That hat makes the man. Or possibly the tongs. Or possibly it’s simply the joie de vivre that leads one to invite one’s friends to a stadium parking lot on a blustery Saturday afternoon for a pre-game tailgate party. Never mind that none of us had station wagons or pickup trucks, so we really didn’t have a tailgate. Or that the University of New Mexico football squad has a less than stellar skill set. Whatever, we had Miguel’s barbecue skills, and that was all that mattered Saturday afternoon. And Miguel was safe, with that spectacular hat.
There was apparently an unfortunate incident before I arrived involving The Man and a prohibited glass container and a certain prominent Albuquerque citizen whose name you might recognize.
Some us then actually went to the (American) football game, which our Lobos (“Everyone’s a Lobo, woof woof woof.”) lost in dramatic fashion. It was the first football game I have attended in more than two decades. I enjoyed myself immensely.
So is that cheer some kind of a local substitute for “when pigs have wings” as in: “When wolves bark, the Lobos will have a winning season”? š
There’s a hand gesture that goes with the Lobo cheer that is either embarassing or ironic, depending on how hip you are. They taught it to us at parent orientation. They also taught it to the students, where were simultaneously having student orientation. They promised us that, at the final orientation event, they would bring the students and parents together for a Lobo cheeroff competition of some sort.
We were mortified, grabbed the free sandwiches and all snuck out before we had to do the cheer.