Favorite Things: Part 5 of who knows how many…

One of the greatest things about living in a college town is Homecoming.

I love Homecoming (this falls right in line with my whole, “I love fall” motif). I love watching college football- to me it is much more exciting and sportsmanlike than professional football. I love the fact that I now currently work at the university that states it was the place where Homecoming was created. I love the fact that alumni come back into town, year after year, to show their support. Even John Hamm from Mad Men.

Okay, so I don’t know if he really came back into town for any of the games. But he did do the promotional commercials for the university that said he would be a Tiger forever. Therefore, I am going to keep on pretending that someday I will be walking to the frozen yogurt place downtown and I will run into John Hamm.

And he will love chocolate frozen yogurt with peanut butter cups and sprinkles, too.

But I digress.

I love how students decorate the downtown businesses. I love how the Greek houses put on skits for children the night before the game. I love the parades.

This year, however, Homecoming was special. ESPN’s College Game Day was on campus (On campus? Heck, they were parked right in front of my building on the historic quad!) for the first time ever.

And we were playing Oklahoma.

I grew up in the part of the country where you could really go four ways when it came to college football. Four states—four ways. You could like Arkansas, you could like Missouri, you could like Kansas (but really, why?) and you could like Oklahoma.

I had several friends who went to school in Oklahoma, so I always tended to like OU. They have a good football program, and that means you get to watch some good college games.

Then I became a Tiger.

I had a few friends who went to Missouri. “Hey,” I would tell them, “It’s not like I root for the Jayhawks!” And frankly, for over 90% of them, that was reason enough to accept my occasional OU sweatshirt.

When I became a Tiger, however, I was infected by this amazing team support. It’s not just those who are affiliated with the university—the whole town really gets into it. It makes being a Tiger fun.

We allowed the boys to stay up until 11:00 Saturday night, cheering for our team and watching every single play. We beat OU, taking down the team that was ranked #1 in the BCS standings.

I still can’t believe it—that we won. It was one helluva game.

Of course, Ant tells us that he knows exactly why Mizzou won—it was the signs he made for each of us to hold as we rooted for our team.