Wed., Nov. 27 - Sun., Dec. 1, 2024
The past five days were all good ones filled with wonderful doses of family, football, food and fellowship.
Of course, Thanksgiving Thursday
was the impetus for all of our joy
Son Andrew and his fiancée Jill
joined us from Las Vegas
Their wedding ceremony is set for the weekend before Christmas in Las Vegas.
Laurie set this Thanksgiving table
for Andrew, Jill, Michael, Vanessa
and the two of us
Cousins Kevin, Jacob and Mary had
their own seating arrangements
Can you guess which one of these chairs has been dubbed as being Mary's Chair?
Kevin and Jacob comparing
their height with a successful
Mary photo bombing raid
Dishing out the ice cream to the grandkids
The orders of chocolate for Kevin and Mary, and vanilla for Jacob was no surprise to any of us.
Left to Right: Kevin (13), George,
Mary (9), Laurie and Jacob (12)
A goofy pose
A goofier pose with a mortified Jacob
Having these three with us
together is always a treat
It was a Happy Thanksgiving indeed!
Quick thought from the net . . .
It happens
Thanks to the generosity of avid
blog follower Michael D'Antuono,
we got a special treat on Saturday
With Andrew, Jill and Kevin heading back to Las Vegas on Saturday morning and Laurie wanting to stay home to start the Casa Contreras shift from the Thanksgiving motif to the even more joyous Christmas vibe, we invited UCLA alum Brian FitzGerald to join us for the trip to the Rose Bowl to see the final game of the year for his Bruins.
Brian, Michael, Jacob and
yours truly posing with the iconic
Rose Bowl sign in the background
Just outside the Rose Bowl's Entrance Gate A
Here you will find a courtyard bearing specific areas for each of the old Big-10 and PAC-12 universities that, back in the day, created most of the lore that made the annual New Year's Day Rose Bowl game "The Granddaddy of Them All!"
We are seen here in the University of Washington section of this courtyard pointing to . . .
. . . the three bricks that include the
Sabolic, D'Antuono and Contreras families
On to the Fan Zone!
Go Bruins GO!
Just throw the ball through the
small hole in the target and
win a huge prize
Three attempts but no cigar for Jacob.
Same for Michael
We watched about ten people try this before Jacob and Michael got their turns, no one won a prize but at least it was free to try.
The band warming up
Jacob with some interesting
looking Bruins
Our seats were in the posh
Terry Donahue Pavilion
Terry Donahue
UCLA Head Football Coach
1976-1995
151 Wins - 74 Losses - 8 Ties
Donahue, a UCLA alumni, presided over easily the greatest two decades in Bruin football history.
I loved these Rose Bowl game
replica tickets above the escalators
on the way to our seats
The Terry Donahue Pavilion walls are chock full of interesting Rose Bowl memorabilia.
Notre Dame's famed backfield
"The Four Horsemen" played in the
1925 Rose Bowl defeating Stanford 27-10
The highly esteemed sportswriter, Grantland Rice, had this to say about the 10-0 Fighting Irish's backfield after they handed Army their only loss of the 1924 season, 13-7, on October 18, 1924.
"Outlined against a blue-gray October sky the Four Horsemen rode again. In dramatic lore they are known as famine, pestilence, destruction and death. These are only aliases. Their real names are: Stuhldreher, Miller, Crowley and Layden."
The following week Notre Dame's Student Publicity Aide, George Strickler, had the bright idea to have the four Fighting Irish backs pose astride horses in their football uniforms.
The legend of The Four Horsemen of Notre Dame had begun.
After playing in the 1925 Rose Bowl, Notre Dame opted to not play in any bowl game again until accepting the bid to play #1 ranked Texas (11-0) in the 1970 Cotton Bowl. Notre Dame (8-2-1) lost this game, 21-17.
I believe that is NFL Hall of Fame
Chicago Bears owner/coach George Halas
Halas was named the MVP of the 1919 Rose Bowl Game in leading the Great Lakes Navy Bluejackets (7-0-2) to a 17-0 win over the Mare Island Marines (10-1-0).
Both teams were independents playing in the World War I era. The Great War as it was known, had only ended about six weeks before this Fifth Annual Rose Bowl Game.
Nice Stances
Now, THAT'S a face mask!
Our initial view of the stadium
The signature script UCLA
We first raided the Terry Donahue
Pavilion's dining area before heading
to our AWESOME seats
I ate sensibly for once
Jacob eschewed the cheese in order to create
this plate of "Gummy Nachos" for dessert
Mandatory pre-game photo of Jacob
in his Camarillo Stingers game jersey
As I said, AWESOME seats!
It was a BEAUTIFUL day for
American football!
The announced crowd of only 35,000
in the 89,702 seat stadium was
a tad disheartening
This was a non-conference game with the Mountain West Conference's Fresno State Bulldogs (6-5, 4-4 MWC) taking on the Big-10's UCLA Bruins (4-7, 3-6 Big 10).
The eight game series between these two California universities was tied at four wins apiece.
UCLA won the first four meetings in 1987, 1995, 1999 and 2000.
Fresno State took the measure of the Bruins the next four games in the series with wins in 2003, 2008, 2018 and 2021.
The series tie would be broken today.
Michael and a cameraman
surveying the field
Points would be hard to come by
That's a BIG Bruin with the ball
This block may be illegal
UCLA came back from a 10-6
Halftime deficit to win the game
THANK YOU, Michael D'Antuono. We all had a great time at the game!
While we were at the UCLA game, unranked
Michigan (7-5) beat #2 Ohio State (10-2)
for the fourth straight year
This huge 13-10 upset victory made Wolverine fan Debi Murphy more than a little happy.
Saturday night in Eugene,
#1 Oregon (12-0) humiliated
unranked Washington (6-6)
The Final Score favored the Ducks, 49-21.
The game wasn't as close as the score indicated.
Saturday night, Mike Moon's
Pacifica H.S. Tritons won the
C.I.F.-Southern Section's
Division 4 Championship
Pacifica (10-4) defeated the St. Bonaventure Seraphs (9-5), 27-20.
Up next for the Tritons is a home California State 2-AA Southern California Regional playoff game against the C.I.F.-Los Angeles City Section's Open Division Champion Narbonne Gauchos (7-6).
The winner of this game will play the winner of the Northern California Regional 2-AA game at Saddleback College in two weeks.
The Northern California Regional game sees the C.I.F.-Sac-Joaquin Section's Division 2 Champion Grant Pacers (10-3) on the road against the C.I.F.-Central Coast Section's Division 1 Champion St. Francis Lancers (10-3) of Mountain View.
Newbury Park H.S. won the
C.I.F.-Southern Section Division 2
Championship on Saturday night
The Panthers improved their record to 14-0 with a road win versus the Murietta Valley Nighthawks (11-3), 31-28.
Newbury Park will now travel to Chula Vista's Southwestern College to play the C.I.F.-San Diego Section's Open Division Champion Lincoln Hornets (10-2) in a Southern California 1-AA Regional game.
The winner of this game will also play at Saddleback College in two weeks for the California 1-AA State Championship agianst the winner of the Northern California 1-AA Regional game.
The Northern California 1-AA Regional game pits the C.I.F.-Sac-Joaquin Section's Division 1 Champion Folsom Bulldogs (12-1) against the Pittsburgh Pirates (11-2), Champions of the C.I.F.-North Coast Section's Division 1.
On the flip side of all of these high quality games we have the California State 4-A Southern California Regional game.
Representing the C.I.F.-Southern Section in this game is their Division 8 Champion, St. Pius X-St. Matthias Academy Warriors. The Warriors in these "competitive equity" days that we live in, made the sectional playoffs despite going 1-9 in the regular season! They are now 5-9 after winning the Division 8 playoffs.
The other team in this California State 4-A Southern California Regional classic is the C.I.F.-San Diego Section's Division III Champion, the St. Augustine Saints.
The Saints were 0-10 in the regular season. How they made the playoffs is beyond me but the Saints also got on a playoff role and are now 4-10.
Having a 5-9 team playing a 4-10 team for the right to play in a state championship game seems a bit odd to me.
The winner awaits the winner of the of the C.I.F.-Central Section's Division III Champion Kerman Lions (12-2) versus the C.I.F.-Sac-Joaquin Section's Division 6 Champion Sonora Wildcats (11-2) at Long Beach City College on December 14th.
More from the net . . .
Cuban auto makers response
to the Tesla lines
True
Sunday was NFL day as usual but . . .
. . . I had to pitch in to start the
Christmas decorating
Once all of our UW ornaments,
thanks to Paul Sabolić's generosity,
were in place, I felt good
On Sunday afternoon, Laurie and
I had a date to see a play at the cozy
Santa Paula Theater Center
The play was a well acted and well
produced comedy parody of the
Sherlock Holmes mystery,
The Hound of the Baskerville
All the action took place on this small
stage with a packed house of about
85 souls all enjoying the play
GREAT FUN!
Dinner in Santa Paula at this
Mexican cantina was a MUST!
Rams won to improve to 6-6,
while New Orleans dropped to 4-8
Our last word from the net . . .
Good to know
We were truly blessed on
many levels over the
past five days!
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