You know you're a true Mizzou Tigers fan when you can do a load of laundry solely devoted to your "golds".
When Sam and I went to Bartlett High School, everyone in our family was a true BHS Hawks fan. For me, going off to the University of Missouri for journalism school while Sam went off to the Army, I didn't really think our family would collectively be as crazy for black and gold. Only one out of five of us was at Mizzou and it is an entire seven hours from Chicago.
But they are. Our family is probably one of the goldest in the Chicago area, to be exact.
A Mizzou game is on TV? Dad and Mike are parked right in front of it texting me score updates if I'm not watching.
A pep rally or spirit event on campus? Mom's having me buy the entire family T-shirts. They each have so many spiritwear items, it has gotten to the point where she asks, "Well, is this one really cute? Because your brother really does have a lot of T-shirts, Allison." (She ends up buying it five minutes later.)
And the biggest event of the year: the Mizzou vs. kU game? Sam, all the way on her Army base in Georgia is sporting her Tiger gear. (She even ran into a kU fan that day and is still recovering from it. No blood was shed, thankfully.)
When students are rushing the field, my family is rushing the field in spirit as well. For Sam especially, having a team to root for while in the Army has been a shining pride of hers. Black and gold T-shirts? She definitely has her share. And all she wanted for Christmas? A stuffed Truman the Tiger, complete with his own football jersey and helmet. (Yes, I bought it for her.)
As our immediate family starts to move in different directions as the kids grow older, Mizzou is something we're always going to have in common. And as my parents always note, for a lot of college students today, the experience is different. Back in the "day", it was more common to live at home, work through school and do your four years, which both of my parents did in downtown Chicago because that's where they were from. That meant not a lot of spirit rallies, no football games and a much more skyscraper-filled college experience. But today? Going away to a rah-rah state school has amazed our immediate family at what the college experience can be like.
One in Georgia heading off to Afghanistan, one in Missouri and three in Chicago? Yeah, you can bet they'll all be matching on gameday, wearing their gameday gold and screaming "MIZ!" at the TV.
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