Birthdays, signs, and ESPN

Thanks to a tweet from the Paint Crew, the IU game became a game I will NEVER EVER EVER forget!

It all started out when I was trying to come up with a creative sign for the IU game.  And I couldn’t because there is NOTHING creative to say about iu.  So I googled Purdue shirts making fun of iu and one that said “You can’t cheer for a rock unless you are as dumb as a rock” came up and I sent that to Brian.  That turned into Our Rock (The moon—Neil Armstrong… NBD) is bigger than your rock.  Yes, I know the rock is from football.  But that didn’t matter because the real sign came on the other side… on Tuesday… at about 3; and I had to be at Mackey at 3:30.  Let’s just say that was interesting.  The tweet came through about 10:30 on Tuesday.  It was JJ’s birthday.  I knew I had to make a sign since I was the 5^th group.  I knew I was going to have awesome seats. 

Before the game, I am in Mackey putting out scouting reports on seats, and just taking in the images of Mackey.  Empty.  That is something that I will never forget.  The first time I went into Mackey and NO ONE was on the court.  The lights were down.  Wow.  It was quite an experience.  But, as I am putting out the sheets, Tom comes in and says you need to get out here, your group is getting ready to come in.  I asked him if I could just stay in there, he said no.  But that was okay.  I knew where I wanted to sit, and I thought I could get there with the number we were.  I was correct.  I may have jumped down the last three steps, but I wanted that seat.  I was right on the edge of the cut out.  Right next to Tom.  Perfect.

As the rest of the Paint Crew is coming in and we are sitting there before the game, Brian gives me an awesome idea.  Go get a sharpie.  This is the one chance I am going to have to have JJ sign a sign that I made.  “He might do it, it’s worth a try.”  So I went into Heather’s office, and I got a sharpie.  Ran back in because we were singing to JJ.  I held up my sign, he made eye contact.  I knew he saw it.  That was a good thing. 

Someone is walking over to me; I don’t know what they want.  But I could tell they were from some TV crew.  But, I didn’t know which one.  She asked me how I would feel about having my sign on the 6 o’clock news for Channel 18 news.  I was game.  So, not only was I on TV because of the sign, but some of the people around me were too! 

The game starts.  We come out and beat iu.  Big surprise right?  IF we didn’t beat iu on JJ’s birthday, I was going to cry.  As per usual, the team comes over to the Paint Crew after the game, and gives us all fives.  This was my chance.  As JJ comes up, I have the sharpie out and he said “I’ll come back and do it in a sec.” I was cool with that.  But, instead of him coming back, BabyLew (LewJack, whatever you want to call him) came back over and took my sign.  I was kind of shocked.  I was like what are you doing?  But, I was like sure here. Take it.  JJ came and got it and SLAM my sign.  ALL over ESPN.  There were pictures on the ESPN website right after the game. 

It was on the highlights from the game.  It was awesome.  Then, he came over and signed it.  There were pictures of that in the Exponent.  I was a super star!  It was definitely the coolest experience I have had as a Boilermaker so far. 

Even on the bus the next day, Terone Johnson came up to me and said HEY!  Sign girl!  I was in shock that they realized who I was.  That was a pretty cool thing. 

This is just another one of the memories I will have from my first year going From Brave to Boilermaker.

As always,
Boiler Up!