Sweet Bowl of Liberty

Of thee I sing. Ahhh, the Liberty Bowl. What a great Memphis tradition. As I mentioned in my preseason football post, I love the Liberty Bowl and it is high on the list of reasons I love college football. I am pretty sure that I remember my first Liberty Bowl game before I remember my first Tiger football game. I have missed only a couple games since the very early 90's. There have been some great games and this year was no different. The 50th anniversary of the bowl pitted two potential future schools, the East Carolina University Pirates versus the University of Kentucky Wildcats. Since the weather was so nice I decided to take Drew and he had a great time. We met my mom and found our seats on the Kentucky side, about the 30 yard line, 15th row. Drew had band overload, as both schools had their bands, and several different high school bands all played together during the halftime show. He is still talking about the bands, cheerleaders, game, and the guy who sat next to us. Drew had everyone around us impressed of how good he was throughout the game. So much so, that the people in front of us bought him some cotton candy. This was our first experience with cotton candy, and it turns out that Drew did not like it. He took only several bites and then refused it, acting like it was too much sugar for him. Unfortunately, he still managed to get me and him both very sticky. Anyways, the game was a classic, close the whole time, tied up until the last few minutes when Kentucky returned an ECU fumble to win, 25-19. The halftime show featured the very lovely Sara Evans who sang a couple of songs and was joined onstage by several St. Jude patients. This year's version did not disappoint, and may turn out to be one of the best, considering the great weather, great game, and the opportunity to introduce my son to one of my favorite yearly Memphis traditions.