The Las Vegas Bowl 2006

Way to go Cougars!

Don’t let the time lapse between the Dec. 21 Las Vegas Bowl and today, Dec. 30, fool you into thinking I wasn’t stoked by the outcome of this year’s Las Vegas Bowl. Company and Christmas travel plans prevented me from posting about our activities on Dec. 21…until now.

I spent the morning last Thursday at work, my last workday of 2006. Shortly after lunchtime—and after exchanging Christmas gifts with the Coglianese family—the Snows (Gordon, Murriel and Charley) and Vickey and I departed for Sam Boyd Stadium where all true blue Cougar fans anxiously gathered to watch the Cougars perform in the second Las Vegas bowl in as many years.

This year’s outcome was much more appetizing than last year’s. In a difficult-to-argue-with defeat the Cougars prevailed against the Ducks 38 to 8. Regardless of what Oregon’s coach said about BYU defeating a Pac-10 team, the fact is they did. I repeat, way to go Cougars!

The Las Vegas Bowl crowd of 44,615 set a record for Sam Boyd Stadium. This is the first bowl game BYU has won since 1997. The number 19 Cougars, who improved to 11-2 overall, are the first nationally ranked team to ever play in the Las Vegas Bowl.

I have some photos from the game—the American flag that covered the entire field, and the BYU crowd that rushed the field (yes, Gordon insisted we be included in the foray) at the conclusion of the game for the award presentation—but they’re on my mobile phone and not of a high enough resolution to do any good here.

Our day was a bit long since we participated in the tailgate party which began at 2 p.m. Vickey set-up a table with some of her Pampered Chef brochures and spoke to passers by regarding the Pampered Chef opportunity. Charley and I enjoyed following the cheerleaders and Cougarettes around and watching for one of the cheerleaders to fall during their acrobatic feats. Gordon, king of the flea market, was jazzed by all the free handouts from the various vendors.

All in all, minus the sustained cold temperatures, it was just about a perfect day. Thanks to Amber for her Christmas gift, watching the kids from 1:30 to 9:30 p.m.

If you’re interested, you can read what the Las Vegas Bowl folks have to say about the game in their press release: Stadium-Record Crowd Sees BYU Defeat Ducks.