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I decided to make the trip to Kalamazoo on Saturday from GR to see this game... and to be back on campus for Homecoming. I made another decision on Friday to swing down to pick up my tickets from will call so as to avoid the crowds on Saturday morning...

Friday the campus was buzzing... I headed up to the bookstore in the Bernhard Center and was pleasantly surprised at the apparel options! They even gave alumni a homecoming discout percent for every year its been since you graduated... thank you extra 14% discount! They indicated that the largest discount they had givent that day was 66%.. AWESOME! Even on friday I could tell teh campus was littered with alumni. Of course I had to make my way to bell's on my way out of town... delicious!

Game day! HOLY MOTHER F$%&ING $H1T!!!!! I have NEVER seen that many cars parked in East Campus... they were parking cars in the lawn of the Sanitarium for overflow... we were able to park in teh lawn between oakland and the health and human services building... It was teh best tailgate atmosphere I have EVER had at WMU. Great weather, great people... great tailgate spot amoungst the trees... Just inbelievable.

Made the trek to the game... had some decents seats in lower B on around the 20yrd line Seelye Center side... Unfortunately was right there for Ohio's first TD... assisted by a tipped ball interception... It was apparent that Ohio was going to take away Franklin early. It was also apparent that Ohio wasn't going to fall for those jet sweeps to Braverman. This is where WMU's offense started to look like the WMU of past and go vertical... Ohio was using ONE safety who was playing dangersously close to the line of scrimmage most of the game... We don't turn the ball over those three times this game would have been a bigger laugher than it was... Once WMU went up 14-7 you could see the energy drain out of the Ohio players... The kickoff teams for WMU seemed to be dancing and taunting the Ohio return team players before the kicks... it was AWESOME!

The DJ seemed to edit on the fly some of the language in some of the songs he was playing, and I think that might have been by design after some complaints from previous games. The players OBVIOUSLY LOVE the addition of the DJ... they were dancing the whole game out there... (Even saw an Ohio backup qb out in a huddle shucking and jiving to a groove played by Ill Mix...). Here's the one largest take away from that DJ sitautuion that I finally was able to put to rest by making an actual game... The Band still remains a HUGE focal point of the game day experience and that is HUGE! I was worried that the band would be shuffled to the background ... and that was obviously not the case.

This WMU team played physical.... they played smart... and they played like a TEAM. Franklin got his yards and piled up three more TD's.... and even though Phillips, Braverman... and even Franklin at the beginning was getting shut down... We pull out Davis... always a trump card in this deck.... LOVE IT! Defense got something like EIGHT sacks!!!!? WOW...

Just a great game day experience... made it back to the car... threw teh ball around a bit and drank a couple beers while having giddy conversation about the game... I got up this morning and put on my bronco gear just to hang on to that energy for just a little bit longer.

GO BRONCOS! ROWING THE BOAT!!!!!

"Made the trek to the game... had some decents seets in lower B on around the 20yrd line Seelye Center side... Unfortunately was right there for EMU's first TD... assisted by a tipped ball interception.."

That must of been one hell of a tailgating party given that we were playing Ohio :).

(10-26-2014 08:48 AM)bronco89 Wrote:  "Made the trek to the game... had some decents seets in lower B on around the 20yrd line Seelye Center side... Unfortunately was right there for EMU's first TD... assisted by a tipped ball interception.."

That must of been one hell of a tailgating party given that we were playing Ohio :).

Fixed thanks... I was just reading the EMU game breakdown for teh weekend... I think the green and white association got to me... :)

Just pulling your chain..... thanks for the summary. I was there as well with the family and it was a great time. My oldest is interested in WMU and we did a campus tour before the game. I think the whole experience may have sold him on WMU. Very excited with the potential of having another Bronco in the family!

Glad to hear your experience was so damn good. Ours was much the same, though shortened - we didn't get to the tailgate until close to noon after the 5K / showering / walking back up to campus. But we did walk from where we were staying (near W. Main & W. Michigan by the RR tracks) and there were people out and about all the way there and the tailgate lots were all packed. Quite a sight. Absolutely perfect day for a football game in Kalamazoo.