Appalachian State University and the Boone community was hit as hard as the majority of Western North Carolina. This led to a unique twist to the Mountaineers visit to the East Campus of Duke University.

Fans attending the game were encouraged to bring items to the ballpark that are in high demand for those still struggling to recover from the Hurricane 🌀.

Pictured above is one of the collection stations 🚉 for the donations.

The storm is long gone but the battle for many is just beginning.

The year was 1989 and we lived in St. Charles County, Missouri. Duke, under the guidance of Steve Spurrier ( His first Head Coach experience) led us to a Bowl 🥣 game. As a 26 year old, I jumped into a car alongside Marc Brace and made the 527 mile drive 🚗 to watch us play Texas Tech. The Ole Ball Coach would pack up and head to the University of Florida the next day but for the first time in my life the Blue Devils went Bowling !!!

The loss to a much bigger Red Raider team did little to make the experience any less enjoyable. While Duke was a leader in many, many things, playing Football wasn’t one of them. The team had a three year run 🏃‍♂️ prior to my birth out in Lemoore, California but the following 26 years were very often quite painful.

College Football is a passion for me like few others. I just completed the Loop of attending all 42 active Bowl games 🏈 and each year begins with the hope we can sneak our way to six wins.

Five years later Duke earned the right to face Wisconsin in the Hall of Fame Bowl 🥣 Game in Tampa, Florida. That drive 🚗 was from Florence, South Carolina with Bob Muffett. Wisconsin was a power back then and we were no match for the Badgers but only waiting five years wasn’t too bad.

The next two decades were absolutely brutal. We had the longest stretch of a Power Five conference team in between Bowl 🥣 games.

Coach Cut ✂️ finally ended the drought when he led us to a Bowl 🥣. Game down in Charlotte, North Carolina versus Cincinnati. December 27, 2012 was a freezing 🥶 night in the Queen City and sadly we made the wrong kind of history.

Scott Van Pelt of ESPN has a segment on his show called Bad Beats. For a decade plus the highlight shown to lead off the segment was how we went from the 1 yard line of Cincinnati in a tie game in the final two minutes to losing by 14 points.

But the drought was finally over and we were there in numbers. My Dad, three of my Children and two of their spouses, Alan Knight, Bill Meade & the oldest of our Nine Grandchildren.

Over the 18 years, we were hoping the not go winless and folks were writing stories about how embarrassing we were and that we should quit playing the game all together. Getting the 2nd drought Monkey 🐒 off our back was tremendous. During the stretch of being the laughing stock of College Football did I consider switching sides. Ones team should always be ones team.

Cut ✂️ followed up the drought breaker with the greatest season in my lifetime. We won 10 games and represented the ACC in the Championship game against a Power House Florida State team. We followed that up with the biggest Bowl 🥣 game of the set, heading to Atlanta for the Peach Bowl vs Johnny Manzel and Texas A & M.

To this day I still consider this the most exciting Football game I’ve seen in person. My wife, My Dad, Alan Knight, Son-in-law Josh Deal and I watched an absolute shoot out. Our daughter Sabrena wasn’t feeling well and stayed at the Hotel that night but its the most memorable New Years Eve of my life. We were now 0-4 but the important part was the four!

The following year we earned the right to travel to a historic Bowl game, the Sun Bowl 🥣 in El Paso, Texas. As cold as it was in Charlotte two years earlier, it was worse in Atlanta so we were stoked to finally get a trip to a warm place!

Not so fast, Linda + Alan Knight and I watched a game with snow falling from the Sky. Lin was in a cast as she had just broken her ankle a month earlier and we were quite the sight trying hard to stay worm.

Another great game against a impressive Arizona State team and we took the lead in the final minute. Naturally the Sun Devils returned the kickoff 90 yards to drop us to 0-5 but we had been to a Bowl 🥣. Game in three straight years….

The following year we made it four straight and this time it was just Alan Knight and myself that headed to Yankee Stadium 🏟 to play Indiana University. Another dismal weather day but something happened at the age of 52 – Duke won a Bowl Game !!!

2016 ended the streak and 2017 wasn’t a great year but we snuck across the finish line by going 6-6.

Living on Orcas Island 🏝 we flew to Detroit for the Quick Lane Bowl 🥣

The game was played in the Dome that the Lions played in but outside it was -1°. Lin & I enjoyed the 3+ hours indoors and the second straight “W”.

Now we are 2-5 but there were five games in a stretch of six seasons. Cutcliffe had turned us into a legitimate program.

Daniel Jones played QB for the final time in the 2018 Bowl game down in Shreveport – Yes, finally a decent weather day !! Linda and I enjoyed the afternoon..

We were now on a 3-game winning streak and were getting accustomed to waiting with excitement each December to find out where we would be heading.

Cut ✂️ and Duke had a different view on the direction of the program after a couple of poor seasons and sadly Coach packed up his office and headed home. This hurt as I had gotten to spend time with Coach and thought he would be there for another five or so years.

Mike Elko was the Hot 🔥 Coach in waiting and when he came to Durham from Texas A & M money 💰 started flowing in a different manor. The facilities were upgraded across the board.

The turnaround from 3-9 to Bowl 🥣 Bound for the 9th time happened in Year 1 for Elko.

Lin & I headed up to Annapolis, Maryland for another Cold 🥶 Bowl 🥣. But it was the Military Bowl and has a special place to us. It was the fourth time attending the event. We beat up a good Central Florida team and moved to 4-5.

Then came last season, another one where we attended all 12 games. We watched as we shocked Clemson, hosted Game Day for the first time ever and then cried when we were about to move to the next level by beating a highly ranked Notre Dame team in Prime Time. Then the Irish converted a 4th and 33 to steal the victory and to make it worse Riley Leonard was injured on the final play.

Towards the end of the season things went off the rails 🚈. Elko accepted the job at Texas A & M, Leonard was transferring to Notre Dame and our best running back was moving 20 minutes over to North Carolina State.

With a substitute Coaching Staff and minus a number of key players, it got worse when we drew Troy as our opponent in the return to Birmingham. We were underdogs against a talented but smaller School 🏫. Somehow the Blue Devils circled the wagons and pulled off the upset to move to 5-5. Very proud of that TEAM win after the mad exodus.

Enter Manny Diaz into the picture and it became his job to pick up the pieces. The schedule looked brutal and the team needed to rebuild so the thought of Bowl 🥣 Game #11 simply wasn’t realistic. I told Linda that we MUST go 4-0 to start and then try to steal two games out of 8 in the ACC.

I thought we might get to six but to do it inside of seven games is insane.

Diaz has our defense playing at another level and we won at home 🏡 over North Carolina and Florida State. While those two schools are having off years, they are still UNC & FSU.

So this morning 🌄, Lin and I start the ritual of dreaming about our possible December destinations. We are thinking San Diego or Jacksonville would be nice…..

Thank You Coach Diaz !