LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Aggie players deserve a good crowd on senior day

Editor’s Note: To submit a response to this column, or submit a letter to the editor on a new topic, email your submission to opinion@usustatesman.com.

Submitted by Dr. F. Ross Peterson

All during my German class in the basement of Old Main, I had been daydreaming. Professor Supernowicz had to get my attention twice. It was November 22, 1963 and tomorrow was the biggest football game of the Aggie season. The University of Utah Utes were coming to town and they had become a mortal enemy. The Utes and BYU led a revolt which caused the demise of the old Skyline Conference. Wyoming and New Mexico joined them in inviting the two Arizona universities to form a new conference — the WAC — USU was not included.  The Aggies were 8-1 and the Utes 3-6, so all the Aggies had to do was win and they had a possibility of a bowl bid for a recently shunned partner that was now independent. Revenge permeated the air of campus and Cache Valley.

I stopped at a payphone on the first floor of Old Main and called my fiancé to check to see if she was still willing to marry me in two weeks. Kay was crying. “Someone just shot President Kennedy!” I was immediately sick to my stomach and tried to get details. When I hung up, I told some friends and we ran to the student center to see if there was news. It gradually became clear that President John F. Kennedy had been assassinated in Dallas. Everyone appeared dazed as word filtered down that there would be no more classes that day. I totally forgot about the Utes and Aggies.

For many reasons which remain unclear in official university archives, the two Utah universities decided to play the game the next day. Nationwide, nearly all college football games were canceled or postponed. Soon the radio and television stations began to announce that the final game of the season would be held at Romney Stadium on Saturday as scheduled. Although sad and unsettled, I went ahead with my plans to bring two younger brothers to Logan from Idaho to go to the game with me. It had snowed a lot, but game day was fairly clear and very cold. When we arrived at the stadium, we noticed that the snow had been pushed from the field and banked on the track that encircled the field and was piled deeply at the back of the end zones.

The stadium gradually filled, but it was a surreal subdued game day. People came because they loved the Aggies and it was the last home game, but also as a way to cope with the reality of a national tragedy. The student section on the east side filled rapidly. The game was strangely quiet and it took a long time for any emotion to filter into the stands and down to the field. The Aggies outplayed the Utes, but through trick plays, fake punts and “bad calls,” the Aggies trailed 25-23 midway through the fourth quarter. By then our feet were numb from standing in the snow and the wind was whipping in from the open north end. Bill Munson, one of the all-time Aggie greats, directed the team methodically down the field toward the south. We all remember the last couple of minutes differently, but the Utes stopped the Ags on the one-inch line as time expired. I never asked why we did not kick a field goal, why we did not pass, or who called the plays. It was over, we were cold, there was no postgame call in show, and a deeper depression piled onto the death of a President.

I think of that game every year and it explains why, no matter what the record or the temperature, we never miss the last home game of the season. There are forms of Cache Valley misery inflicted by weather that our family never stops talking about. There are victories, like the one over Pacific that put us in the 1993 Las Vegas Bowl after an absence of bowl participation for 30 years. We go to the final home game to thank and honor the players, the coaches, and each other. In 2018, fifty-five years later, the Aggies are 8-1 and the visiting opponent has a losing record, but the need for the Aggie players on Merlin Olsen Field at Maverik Stadium to hear the thunderous roar of a large crowd is an absolute must. The 2018 Aggies are ranked in the top 15 in the nation, the coach is the second winningest coach in Aggie history, the roster has many local players, and they and their mates have scored more points, traveled more yards, and created more timely turnovers than any team in USU history.  The Aggies from 1963 will be proud if we achieve that ninth straight win and move closer to the greatness that eluded them. Who in their right mind would dare miss the opportunity to bid farewell and offer thanks for a most memorable season? Come early to applaud the seniors and stay to the end to join the team as they salute the fantastic Aggie marching band.

It will be a day for the ages.