First date was a University of Louisville football game, Memphis the opponent, snowing that night, Lee Corso coaching, John Madeya taking the snaps.
Little did she know this would be first of many UofL football games, as well as basketball and baseball, to follow over the years if she continued to tolerate the observer. UofL spring games, scrimmages, groundbreakings, ribbon cuttings, memorabilia, prints, face paint, car flags, Cardinal gear, women’s games, soccer, day trips, caravans, NCAA tournaments, bowl games … and 10 football coaches.
She was attending the University of Kentucky at the time, drawing the observer to Lexington two or three times a week. After dining and wining her on a Valentine’s Day at the Campbell House in Lexington. the observer would get up the nerve to propose, but have to wait two or three weeks for her response. She would finally said yes, thankfully, and his life would never be the same.
She would switch her allegiance completely to the Cardinals after two or three years, coming to share the observer’s passion for Louisville athletics in what has become a decades-long experience.
Flowers, candy, a card and another gift await her this Valentine’s Day as she returns from work. She doesn’t want to go out, wants to watch the UofL-Temple basketball game. So they will order pizza and head for the man cave, hoping the nine-day layoff has had a minimal impact.
Flowers, candy, cards, all just emblematic of a much more lovely anniversary — yep, 41 years, appropriately all red, all the time. Thank you. (And Go Cards!)