The Way I See It:
$175 well spent

BY KEITH JAASMA
Special to the Rice News

Like a lot of people, I grumbled when I showed up at last weekend’s homecoming game against the University of Houston and found out the tickets were $35 per person, even for kids. I polled all my kids, and while my 8-year-old daughter indicated she didn’t want to go and my 6-year-old daughter wasn’t sure why she was being asked, my 3-year-old son said he wanted to go. My wife, Amy, pointed out that our schedules might not work out where we could all go again this season, so we decided to go ahead and drop $175 for the five tickets. Had we thought about it for 10 more minutes and had my wife known the game was on TV, we probably wouldn’t have gone. I’m glad we didn’t think about it.

	AMY JAASMA
	Owls running back Sam McGuffie lent his helmet to 3-year-old Henry Jaasma for a photo op after the homecoming game.

All three of my kids, even the one who didn’t want to go, had a great time. Before the game, some friendly volleyball players painted my son’s face and put temporary “R” tattoos on my daughters’ faces, and basketball players gave them autographed posters. The exciting game, ending with a three-point victory over UH, made us all very happy. Winning and Daddy not being a grump afterward will do that (though my kids did experience the phenomenon of Daddy being rendered speechless by fear several times in the fourth quarter).

After the game, we waited around for the trophy presentation to finish because we figured it would be just as easy to walk across the field to get back to the parking lot as to walk around the concourse. After briefly basking in the glow of the celebration, we noticed Owls running back Sam McGuffie getting his picture taken with a few fans and then giving some interviews. While Sam seemed pretty subdued, when I asked if my son, Henry, could get his picture with him, his face lit up upon seeing my son, and he could not have been nicer. Sam asked Henry if he wanted to wear his helmet, and we now have a photo of a beaming Sam McGuffie and my son with Sam’s oversized helmet on his head that Henry will treasure for years to come. He couldn’t stop talking about it on the way home, couldn’t wait to tell his grandparents and couldn’t stop giggling when he saw the photo. Now he talks about how he wants to play football for Rice, without even having to be prompted by Daddy to say so.

This is why I root for Rice (besides the fact that it’s my alma mater). No matter how much I complain, no matter how much heartbreak we live through as fans, there are games like the homecoming victory and moments like that that make me proud of my alma mater and the student-athletes (yes, Rice has real student-athletes) that represent it. Even in our tough years (and this may still turn out to be a good one) there is still that payoff at least a few times a year because Rice does things the right way. And if nothing else, we have quality young people doing things the right way. I want us to win as much as possible like everyone else, but win or lose, I will always be a fan.

Thank you, Owls, and thank you, Sam McGuffie.

$35 was still too much for a ticket, but our experience at homecoming was priceless.

— Keith Jaasma is a 1992 graduate of Rice and a member of Will Rice College.