Holiday Bowl Musings
By Kelly Kinas ‘17
For me, football season is never over. I love watching sports and cheering my team on, which happens to be one of the reasons why I chose USC. Lucky for me, USC football was good enough this year to be picked for the Holiday Bowl Game in San Diego, CA. It is a tradition of sorts with my family to go to a bowl game most winter breaks from either my current school or one of my parent’s Alma Maters. With San Diego being close to my hometown of Las Vegas, the plans were set and my family was going to watch our Trojans fight against the Cornhuskers.
First thing’s first, San Diego, California is BEAUTIFUL. My family and I stayed in Mission Beach and we got a condo legitimately on the ocean, so I was pretty much in paradise. There was a Nebraska family in the condo below us and we were perfectly cordial but the Trojans are just obviously so much better. We left on Christmas so we would have so extra time to relax on the beach, do some shopping, and eat some amazing food. I can’t imagine a better place for a bowl game and a vacation to be combined.
Next up, the really cool events surrounding the Holiday Bowl! Now we all know that there was a football, post-season game but one of my favorite things is talking and connecting with other trojans. Therefore, a really cool event was the parade and subsequent dinner with a lot of USC fans. There is the second-largest balloon parade in San Diego (Second only to the Thanksgiving Day Parade) and it is for the Holiday Bowl. It is right next to the ocean and the street was lined with USC and Nebraska fans alike. It was really cool meeting people there. BUT THEN: When the the absolutely fantastic, world-famous Trojan Marching Band started walking past, the University allowed the trojan fans to follow behind the band and sing along to the fight song and walk the rest of the parade route fighting on. Other than the win at the bowl game, truly realizing the scope of the Trojan Family by walking with people who graduated 5 years ago and 40 years ago was the best part of the trip. It made me exceedingly proud to attend the University of Southern California.
Day of the bowl game was pretty amazing because the parking lot was filled to the brim with tailgates. I tailgated with my family and some of my friends and their families. Also one of the guys who were doing the Color Guard joined our tailgate for a while so it was amazing to talk to him and ask him questions. Of course, when the band started walking around the parking lot towards the *official* USC tailgate, my entire family ran over to hear “Tusk” and other classics like “In the Stone”. If you haven’t figured it out by now, I really love marching bands.
Now the part that everyone knows about already: the actual Holiday Bowl Game, USC versus Nebraska. We were pretty high up because my family and I got our tickets through the USC lottery but it was still pretty cool because we could see everything that was happening on the field. The first (and hopefully only ever) front-flip into the end zone was hilarious from our vantage point. Like the Trojans we are, the last 5 minutes were the absolute worst because we always know how to lose a good lead. Luckily, we were strong enough to fight off the Cornhuskers at the last minute and keep the lead of 45-42. It was absolutely insane.
I would highly recommend going to a bowl if you ever get the chance. You meet so many amazing alumni, get to cheer on your team together, and I always get nachos at football games so you can adopt that too. USC is so special in that sense because everyone is always so willing to talk and high five after touchdowns. We’re really lucky and after going to two USC bowl games in a row, I will always and forever Fight On.
