your parents around to spend time with...........Soak it Up!

I do need to give props to my mom as well. They divorced when I was 24. My mom waited for me to get out of the house and get started with life. So we were not going to games as a family before my dad passed away to say the least.

However she and my sister have been to a few games over the years since then including the playoff game that snowed heavily. Of course my wife and daughters go to a few as well. My mom is the best.

[DaphneUrquhart]

Feel free to share that memory any time. I understand what it's like to have that personal connection to a school one has never attended. The value of that connection to a family like the App family cannot be measured in dollars and cents. It can only be measured in Yosef stickers and phone calls and ticket stubs and library cards. Go App!

[AppAttack]

Great stuff! My father is also an Appalachian State alum and we've been following the football team since I was a child. He donated a kidney to me in November 2004, 5 months after we lost my mother to cancer. In 2007 we were there together in the lower level on the 35-yard line at the Big House to share one of the greatest moments in the history of sports. Give 'em Hell Apps!

[App91]

Just a great story McLean, thanks for sharing. I am picturing in my mind, both reactions. in your front yard and on the side of the road. While I was at both games, I am sure mine were very similar!

[McLeansvilleAppFan]

The value ... library cards. Go App!

As payment for handling the estate I told my sister to donate a book on labor unions to Belk Library. I don't know how often a donation in memory of someone is done at Belk, but a staff member was thoughtful enough to call the house and leave a message of gratitude. My dad was a union man, so we did a two-for-one there.

My wife (ASU Chemistry '92) had wanted to purchase an element for a few years from the Periodic Table that the Chem dept sells to raise money for schollys. We were also able to do that. If you ever get a chance to visit the CAPS building ask to see the Periodic Table in the conference room for the Chem Dept. I think we have the only plaque from a Physics and Chem husband and wife. If might be Hafnium.

At this point my dad has more permanent items on the campus than I do, but I am ok with that.

[asutrnr81]

Thanks Mc...APPFAN, for starting this thread. I have to relay the Michigan Story from 2007.

I may not have been a good App guy from about 1991 through 2009 because I did not make every home App game. I made several App games a year and nearly all the playoff games, including the playoff and NC games for 2005-2007.

But the day we played Michigan will live in my memory and my families forever because of what we were doing. Our families lives from 1991 until Nick went to ASU in the fall of 2009 was spent following our kids around the ballfields and golf courses and XC trails of North Carolina while our boys were growing up....no apologies coming! It is what we did.

I so wanted to go to Michigan but Nick had qualified for the fall championship for the National Junior Golf Championship Tour at Sea Pines that weekend. The Practice Round was on Saturday and I was caddying for Nick. We started the round and the course was backed up like crazy and we were talking with all the other dads and players and caddies. I knew I was missing the game and Nick knew what it meant to me. Camilla and Tyler found a restaurant that was showing the game....and promised to text me the scores.

That's when it happened....I started getting texts on my phone from my teachers and family. (Lots of the teachers that worked for me came from Ohio and Pennsylvania and we NOT Michigan fans). We were on hole 7 when the excitement started with Dexter's first touchdown. Initially there were whispers around the course. The texts kept coming....by halftime we had made the turn but it was still slow. **(I saved those texts for years until my phone died)....The whispers became people jumping around and running across the course to get updates. We were on 17 when Corey blocked the last fieldgoal. I can remember standing on the tee box after Nick and his partners for the day teed off and started down the course....I knew we had won from the reaction around the course and there was a small roar by the time I got my text about "The Block"....I ran down the course club bouncing, towel waving sreaming my head off, looking like the fool I am....Nick being 16 at the time just shook his head. Dad's hugged, Mom's were crying, Clempson fans were shaking their heads and every Big 10 Transplant that was not affiliated with Michigan was screaming with us.

At the banquet that night the score was announced and there was again a roar and all of us App Grad dads and moms were asked to stand! Again a Roar! That night we looked on line at all the "celebrations" from around the country.

Not only did I get to spend a great weekend with my boys the texts I got for the next 48 hours from all kinds of people was incredible. I will never forget that weekend. I had never gotten to scream on a golf course before....but for that day....it was OK....and everyone understood.

That December I got to go to the National Championship game with both my boys!....Good Memories....

[ASUPATCH]

I lost my dad in January of 2005. His birthday was Dec 16th.........we won our 1st national championship on his birthday that year. So yes all 6 foot 3 290lbs of me cried that night.

[firemoose]

I've said it on here before but there haven't been too many bigger App fans than my mother was and my dad was right behind her. I started going to games as an infant with black and gold diapers. We bought four seats in the old gold section under the press box when the seat buy was held and were surrounded by some of the biggest App supporters around. Names all the old heads would know in a heartbeat. Unfortunately, along with all the great memories I have, two of my worst also involve App games. When my mom's returned cancer was discovered it was during an App game against Furman. She had stepped off our hearth that morning after getting our App flags and had broken two ribs. Didn't know what she had done and we went to the game anyway. We didn't know it at the time but they had not gotten all her breast cancer and it had moved into her bones and had been eating away for more than three years. She started feeling worse as the game went on and we had to leave at the end of the third to take her to the hospital. There were already tumors growing out of the breaks in the ribs. They gave her 48 hours. She existed for 2 more horrible years. Very difficult time for a high school kid in his So through Sr years and a dad who was also running the Campus Bookstore.

Second was my dad. He slipped in that slick snow coming out of the Western Illinois playoff game and broke his hip along with bleeding on the brain from hitting his head. That started a nearly year long downhill slide that ended in his death.

Nothing will ever take away all the great memories of every App event I and my family have attended over these years. The after game parties at the Brakefield's were always an event. And game days under the old press box were an event in themselves. The two bad memories can't take away all of that but they are never far away either.

[App91]

Appsolutely love these! Like I said, I was at the game, head in hand wondering what just hAPPened, but the Wife relayed to me that she was at the Stonecrest Target when she found out. Cars honking, and people yelling, WE WON! Said it was a mad house! I did not take my phone to the game but had 25 vm's when I got back, all from a former college roommate who was angrily yelling on the vm to call him tell him what was going on!!

[dontplay90]

Indeed, great memories!

I have a parallel story that I may have shared before as well... I received a kidney transplant on January of 2007. My then 8 year old son and I were booked to go to the Michigan game along with several of my buddies and their sons. After coming off one of the standard antiviral post-transplant meds, I contracted a virus. long story short, at a checkup on Tuesday before the Michigan kickoff, my doctors decided to keep me in the hospital. 8 days and a monumental win over UM later, I got to go home.

My son still got to go the game with my buddies and his friends; making his first flight and also getting to see his first MLB game.

At this stage in our lives, it is amazing how much Appalachian State football has shaped both me and my son's being.

I may have jinxed us, but a while back I told Coach Moore that I thought God had worked through the Mountaineers to help get me through the toughest part of my life; end stage renal failure and a transplant! The 3 year championship and Michigan run were incredible and helped keep my spirits up when I could have given in.

My son is on the field now as a freshman in high school. You can see the influence of Appalachian State football and particularly Jerry Moore, Elliot and Armanti (among others), in how he plays and how he is living his life. We recently repainted my son's room and replaced some wall hangings. One, however, he insisted on keeping. I think it is the 2008 schedule poster. It illustrates Coach, Armanti and the Triplets. He said he would never part with it, the poster and the people/trophies mean too much and are too special. He doesn't ever want to forget.

Anyway, just my recollection and appreciation. Thanks for sharing Mc...APPFAN and others!

[SpeedkingATL]

I feel fortunate to have personally witnessed the upset over South Carolina in 1975 as well as the Michigan game in 2007. The first National Championship in 2005 was almost as important to me personally after so many playoff losses and near misses. I've lived in ATL for nearly 30 years now but still bleed Black and Gold! Many of my most important long-term friendships have been kept alive by App Football and traveling to as many games both home and away as possible.

[Appsolutely]

I feel fortunate to have personally witnessed the upset over South Carolina in 1975 as well as the Michigan game in 2007. The first National Championship in 2005 was almost as important to me personally after so many playoff losses and near misses. I've lived in ATL for nearly 30 years now but still bleed Black and Gold! Many of my most important long-term friendships have been kept alive by App Football and traveling to as many games both home and away as possible.

I saw the South Carolina upset, too. I'm guessing you were also at the Wake game in '75? And the first game in '75 when we stomped a mud hole in ECU's rear-ends?

[McLeansvilleAppFan]

I want to think everyone for sharing their own stories. Writing about loved ones and opening up can be very cathartic and for some of us introverts it is not easy, even when sitting behind a computer. I hope everyone got the same good vibes of this thread that I did. Even the sad stories that were shared were surrounded by the fact that there were some strong connections and love between a lot of people. So while we enjoy reliving 2007, it is nice to also put things into perspective.

[ASUMountaineer]

I have so many personal connections to App State football formed over the years, but one just happened this week. This is truly the first time I have seen the effect that comes from pride in your Alma Mater. My son just turned two this month, and he is obsessed with Yosef. If he sees me wear vintage/Victory Yosef gear, sees the cross stitch of Victory Yosef hanging in his bathroom, or Victory Yosef the wallpaper on the screen in my SUV he says, "Dada, YOSEF!"

Well, since he was born I would sing "Hi-Hi Yikas" to him. Once he was able to really talk we started calling it "Yosef's Song," (we have "Grandpa's song," etc.). This morning I got him out of his bed and started getting him dressed and he said, "Dada, sign Yosef's Song." So I sang Yikas and he clapped. Not only a great way to start the day, but it made me a proud papa to pass that on to my kid. Apparently, I'm doing something right.

IT'S GREAT TO BE A MOUNTAINEER!

[Watauga72]

I feel fortunate to have personally witnessed the upset over South Carolina in 1975 as well as the Michigan game in 2007. The first National Championship in 2005 was almost as important to me personally after so many playoff losses and near misses. I've lived in ATL for nearly 30 years now but still bleed Black and Gold! Many of my most important long-term friendships have been kept alive by App Football and traveling to as many games both home and away as possible.

I saw the South Carolina upset, too. I'm guessing you were also at the Wake game in '75? And the first game in '75 when we stomped a mud hole in ECU's rear-ends?

Was lucky enough to be in the band from 72-76, got to see both the SC and Wake games, as well as the last second victory over ECU before they sailed their pirate ship off into div 1-A oblivion.

Great stories you've shared on here....makes me feel closer to home than the current 1200 miles separating Oklahoma from the Blue Ridge.

[APPARJ]

My App State family resume includes:
Both parents, 2 pairs of aunts and uncles, 6 cousins, 2 younger siblings.

Although I have a lot of App State roots in my family, my father died when I was very young so I didn't have a tremendous connection to the school growing up like so many in this forum. My mom loves Boone and the mountains and we spent a lot of time in there growing up, but she didn't keep up with App State athletics at all. I was actually reluctant on attending App State initially.

But that all changed on September 1st 2007. I was a freshman Mountaineer and my best friend and I were supposed to be in Raleigh that weekend (Friday-Sunday). Our girlfriends (mine became my wife) went to college in Raleigh and we stayed with his GF's parents in Raleigh (her dad pitched at App State in the '80s). Her parents were kind enough to buy us tickets to the NC State game on Saturday.

We were keeping up with the Michigan game from kickoff on ESPN/Internet/texts but eventually we had to make a run to get supplies for tailgating at Carter-Finley. We spent the fourth quarter hovering around the dad's truck bed in the parking lot of that grocery store. A friend of the dad's was watching the game live and giving him updates over the phone. I will never, ever, EVER forget the look on his face during the final FG attempt. He looked solemn as he describe the process of Michigan setting up to kick, looking down at his feet while rubbing his forehead. He then looks up and says "Okay... 6 seconds... here we go.. they're ready to kick.... Snap... BLOCKED!!!! WE WON! WHO!?!? WHAT??? LYNCH!?!?! OMG!!! WE JUST WON!!! LYNCH BLOCKED THE KICK!!! IT'S OVER!!! WE BEAT MICHIGAN!!!"

It was magical and I wasn't even near Michigan Stadium. I tried to stay for the NC State game (I think I stayed halfway into the 1st quarter) but I was too jittery. I thanked the family for hosting me but I was too excited and I wanted to be able to always say that I was in BOONE the day App State beat Michigan. They completely understood and I left and sped away to God's country. When I rolled into Boone, people were honking horns, marching up and down 321, River's St. Kings st. etc... waving flags, spinning their shirts around over their head and yelling all sorts of nonsense 6-8 hours AFTER the game ended!

Today I am a fourth year season ticket holder and have missed only two of the possible 53 home games since the Lenoir-Rhyne game the week following Michigan. Last year my wife and I went to every game except for Montana because we knew it was the last year going to 11 App State games would fit in our budget... at least for a long time.

Anyone that knows me understands I'm a very passionate and intense person. But I feel like that day, that blocked FG from Corey Lynch helped light a fire inside of me for App State (the school and the football team) that I couldn't have lit on my own.

It is an honor for me to say that Michigan game was the first game App State played when I was a student. No one can take that from me and I'll always wear that proudly.

[firemoose]

My App State family resume includes:
Both parents, 2 pairs of aunts and uncles, 6 cousins, 2 younger siblings.

Got you beat by 15 with 3 or 4 more in the pipeline (one's thinking about UNC-W). You guys need to get busy.

[APPARJ]

My App State family resume includes:
Both parents, 2 pairs of aunts and uncles, 6 cousins, 2 younger siblings.

Got you beat by 15 with 3 or 4 more in the pipeline (one's thinking about UNC-W). You guys need to get busy.

LOL! I think my point is saying even though I had a significant number of direct family members attend App State, I really wasn't INTO App State until that faithful day.

Even so, my brother and sister would not have attended had it not been for the memories they made from being with me at App State football games when they were still in middle/high school.