Personal Narrative: The Cotton Bowl

In 2008, right after Christmas my family had the special experience to go to the Cotton bowl for the Missouri Tigers football game. The Cotton Bowl is held in Dallas, Texas, back then Jerry's world (Dallas Cowboys stadium) was in the process of being built, so the big Mega scoreboard wasn’t there. My whole family came down to Columbia on Christmas Eve and we sang our Christmas songs together and celebrated Christmas together in my grandparents house. There was a bunch of us in that house, I remember walking down the stairs one morning and all my older cousins were back in the corner of the basement and they were all sleeping together in that space, I would crack up every time I saw that. This time after Christmas instead of all going back

We got there before the team did and once they came out of the bus we got to get autographs and pictures with the players and coaches, my cousins and I even talked to some of them. Chase Daniel was my idol growing up and he was the starting Quarterback and I remember getting his autograph and talking to him. I also remember speaking to Sean Weatherspoon, he was the nicest, funniest, and humblest player on the team. Every time Weatherspoon would make a tackle all of the fans would always yell “spoooooonnnnn” as loud as they could. Weatherspoon now plays for the Arizona Cardinals in the NFL and has been very successful. My family and I always had a special dinner every night whether it was in the hotel or somewhere in town, that was one of the best parts of the trip for me. There was this big carpet shaped in a circle and on new year's eve after eating dinner we got the football out and we played a big family game, that was a real enjoyment until we got kicked off of it because we weren’t aloud to play there. The next day after that amusement was game

The game started pretty slow with no one scoring until the 2:30 mark in the first quarter when Tony Temple the running back ran for a 22-yard touchdown,we all go crazy, Tigers up 7-0. One of my favorite part of the tigers games is when we yell MIZ and the other side of the stadium yells ZOU, gives me the chills every time still to this day. Mizzou didn’t score again till right before halftime when the Tigers drove all the way down the field and finished it off with a Tony Temple 4-yard touchdown run, halftime score 14-0 Tigers. It was kinda overwhelming when we went to go get some food at halftime there was so many other tiger fans there, felt like millions of people there. After half time Big Mo (a big drum) was getting smacked and the black and gold ran out. The Tigers started out with the ball and went down the field and scored with a 4 yard Tony Temple run with just over 13 mins left in the 3rd quarter. Arkansas got the ball after that quick score and went down the field and threw an interception to WIlliam Moore for a 26 yard INT, I remember going crazy after that play with my cousin Curtis. The Razorbacks got the ball back and scored with a Darren McFadden 3 yard touchdown run and the 3rd quarter ended. After every third quarter Marching Mizzou plays the Missouri Waltz, it's a rich long tradition at Mizzou that everyone