Yesterday I had high hopes. As noted in my last post, I am a very proud Northwestern Wildcat. I am also a huge fan of our football team. This means that I own a ton of purple clothing and I'm used to cheering for a perpetual underdog. Even having gone to the Rose Bowl with the Cats, I'm still always convinced that who ever we're playing might beat us, the 3rd quarter will be the death of me, and every win is like a gift on Christmas.
Yesterday, I got a small taste of what it's like to cheer for an SEC team. That's because I was convinced that Northwestern was going to beat Penn State. Sure, Penn State had won their last three games, and sure the game was at Penn State, and sure it was their Homecoming. Still, I thought we would bag our 6th victory for the season.
It was about this time that I learned that Northwestern had not gone 6-0 in 50 years. 1962 was the last time that the Wildcats had put together a perfect season over the first six games. 50 years - a nice round number for someone mildly obsessed with symmetry like me.
Well, it will be at least 51 years until Northwestern is able to once again reach 6-0 in football because my Wildcats were not able to hang on to the lead, and suffered their first loss of the season in Beaver Stadium.
Winning is a funny thing. When it doesn't happen too often or on a regular basis, the wins are amazing and exciting, and precious. But the losses don't seem so bad, since you're really, deep down, expecting a loss. Once your team starts winning, the wins are still just as amazing, but the losses hurt so much more. I imagine this is how those SEC teams feel when their teams lose, though their wardrobes aren't nearly as stylish as ours.
Now that we've gotten that hurt out of the way, the Cats can get back to winning so that they can go to the Rose Bowl for the first time in 16 years, and win their first bowl game in 63 years.
Go Cats!
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