Grandma Goes Orange!!!!

Yesterday I took my Grandma to her first ever Illini Basketball Game. Mark and I actually have season tickets this year so I'd been telling her that I was going to take her. It worked out that she was able to come to the game with me yesterday against Penn State.

Let me start off by saying she is the BIGGEST Illini fan ever! I never really followed college basketball until Mark and I met. He loves all sports and so I started watching basketball. We went to a game the year before the Illini got really good and I loved it. Just being in the environment of Assembly Hall during a game is indescribable. Of course the next year, the Illini were absolutely awesome. I can remember calling my Grandma during every game talking about how the game was going and how they were playing. She loved Dee Brown (she always called him "brownie"). During the Final Four game Mark and I bought her an orange t-shirt and drove down to watch the game with her. She was so excited. She had her Orange cheer sign in tow and she was a hoopin' and a hollerin' for them to win! The year after Deron Williams and Dee Brown left, Grandma made Mark and I an Illini scrapbook. She cut all articles about the basketball team out of the newspaper and put them in a scrapbook for us (she's 84 years old!) and she did a wonderful job! I'll treasure it always!

Anyway, back to my story...

So as you can tell she is a HUGE fan! I was so excited to be able to take her! She came all decked out in her orange shirt and her orange beads (yep, Grandma had beads on - so cute!). She really had a great time. She was clapping with the music, clapping for them when they did good and even boo-ing when the rest of the crowd boo-ed for bad calls! I think I even heard a "ya-hoo" in there! It was just really fun to see her get so excited! Even though they lost, I know she had a wonderful time. Grandma continues to tell me how she can't even explain how much fun it was! She said it was indescribable... the environment with all of the people and all of the orange! I'm glad I got to be part of that experience with her and share in that fun!!!