I have seen plenty of movies about sports teams that did not drive me to be a fan of that team.

The movie “Miracle” about the 1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey team beating the Soviets on their way to a Gold Medal is probably my favorite movie themed around athletic endeavors.   Speaking of which, I spoke the rights about that team and that movie in a guest column once.  I will pull it out of mothballs and place it here soon.

Though I have the warmest of affections for that movie and what it meant to me, I still don’t give a hootie-hoot about the game of hockey.  As athletes, I appreciate what hockey players have the ability to accomplish…just don’t ask me to watch.

Still, more times than not, when I mention my dear wife, Carrie’s, and my sincere affinity for watching the Marshall Thundering Herd play football, most folks eventually ask if I was ultra-inspired by the movie about the 1970 Marshall University Football Team’s plane crash and the resiliency of a town that was portrayed in  “We Are Marshall”.

I was inspired by “We Are Marshall”.  I’d say anyone whom ever laced up a pair of cleats and understands the team dynamic that goes into playing the game of football was inspired…or depressed.

No…that wasn’t it for me.  How we got around to following Marshall football is really a simple story.  I think it is a neat and even kind of sad story…the 1970 plane crash notwithstanding.

My Dad was a football coach when I was growing up.  I was his shadow from the time I walked onto a practice field.  The game has never left me.

I had hoped to one day coach my old high school team to better days.  Things have been rather woeful at the old alma mater for a very long time.  I had a plan to lift them out of the bowels of lethargy, though many administrations there have made it clear over the years I am not a welcome sight.

While I love the game, it does not drive me.  I have never been one to chase down a coaching job for the sake of being a football coach.  I already know I can be one.  I know what it takes. I last coached in 1994 as I was finishing up my college education.

The school where I am employed does not play football.  We are too small.  And that is okay.  Like I said, the school up the road with the field I ran up and down is the only high school football coaching job I ever wanted.

With all that said, I have never gotten the game out of my system.  I still love it.  I have never lost  the desire to give a team my all, even though I was denied that.

My dear Carrie and I vacation in North Carolina every chance we get.  To get there we travel Interstate 64 East from Indiana to Kentucky to West Virginia and then make a route changing turn In Charleston, WV.  I could not tell you how many times we passed right by the exit for Hunting, WV, the town where Marshall University is located.  We were racing for the coast…not the hills of Appalachia.

Then one year, on the return trip from a summer visit, we were doing everything we could to stretch just a few more hours into our vacation.  When we passed the Huntington exit, we pulled off to look around.  It was mid to late July.  I told Carrie it was our duty to find the stadium where the Thundering Herd play football.  After all, I had seen it many times on television.

How fortunate and blessed we were to find that Joan C. Edwards Stadium, “The Joan”, was holding “pick your seat day”…a season ticket opportunity where folks come in and pick the season tickets they want.  Some folks like to sit low.  Some folks like to sit higher in a stadium to get the vantage point they desire.  Carrie and I strolled in and looked around.

There was no holding me back.  I was not there to buy season tickets, but you better believe I did Carpe Diem right and made my way to standing on the field so Carrie could take my picture on it.  Wish I could find it.

I was impressed with the place.

What happened next was the stuff of legend.

Carrie and I found a place to get a bite to eat.  The folks in the establishment were all talking about Marshall Football.  We went to some downtown shoppes.  They were talking football.  Everywhere we went people were talking football…and they were serious about sizing up the season.  I could tell they were an informed bunch.  They were also very sincere about the whole thing.  We weren’t subjected to any hot-aired bravado that would have turned us off in a heartbeat.  What we heard and what we felt was a town’s heartbeat that was close to their team.  Heck, the fire plugs in town are painted green and white…the school colors.

I looked at Carrie and told her we needed to get back in the fall to see a game.  We did just that.  We saw Marshall play Southern Mississippi on an odd college football Sunday night game.  That was 2007.

We have been back ever since.  In 2010 we had season tickets and made it to four of the six games…the biggie that year was the last time they hosted big-brother… the West Virginia Mountaineers.  You couldn’t fit anyone else in that stadium with a shoehorn.  The Herd lost 24-21 in overtime.  They had a 21-6 lead int the 4th quarter.  The townsfolk still talk about that one too.

Since we have found the Herd we go to two, three, maybe four games a year.  They played a track meet up at Purdue two years ago.  51-41 I think it was.  The Herd got beat.

This year they are not supposed to get beat.  The schedule is cream-puff soft and they have a very solid football team.  Their cream-puff schedule is not completely their fault.  The conference they play in has gone through many changes, just like the rest in college football.

Game day in Huntington is fantastic.  There’s a buzz in the air.  Folks are feeling good.  The local paper is great.  They have a curmudgeon of a sports columnist who would complain about the rope at his own hanging, but he is still a great deal of fun to read.  He knows his stuff.

The fans are ready for the 2014 season.  I too am ready.  Like they say in Huntington: Go Herd or Go Home!

Now that is speaking the rights.