It all began on a frigid Saturday morning. Tasha and I were getting Emma ready for the biggest game of her life (to this point in her life, this statement is entirely true). We got her all decked out in her BYU blue and white. She looked dang cute and after double checking that we had binky, gloves, hats, tickets, and diaper bag we headed out. We parked in our usual spot underneath the Joseph F. Smith Building (underground parking is definitely the way to go) and began the trek to the stadium. We were all jumping and getting excited as we got nearer to Lavell Edwards Stadium and could hear the band play. We got to the street light directly across from the stadium and I got my student ID out so I was ready to rush into the stadium to find our seats (we were about 15 minutes early).
I turned to my wife Tasha and said, "Can I get my ticket?"
She reached into her back pocket, then her front pocket, then her coat pocket, etc.... The tickets were nowhere to be found. I thought she was joking because you don't just lose your BYU vs. Utah tickets. She looked with frantic in her eye and said, "I really can't find them."
She retraced her steps back to the car searching for them all along the way, while I went to the stadium to check the diaper bag and every possible spot they could be. After ripping the diaper bag apart (almost literally) I had no luck finding them. I called her to check on the update and she too was not able to find them. Tasha rushed home to retrace her steps and see if she could find them there. Again, no luck.
She came back and we met just outside the parking garage. Tasha felt terrible and I was sad that she felt so bad. It wasn't the end of the world, but it felt pretty devastating. We dejectedly walked back to the car to go home so we could listen to it on the radio and watch the ESPN Gamecast of the game.
We got home and got everything set up on the computer. I called Jen Robertson (our BYU chum and avid fan) to let her know why we weren't there.
Jen said, with the roaring crowd in the background, "they're under the seat."
Thinking she was referring to them being under the car seat, I assured her we had searched everywhere and they weren't under the seat.
She again said, "no, they're under the seat. There are two tickets here and I think they are yours."
She kindly went to the ticket gate and asked if the tickets had been used. Amazingly, they had not been. We excitedly rushed to the game (now almost halftime).
Somebody, in great kindness, had found our tickets and put them on our seats for us. They could easily have been sold for a lot of money (3rd row seats to the biggest game of the year were most definitely a premium). But, out of honesty, kindness, and integrity someone made our day. Only at BYU!
So, the game was actually a defensive battle until the final several minutes. The Utes used a steady drive (converting several 3rd downs) to take the lead 10-9 with 1:38 ish left. Seemingly taking all the air out of the crowd, it looked like another improbable Ute victory. After a sack and a couple of incomplete passes, the Cougars faced 4th and 18 from their own 10ish yard line. Hall was back to pass, ran to the right and launched the ball to a wide open Austin Colie for a first down to the Ute 45 yard line. We knew we had it from there. A few plays later, Harvey Unga ran an 11 yard touchdown to put us up by 5. Then a 2 point conversion led to the final score of 17-10. Another BYU-Utah classic (for the last 5 minutes anyway).
Emma's first was a great one and we were very grateful for the kind and honest person who returned our tickets instead of selling them. Go Cougars!
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