News flash, people, we've arrived at the middle of December and our little town still has important football games ahead of it.
If you grew up a Midway Panther and went on to be a Baylor Bear, then your two football teams have a combined record of 21-5 this season as the Panthers prepare to play in the Class 4A Division I state championship game on Friday and the Bears look forward to meeting Washington in the Alamo Bowl.
Now that's a reason for happy hour.
Let me also point out that the Heisman Trophy winner resides in our town and will soon be practicing in order to improve on his best-player-in-the-nation status. These are high times indeed.
(This is the part where I attempt to tie this blog into something to do with restaurants in Waco. I'm still better at writing about football, so hang in there with me.)
Driving down Hewitt Drive this morning, I counted at least three restaurant marquees that celebrated our local football prowess. The Uncle Dan's sign celebrated RG3's Heisman victory, Bush's Chicken wished the Panthers good luck in the state championship game and George's saluted both.
I find this endlessly appropriate because these are some of the places where we discuss and enjoy our teams' successes.
And, if you'll permit me a moment of nostalgia, I'm reminded of my old high school days when my best friend Tim Webb and I made a ritual of eating Bush's chicken tenders on Fridays just before we walked over to see the Panthers play. Back then, it was called Golden Fried Chicken and the location was just beside the Midway campus where Taco Casa now resides, but it was essentially the same. Those things will forever be connected for me.
Where are the places that you associate with your football teams?
When it comes to Baylor, I can't help but think of the lunchroom table in elementary school. That's the place where I would argue, sometimes heatedly, with my friends about the respective merits of the Bear versus the Texas Tech Red Raiders. I've always been a Red Raider, there's not much that could change that. And that's also the place that, sort of metaphorically, has always kept me from being a whole-hearted Baylor fan.
That has changed slightly. Even though I purchase an Alamo Bowl ticket this week it doesn't make me a band-wagoner. Several factors this fall — our partnership with Oso's Oh So Good Frozen Yogurt, the WacoFork tailgate at all of the Baylor home games, etc. — have made me more sympathetic to the Baylor cause.
That's why both the Alamo Bowl and Midway's state championship game against Austin Lake Travis feel like dessert.
Midway wasn't supposed to be here. The Panthers looked good, but not great for much of September and October. Clearly they had better teams in the past few years. But something clicked in late October and Midway has surged to its best season ever. The Panthers will be playing for a state title for the first time tomorrow night. They will be underdogs against Lake Travis, but what else is new? We love our underdogs around here.
Speaking of, Robert Griffin III wasn't likely to win the Heisman when the calendar flipped from November to December. But his performance against Texas in the final game of the regular season gave voters pause to consider his body of work and they determined that it wasn't even close. He was the best.
We get to see him play at least one more time this year in the Alamo Bowl. Who knows if he'll stay for another season? RG3 himself might not even know yet. But make no mistake, the Bears' next game is a heaping helping of dessert.
One more bite: If Midway, quarterbacked by Kim Mulkey's son Kramer Robertson, wins a state championship, Mulkey's kids will have been parts of teams that won Midway volleyball, girls' basketball, softball and football state championships.
