My Life as a CU Buffalo Football Fan: Why We Won the National Championship

I have been a CU Buffalo football fan from 1979 to the present, and that is a long, happy, sometimes loud stretch of Saturdays in Boulder. I am the first to admit I have limited knowledge about what makes a great team. What I have is a heart full of memories and a conviction about why we won that national championship that I have carried with me for decades. So let me tell you my story, and my answer to the question so many people ask: why did CU win the title?

A Fan Since 1979

My life as a CU Buffalo football fan began in 1979 and it has never really stopped. I grew up in Boulder, went to school here, and the Buffs have been part of my identity for as long as I can remember. There is something about a home team that roots itself into who you are. The colors, the fight song, the roar of the crowd, the anticipation of a big game, it all becomes part of the fabric of your life.

And through all those years, I have watched CU Boulder be exactly what it has always been: a party school. It always has been, and it always will be. I say that with no judgment at all. That is simply part of the culture here, and honestly it is part of what makes it so lively and so much fun. You cannot separate the football Saturdays from the spirit of this campus, and I would not want to.

The Student Section Years, 1986 to 1989

My most precious football memories come from 1986 to 1989, when I spent my Saturdays in the Folsom Field student section with my sorority sisters. We cheered our hearts out for the Buffs and for Ralphie, the live running buffalo who thunders around the field before every game. There is nothing in college football quite like the moment Ralphie takes off, and we screamed for her every single time.

Those years were wild in the best way. We survived the famous cup fights, those chaotic moments when cups would fly through the student section and everyone would duck and laugh and keep cheering. And once, luckily, I was handed up over the crowd to safety. I still think about that day. It was loud and a little crazy, and I would not trade a second of it. That is what being a CU fan in the student section felt like, and it was glorious.

A Campus Worth Loving

Beyond the football, CU Boulder is a gorgeous campus, and anyone who has walked it knows that. The sandstone buildings, the mountain views, the golden light that falls across the quad in the fall, it is genuinely beautiful. And the history of this place is rich. The Heritage Center in Old Main tells the University's story beautifully, and if you have never been, I encourage you to go. It is a reminder that this campus, and this community, have deep roots.

The Movie That Made It All Click

For years I cheered for the Buffs and loved them, but I did not fully understand what I had witnessed in 1990. It was not until I saw a documentary years later that it all clicked. The film is about Sal Aunese, the CU quarterback who was taken from us far too young, and the season that followed in his memory. When I watched it, everything fell into place.

Why We Won: For Such a Time as This

Here is what I came to believe, and I hold it in my heart to this day. The reason CU won the national championship was an act of God. I believe He brought Sal Aunese and Coach Mac, Bill McCartney, together for such a time as that. There is a verse in the book of Esther, Esther 4:14, that says, "And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?" I have always felt that way about that team and that season. Everything came together, every person in place, for such a time as that.

Sal Aunese was the heart of that team, and when he passed away in September of 1989, the Buffs played on in his memory. Coach Mac carried that weight, and the whole program carried it together. I am not a football expert, and I will never pretend to be. But I know what I felt in my spirit, and I know what I saw. God got us that championship.

Promise Keepers and the Power of CU Football

And here is where the power of CU Football was really based, in my view. In 1990, Coach Mac founded Promise Keepers, a movement that was making men out of mice. That is where the strength of that program came from. It was not just X's and O's on a chalkboard. It was men being called to be better, to be accountable, to be men of faith and character. When a team is built on that foundation, something powerful happens on and off the field.

God got us the championship. Promise Keepers was making men out of mice, and that is where the power of CU Football was based. I believe that with my whole heart, and I always will.

Coach Prime and Today's Game

Today, watching the program try to spend its way back to glory with expensive coaches such as Coach Prime, it seems comical to me. Not because I wish the Buffs anything but the best, because I truly do. But because I know where our championship really came from, and it was not the price tag on a coach. It was something far more powerful, and far more precious, than money could ever buy. You cannot purchase what that 1990 team had. It was a gift.