GRAPEVINE – Welcome to Cincinnati Central, Texas version. Here is the Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center, where University of Cincinnati Coach Luke Fickell has parked his Bearcats since Sunday, and fans can find plenty of company.
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The hotel, which only a few days ago was holiday-heavy, is quickly morphing into a UC fan hub. The Gaylord's Christmas Village setup of toy trains circling Christmas trees, plastic reindeer replicas and dozens of poinsettia flowers are now surrounding a popup Bearcat spirit shop and fan station. And everywhere you turn, a Bearcat logo seems to have found a new home – on a sweatshirt, as a window decal, on a fan clutched in the chubby hand of a laughing toddler.
"They rolled out the red carpet," Lori Prater said. Her sons Garyn and Evan Prater grew up in Wyoming and now play for UC.
Prater and some of the other team parents are staying at the hotel which gives them ample opportunity to be publicly proud of their children. Sitting at the breakfast bar Thursday morning, Bearcat player Bryce Burton's parents, Franca and Tom Burton, wore matching T-shirts displaying his photo.
The Bearcats left this hotel earlier this morning for last-minute prep for Fridays' Cotton Bowl game against the Alabama Crimson Tide. The gathering Bearcat faithful are doing the same, though their Xs and Os look different.
To keep away the gameday eve jitters, some of the player's parents sat together and made plans to explore Dallas in this unseasonal 70-degree weather, maybe some shopping, perhaps going to a museum.
"Trying to stay calm," Prater said.
For fans, any calm you see is just a calm before the storm. Most are on the roads or in the skies racing to get to the hub and start their parties, orchestrating and scheduling tailgating and pep rallies, gearing up for the planned chaos on Friday afternoon at the game.
"I know that this team is going to make us proud," said Justin Gibson, a 2005 UC graduate who works with the Alumni Association. "We're at the mountaintop of college football right now."
Just a few years ago, all of this hubbub was unheard of. Gibson said all he had to do, back in the day, was show his student ID to get a ticket to a UC football game. But as the team has grown stronger, so has the fan base. On his 300-person Wednesday flight from Cincinnati to Dallas, he estimated 250 of the passengers were sporting UC gear.
Twelve-year-old Tyler Lantis, who can only remember good times for the Bearcats, called the environment at games as "so crazy,"
Tyler's family has held season tickets for decades. Though Tyler's UC football memories are mostly all of rowdy crowds and sprawling cheering sections, his grandfather Steve Wolf remembers a different era of UC football.
Wolf, who graduated from UC in 1970, said Nippert Stadium used to have a track around its border. He remembers circling the field, during games, pushing any one of his four children in a stroller to calm them.
"Even when nobody came, we did," Tyler's mom and Wolf's daughter, Julie Lantis, said.
Wolf and his wife, their four children and their children's spouses all graduated from UC. He's attended countless home games and has traveled to many others, including the UC vs. University of Alabama game in 1982, which UC lost 21-3.
But no one is talking about losing this time.
Some of the players, of course, hail from Cincinnati. Some might even recall those days of lesser Bearcat glory.
All of that is forgotten today in T.
When the team is coming and going from the hotel, during the brief moments they can be seen hopping on and off their buses, Prater said she loves seeing the fans cheer them – especially the little kids who look up to the players with wide, star-struck eyes.
That's one of the things Franca Burton – mom to Bryce – enjoys, too. Fans are doing their part.
But to these moms, it doesn't matter how big the fandom grows. Those men in jerseys on the field are still their sons.
"I still think of them as kids," Burton said.
You can watch the Cotton Bowl on Friday at 3:30 p.m. Eastern time on ESPN. The winner will advance to the national championship game in January.
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