Wyoming away from home
It's funny who you will bump into away from home.
Just walking to the Pauley Pavilion will call at the box office, I ran into UW athletics director Tom Burman. Just minutes later, there was Frank Gambino, former K2 TV sports guru who is now employed by the University of Wyoming.
Both seemed a little surprised to see me. I guess in this day and age, little ole' Wyoming Sports.org making the trip to UCLA was a little surprising. Of course, I was in Los Angeles on vacation, but that is a different story.
So, as it turned out, yours truly and Eric Schmoldt of the Casper Star-Tribune were the only Wyoming media here covering the Cowboys and Bruins.
At halftime, I ventured into the media press room and struck up a conversation with a couple of other Wyoming natives -- Bill McCabe and Steve Aggers. They noticed my brown shirt with the Steamboat logo on it. Yeah, that's a safe bet that he is not from around these parts.
McCabe, a UW graduate, is a Casper native and former local sports official who now is the head of Pac-10 men's basketball offficiating.
Aggers, of course, is the son of former longtime UW athletic trainer Jack Aggers and a Laramie native. The former Loyola Marymount head men's basketball coach is now helping McCabe as a basketball officials "observer."
A majority of the conversation was centered around the weather. Without introducing himself, Aggers asked how the weather was in Laramie today.
Of course, I said it was balmy.
The conversation switched to Aggers needling McCabe that Laramie was a "way better town" than Casper. I had to agree.
We also talked about the traffic. Both said it was "really bad." I reminded them that it takes me about five minutes to get from my house to the Arena-Auditorium. They seemed a little envious, in that regard.
Both also agreed that UCLA was playing as well as it had all season. Unfortunately, it was at Wyoming's expense.
Later as we were in the parking garage, we struck up a conversation with a man while he too was walking to his car. He said, "see you Sunday," in reference to UCLA's next scheduled home game. I said, "No you won't. We're from Wyoming."
He smiled and said, "sorry about that," talking about the beating on the basketball course. Then he said, "Oh well, we're even. I went to the Las Vegas Bowl a few years ago and you beat us there."
That made the much quicker drive back to my in-laws (45 minutes instead of an hour and a half there) much more tolerable.
Just walking to the Pauley Pavilion will call at the box office, I ran into UW athletics director Tom Burman. Just minutes later, there was Frank Gambino, former K2 TV sports guru who is now employed by the University of Wyoming.
Both seemed a little surprised to see me. I guess in this day and age, little ole' Wyoming Sports.org making the trip to UCLA was a little surprising. Of course, I was in Los Angeles on vacation, but that is a different story.
So, as it turned out, yours truly and Eric Schmoldt of the Casper Star-Tribune were the only Wyoming media here covering the Cowboys and Bruins.
At halftime, I ventured into the media press room and struck up a conversation with a couple of other Wyoming natives -- Bill McCabe and Steve Aggers. They noticed my brown shirt with the Steamboat logo on it. Yeah, that's a safe bet that he is not from around these parts.
McCabe, a UW graduate, is a Casper native and former local sports official who now is the head of Pac-10 men's basketball offficiating.
Aggers, of course, is the son of former longtime UW athletic trainer Jack Aggers and a Laramie native. The former Loyola Marymount head men's basketball coach is now helping McCabe as a basketball officials "observer."
A majority of the conversation was centered around the weather. Without introducing himself, Aggers asked how the weather was in Laramie today.
Of course, I said it was balmy.
The conversation switched to Aggers needling McCabe that Laramie was a "way better town" than Casper. I had to agree.
We also talked about the traffic. Both said it was "really bad." I reminded them that it takes me about five minutes to get from my house to the Arena-Auditorium. They seemed a little envious, in that regard.
Both also agreed that UCLA was playing as well as it had all season. Unfortunately, it was at Wyoming's expense.
Later as we were in the parking garage, we struck up a conversation with a man while he too was walking to his car. He said, "see you Sunday," in reference to UCLA's next scheduled home game. I said, "No you won't. We're from Wyoming."
He smiled and said, "sorry about that," talking about the beating on the basketball course. Then he said, "Oh well, we're even. I went to the Las Vegas Bowl a few years ago and you beat us there."
That made the much quicker drive back to my in-laws (45 minutes instead of an hour and a half there) much more tolerable.
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