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Adventures at Camp Randall

"Forsan et haec olim meminisse iuvabit."

That's what I kept telling myself at 12:15 this morning when I thought maybe I would have to sleep in Camp Randall.

OK. I was saying it English, not Latin. It's a line from the last verse of Virgil's "Aeneid."

Many scholars translate that line as "Perhaps someday we will look back upon these things with joy."

My Craig High School Latin teacher, Mike Grogan, had that quote inscribed on Parker pens for graduating fourth-year Latin students. What a great guy he was.

He taught us that it meant, "Someday it will be funny to remember even these things." Pretty fitting way to describe the high school experience, no?

Anyway, I wasn't laughing early this morning in Camp Randall, even though I could plainly see the situation was funny. It was after midnight, I was cold and tired, and I couldn't get out of the stadium.

Thanks to a short failure of the Internets, I was the last journalist out of the press box after last night's Brodhead/Juda vs. Kewaunee football game. Other than a couple cleaning people, I also apparently was the last human out of the stadium.

The gates were locked, and for a cold 20 minutes or so, I thought I was going to have to call campus police to rescue me.

Apparently the security staff thought anyone smart enough to get media credentials also is smart enough to find her way out of a dark, locked football stadium.

Eventually I did, although it was a pretty creepy walk.

Already this morning, I'm laughing about it. Looking back, my only regret is that I didn't run out onto the dark field and do cartwheels or something.

And, while they don't want to hear it today, I know someday the students at Brodhead and Juda high schools will look back fondly on last night's game. It takes the wind right out of you to have a loss at a state championship. I still remember how bad that felt.

But I don't remember that feeling very often. In the times when I do think back to those days--such as last night when I interviewed Brodhead/Juda fans at Camp Randall--I remember how much fun it was to go to high school football and basketball games and what a sense of camaraderie we had. Hockey, tennis, wrestling, gymnastics. What great athletes my friends were.

So, Cardinals, go ahead and be sad for a few days. Nothing wrong with that. But I bet, years from now, you'll remember ridiculous fur hats, crimson body paint and a whole lot of cheering.

Forsan et haec olim meminisse iuvabit.