My Favorite Dad Story

With both of my parents being Hokies, I have a ton of Tech sports related memories of my dad and I, but I think this is probably my absolute favorite one:

In 1998 we got tickets to watch Tech play Temple. Our seats were about one or two rows from the top of the East stands, so it took forever to get up there on the account that my parents had to make sure their 8 and 4-year-olds made it up there without doing anything dumb and/or getting lost.

So after a three quarters of multiple bathroom trips and food quests, my dad was glued to his seat in a game that was a lot closer than it was supposed to be. I'm sure all of you remember how that game ended: Ricky Hall dropping a pass to win the game, Temple upsetting the HEAVILY favored Hokies.

Needless to say, we were all less than pleased, but my dad (the biggest of fans) took it the worst. As we were waiting for the crowds to clear before starting the trek down, my dad was sitting in his seat just staring blankly at the now vacant field. After about five minutes, my brother (4 at the time) comes over, pats him on the head and says probably the worst thing he could have possibly said:

"It's okay daddy, it's only a game."

To this day I'm convinced that dad had to fight back the urge to throw my brother off the top of the east stands. But instead, despite probably wanting to sucker punch the child, just smiled, said thank you and kissed him on the forehead.

My dad is a passionate guy, a fiery Italian who takes Tech losses about as well as I do (ask my apartment wall how well I took the Pitt game...), but there he taught me a lesson that I will remember forever: some things are just more important, even when it doesn't seem like it.

Happy Fathers Day to him and all of you dads out there.