Are You Ready for Some Football?

The calendar says July 1 today, so that means college football is only about 6-7 weeks away.

Here in the Midwest, we have unique football weather. When the season begins, the heat and humidity team up to make the conditions often unpleasant. As the season progresses, fall is in full swing. At the end, the weather can become extremely cold with snow in the air.

My final year of undergraduate work, I attended a playoff game in Northfield, Minnesota, the week before Thanksgiving. Concordia of Minnesota was hosting my school, Northwestern of Iowa. As a journalist, I was privileged to sit in the press box which on bad weather days is usually wonderful. The weather that day was brutal: snow on the ground, extremely cold and windy. However, the press box was no weather escape because it was not heated.

I remember grumbling about the lack of heat. Didn't the locals realize how bad the weather gets in northern Minnesota in November? Was the college just cheap and trying to save a buck? I never drink coffee except for that day. My writing instrument was even cold.

Northwestern's performance that day was like the weather. The field was rock hard and the Northwestern players didn't wear the proper shoes because they often slipped and slided. The Concordia players had the proper cleats because they were running around the field like it was sunny and 70 degrees.

I was so cold that mid 1970s day that I vowed never to return to Moorhead, Minnesota, again. As sometimes happens in life, the vow didn't last. I began dating a woman from Moorhead 30 years later.

By the way, the weather hasn't changed in Moorhead. It's still bitter cold there in November, December, January, February. You get the picture.