Fresno State Bulldog Football: Once In The Blood, It's There for Life

There are certain teams that you grow up with, whether they're in the college ranks or whether it's a professional team, and not only do you stick with that team, but that team sticks to you.

Growing up in California's Central Valley, you have to drive quite a ways to get the chance to see a professional sports team. 

Three hours north to San Francisco to check out the Giants, A's or 49ers.  The same amount of time south to Los Angeles if you want to see the Lakers, Dodgers or Kings.

But nestled in the heart of the Central Valley was a mostly unknown school, California State University Fresno, better known as Fresno State.

As a kid, I learned a lot about sports from my grandfather.  I remember coming to the kitchen every morning and he'd always have the sports page out ready for me to read while I ate breakfast.  We'd talk about how Fresno State was doing, my take on the team that particular year and how I thought they would do.

Of course, as a young child, the usual answers are "they're going to win it all," because you really don't know any different.

That trend continued until I got a little older and was able to put arguments behind why I thought the team would do well or wouldn't have a good year at all.  I came to realize that he wanted me to be able to make arguments for or against what I was talking about.

Of all the teams I could have paid attention to, of all the teams that I could have been looking at in that Fresno Bee sports page, my attention was always on Fresno State football.  There was more excitement in their games than any baseball or basketball games that were going on.

I remember guys like quarterbacks Mark Barsotti and Trent Dilfer, running backs Anthony Daigle, Ron Rivers and Lorenzo Neal, and hard hitting linebacker Ron Cox.

But, there was one memory in particular that has lasted me a lifetime.  A memory of a small school in Fresno, CA standing up to one of the most storied teams in college football and not only not backing down but punching that team square in the mouth.

The year was 1992 and Fresno State had won a share of the conference title in their very first year in the Western Athletic Conference, finishing with an 8-4 record.  The Bulldogs knew they were going to play in a postseason bowl game, but where and against whom still remained unknown.

Fresno State didn't wait long before the announcement and when it was made on the long time home of Bulldog Football, 580 AM KMJ in Fresno, the airwaves went crazy.  Fresno State would face the University of Southern California in USC's own backyard, Anaheim, CA, in the Freedom Bowl.

I remember hearing the announcement and remember the feeling of my heart dropping immediately and thinking, "How are we ever going to beat USC?"

The city of Fresno and the Bulldog fans made the trip south to Anaheim in force.  Though there wasn't an official number of Fresno State fans, most said that of the 50,745 in attendance that at least 30,000 or more of that were clad in Bulldog red.

Though there were a lot of things said leading up to the game, none stood out more than the comments from USC quarterback Rob Johnson.  When asked about Fresno State being USC's opponent, Johnson said "we would never schedule [Fresno State] if it wasn't a bowl game.  We want to put them in their place."

As you can imagine, Bulldog head coach Jim Sweeney took that quote and put it up on the bulletin board for his team to read every single day.  It was a quote Johnson would live to regret.

The Trojan quarterback was intercepted twice by the Bulldog defense, a defense that was ranked 98th in the country coming in to the game, and was held to just 98 total yards passing.

In the end, Fresno State shocked the world as they upset USC 24-7, sending the entire city of Fresno into a frenzy.  It was a celebration the city hadn't seen since Fresno State won the 1982-83 NIT Championship.

The Jim Sweeney era ended in 1996, after a string of three straight losing seasons and thus beginning the Pat Hill era, an era that continues into the upcoming 2009 season.

Hill has ushered in guys like Billy Volek, David Carr, Bernard Berrian, DeWayne Wright, Michael Pittman, Clifton Smith, James Sanders and Bear Pascoe.

They've knocked off big schools like Wisconsin, Kansas State, Virginia and Oregon—just to name a few—not to mention almost upsetting USC again in 2005 while USC was the top-ranked team in the nation.  The Bulldogs would take the lead late in the fourth quarter before eventually falling 50-42.

Through my growing up in the Central Valley up through today, it's moments like these to make me realize that once Bulldog football was in my blood even as a kid, that it never really left.  I still remain a huge Bulldog fan.  Fresno will always be my hometown and I will always believe that "we'll do it this year."