CU at the Game Turns 25

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One Quarter Century Down … One More to Go?

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Damn, I’m getting old!

If you have ever clicked on the “Archives” section of CU at the Game, you know that the website’s coverage of CU football dates back to 1980 … my freshman year in Boulder.

While every game CU has played over the past 40 years has a story to tell, it’s not as if I arrived at Libby Hall in September, 1980, planning on creating a 40-year history of my beloved Buffs.

Instead, the inspiration to write a “book” about CU football came to me in the Spring of 1996 … 25 years ago.

For me, the off-season between the 1995 and 1996 campaigns was too long.  CU had finished the ’95 season 10-2, ranked 5th in the nation … and all of the Buffs’ skill position players were returning. I couldn’t wait for the ’96 season to begin.

To keep myself busy, I read every book about college football I could lay my hands on.

The pickings in the Bozeman bookstores are always slim. In early 1996, though, I had the opportunity to expand my horizons. In January, my family made a trip to Portland, Oregon, with our son Adam was testing for his black belt in tai-kwondo. At the same time, our daughter Heidi was expressing an interest in attending an art school in Portland, so we combined events. Between watching Adam test and going with Heidi for an interview with the art school’s placement office, we engaged in my wife Lee’s favorite pastime – going to bookstores.

At Powells Book Store, a Portland landmark, I found new (at least to me) college football books. One had to do with the Washington Husky program. Entitled “Bitter Roses“, author Sam Farmer’s book chronicled Washington’s shared (with the Miami Hurricanes) national title season of 1991, along with the scandal-plagued season of 1992. I also found “Under the Tarnished Dome“, an indictment of Lou Holtz and the “holier than thou” attitude of the Notre Dame program.

A few months later, Lee and I had the opportunity to travel to Atlanta. Lee was attending a conference, so I took the opportunity to play tourist. For the most part, I found a city under feverish construction, what with the 1996 Olympic Games only a few months away. In addition to the mandatory stops at Stone Mountain and the Coca-Cola “museum”, I hit a few bookstores. There I found the two books which would serve to become the driving force behind this work.

The first was written by two college football fanatics. One of the writers was, ironically enough, an attorney. The two authors of “Saturday Afternoon Madness“, Bob Waldstein and Phil Silverman, took a season off from their lives in the fall of 1993 and traveled the country in search of the heart and soul of college football. Their road trip took them to such hallowed venues as State College, South Bend, and Ann Arbor. They also took the time to make it to Boulder, Colorado, for the CU/Nebraska game. (They liked Boulder, but the game was a bust for Buff fans, with the Cornhuskers prevailing 21-17).

The concept of traveling the country in search of historic game sites was appealing to me, but was not financially feasible. Fortunately, the second book I picked up was even better than the first.

Titled “The UnCivil War“, it was re-telling of the Auburn/Alabama feud, with an emphasis on the 1979-92 seasons. What made the story unique were the authors and the format for their work. Best of friends growing up, the two were bred to different allegiances. One was born into a Crimson Tide family; the other was from an Auburn Tiger home. Even after separating to attend their schools of choice, they remained friends.

Saying that football is a religion in Alabama is not to give credit to the seriousness with which the game is taken there. The two authors, Scott Brown and Will Collier, brought out the flavor of the rivalry in a clever style. First, they objectively told of the season’s highs and lows, citing results and statistics. Next, the authors penned vivid details of the season-ending grudge match between the Crimson Tide and the Tigers. Then, and this is what made the book fun, the authors wrote individual – which is to say biased – accounts of the game and the season. It made for great reading, and the seeds for this effort were sown.

While playing golf that spring, I spoke with playing partner Randy Tafelmeyer about the books I had been reading. (Randy was not a huge college football fan, but I was taking it as a personal crusade to convert him.) The more I talked about it, the better the idea of following in these authors’ footsteps became. Over the years, I had accumulated a large personal collection of programs, newspaper articles, and memorabilia. Why not put it to good use?

As they say … write about what you know.

CU at the Game was the result.

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I set out to write my book, but I needed more source material if I was going to write stories about the games played between 1980 and 1995. I was able to track down a 1996 CU media guide, which listed the late great Fred Casotti as CU’s “historian”. Author of three books on CU football, he was more than willing to help me in my quest.

It was Fred who introduced me to Dave Plati.

Dave opened up the CU Archives to me, letting me dig into the row of filing cabinets in the old Annex building (attached to the southwest corner of Balch Fieldhouse), then taking pity on me and giving me CU media guides to work from.

As a result, all of the writeups from 1980 to 1995 were written with the benefit of hindsight. Every other game, that’s … every … single … game … for the past 25 seasons, has stories and commentaries which were written at the time of the game.

Which means that you can find stories of full-throated optimism about the future of the Buffs under Rick Neuheisel, Gary Barnett, Dan Hawkins, Jon Embree, Mike MacIntyre and Karl Dorrell (though in my own defense I wasn’t convinced that Jon Embree was the right hire – but was hopeful nonetheless).

The “book” never materialized, but I kept writing anyway. Very few ever got to read any of my stories … until 2008, when my daughter-in-law suggested I start a blog. Twelve years later, that same daughter-in-law suggested that I start a podcast (pretty cool daughter-in-law!).

One last thing, as I embark on Year 26 of writing about my Buffs … I have to say that the best part of this endeavor has been the opportunity to meet some of you along the way. From road trips to tailgates, it’s been great getting to know fellow members of the Buff Nation.

CU at the Game has been a labor of love for me for the past twenty five years.

Here’s hoping we’re still in this together a quarter of century from now!

Go Buffs!

Stuart

This post, about the Spring/Summer game, from the 2021 Season, is filed under Article.
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