Friday, September 22, 2006

Ralphie Leads the Colorado Buffaloes to Athens



Ralphie, the University of Colorado's famous buffalo mascot, was invited by Uga VI and the University of Georgia to attend the football game between the two schools this Saturday in Sanford Stadium. These two are amongst the most famous and visible mascots in all of sport. So it made sense for UGA to invite Ralphie to make her first run in an opponent's home stadium ever. Ralphie has made bowl trips before. But this will be her first away game in Ralphie's 30 year tradition.

She was scheduled to be trucked in and arrive in Athens yesterday. And she will make a practice run at Sanford Stadium today. Despite a bad start to their year, Colorado sold its entire allotment of tickets and will have some 4,000 fans attending at UGA's 92, 746 seat stadium. As usual, the game is sold out. UGA will make a return trip to Boulder, Colorado in 2009. And yes, CU has already invited Uga VI to make the trip to Folsom Field.

When this game was scheduled 2 years ago, it was a made for TV type of game. CU was only 2 years removed from winning the Big XII conference, smashing both Texas and national runnerup Nebraska along the way. Since then they've played for the Big XII title twice more, including last year. But in the midst of some off the field problems and a coaching change, the Buffaloes are not performing up to their usual standard. In fact, when they lost their second game to Colorado St. for an 0-2 start, CBS released their hotel rooms in Athens sending the signal that this would be a regional broadcast only.

Still, that shouldn't spoil the fun. The mascot traditions of the two programs will be a sight to see. I hope that Ralphie and all Buffalo fans enjoy their trip to Georgia and make it back home safely.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm looking forward to the mascot showdown tomorrow... if only it was a more important game. We need a win against a real opponent.

I hope it is UGA VI making the trip in '09. Unfortunately, I suspect we may be talking about UGA VII at that time. Can you believe UGA VI has been the mascot for 7 years?

Button Gwinnett said...

Yeah that's very true Rocky. Uga VI is the biggest of them all and that might work against him in the long run. So lets hope he gets to the breathe the Rocky Mnt. air in Boulder one day.