Why am I such a huge Boise State Broncos Football Fan?

So I get this question a lot...in fact more that a lot. I’m walking around with my Boise State shirts on or starting on of my many arguments in sports and it always leads to the question....Why am I such a huge Boise State Broncos Football Fan? How can someone living in Florida, going to college in Alabama be such a fan of a school wayyyyyy up there? How did it start?

It all started in around 2003, I had been a huge fan of Football growing up and I watched the NFL all the time. I was a huge Denver Broncos fan and since they won their Super Bowls in 1998 and 1999 they hadn’t been doing to much. It seemed like lately they kept getting to the playoffs and losing…much like there doing now haha. So I was watching a lot more college football that season. 

I had watched college football before 2003, mostly when I was little but I never really got into it. My mom was a  Florida Gators fan so when I was little I cheered for them. I remember watching Danny Werfel playing in the Sugar Bowl back in the day and cheering for them. However over time I just got annoyed with the Gators. I don’t really know why, I was too young to know of the annoying fans they and other SEC teams have (:D), I just kind of grew tired of cheering for them. All I really remember is they kept losing a lot and people kept talking about how awesome they were any ways and it just kind of got annoying. Kind of how the SEC is now lol.

It was around that time, 1997 that I started watching more NFL football then college football. I don’t know if it was the whole blue and orange thing that just transitioned over, but when I stated watching NFL more and more I really liked the Denver Broncos. I remember it was mostly for there spiked stripes they had on their uniform that I liked them the most.

 Back in 1997, no other teams had uniforms like that, to me as a little kid that was the coolest thing ever, it really suck out to me. No other team has stripes like that and I remember thinking how cool it was! I’ll never forget buying my first football jersey. It was a John Elway Navy Blue Home jersey with the orange spiky stripes on it and showing all my friends at school. “Look at how awesome this jersey is! No other team has stripes like this!” I though it was the coolest thing. These days EVERY team has some kind of pointy and goofy stripe on there uniform, but back in 1997, the Denver Broncos were the only ones…and they became my team that year.

That’s how I really started pulling away from college football that year, The Denver Broncos were doing good, the Gators were losing games and I just kind of transitioned over to just watching pro football. So in 1997, the first year I started cheering for the Denver Broncos, They won the Super Bowl. I remember every thing that happened that season like it was yesterday. I thought it was awesome how they were a wild card team and had to win three games to get to the big game. No team had done that since the Raiders way before I was even born. 

The Playoffs, First Game was the Broncos vs. the Jacksonville Jaguars. December 27, 1997, A lot of my family lives in Jacksonville, so you can understand how much heat I got walking in to that house on Christmas weekend with a Denver Broncos jersey on! I didn’t care though, they were my team and I wanted them to win more than any thing! Me on one couch with my Broncos jersey on, and my entire family on the other with there Jaguar stuff on. I still have pictures of that Christmas of all the Jaguar stuff they got me and tried to get me to wear! End of story….I stood my ground and the Broncos pulled out the win, 42-17.


Next up for the Broncos was the Kansas City Chiefs, The Champions of the AFC West, the 13 and 3 Chiefs. This game took place in Kansas City, Arrowhead Stadium, a place were the chiefs DO NOT lose at when it gets late in the season and it gets cold. The Chiefs owned that stadium in December & Januarys. A few weeks before this game the Broncos had played the Chiefs in the same stadium and lost 24 to 22. Kansas City was the one of the best teams in the NFL that season and no one was giving the Broncos a chance. I sat there that day and watched my Broncos and the Chief play there hearts out….and the Broncos pulling out the 14 to 10 win. I couldn’t believe it! My team was just one game away from the Super Bowl! But who would they have to play? The Pittsburgh Steelers.



Watching the AFC Championship game was the best, Broncos vs. Steelers, My mom grew up and Pittsburgh and her sister, my aunt lives there now. So I was in the situation that I was in two weeks ago….my family against me! Me a little kid, all alone fighting for my team to pull out the win! Just like in the case of the Chiefs game, the Steelers had home field advantage, and they DIDN’T just not lose cold weather games at home….they didn’t lose home games period! And just like the Chiefs, it was a few weeks earlier that that Broncos played the Steelers and the Steelers won the game, 35 to 24. So there I was again, me on one couch in that same John Elway jersey I had worn for the past two games and my mom on the other couch with all her steeler stuff on, waving that annoying terrible towel around that the steeler fans are know for and my aunt calling the house every five minuets during that game! At the end of a back and forth and stressful game, the Broncos, my team, pulled out the win, 24 to 21. So that was it! I stood my ground, with stood every thing from my family….my team was going to the Super Bowl!


I’ll never forget in school how much heat I got for being a broncos fan! And as always, I brought most of it on my self, mainly because the only reason I liked the team was because of the stripes on their uniforms! Well, in 1997 Bret Favre was the BIG DEAL. Every kid was a Bret Favre fan. I cheered my heart out the season before in the Super Bowl wanting the Patriots to win just because I was so sick of hearing the Bret Favre kids at school. So, the 1997 Super Bowl hits….and it’s the team with the cool stripes vs. the Green Bay Packers and the Bret Favre fans. 

I was so ill on Super Bowl Sunday. I watched the game in my bed so sick with my mom sitting there giving me play by play updates on what was going on in that game while I laid there barley being able to see. I was how ever able to get up enough stregenth and watch the final drive. Watch John Elway lead the Denver Broncos down that field to take the lead and the victory…31 to 24. I walked back in to school the next day, half sick with that biggest smile on my face, just to say…..what now Favre Fans!

That is how the Denver Broncos became my team. The next season the Broncos nearly went undefeated, only losing 2 games at the end the season and winning yet another Super Bowl! The Broncos were my team and I had completely forgotten about college football.

So why is all this important and relating to Boise State? Well I am getting to that! After those two years as a Broncos fan and every thing I had to go though listening to people say my team was not going to win and not they were no good, I started to like the underdog teams. 

I really liked being the one guy against every one, I really started liking the underdog teams like the Broncos were. That’s how I became a big Cardinals fan in football, they were ALWAYS the underdog.

The 2000’s came on in and I was really getting in to sports at this point. Watching a lot of different sports and finding the teams that I liked. Just because I was from Florida every one wanted me to cheer for those teams. Well I didn’t want to. I wanted to watch that sports and find teams that I enjoyed. 

With the Denver Broncos doing poorly, I got back in to college football around 2003. I was searching for a team. The Gators were horrible that year and I just got sick of Gator people. They just annoyed me. I remember seeing Michigan State and even though they were not very good, I liked them a lot for some reason. It was in 2004 that I found out the horrors of the BCS and how they randomly pick two teams to play for the national championship. The 2004 season was the year of the four unbeaten teams and I remember how stupid I though that was. I refused to watch the National Championship that year and since then I have only watched two National Championship games out of boycott, the 2005 and 2008 games. I felt so bad for Auburn and thought they should have been playing USC for the National Championship. As much as I felt for them, for some reason they just were not the team for me and search continued.

The 2004 college football season was here and I still had no idea who I was going to cheer for. As with the Denver Broncos and what made me become such a fan, I was looking for something unique. Something that no other team had, just like the Denver Broncos and there stripes. 

I don’t even remember how I heard about it. I think it was just two random kids talking at school one day, but I heard of a team that had a blue football field. I though that had to be a joke. No way would a team have an all blue football field. I didn’t even know what team it was and either did the kids, it was just some team with a blue football field. I though they were out of there minds.

Then comes the day I discovered the team that would become my team. The Boise State Broncos. It was late in the college football season and I still hadn’t found a team. Boise State was not at all popular back in 2004. None of their games were ever on TV so I had never seen them before.

It was at a sports bar on one college football Saturday and that is were I saw my first Boise State game. Sports bars get all the college games because they have all the college football packages and satellites and what not. So for what ever reason on one random Saturday I was in a sports bar for lunch with my mom and I glanced up at the TV right above our table and there it was…..the blue football field! 

I don’t even remember who Boise State was playing that day or what the final score was….all I remember thinking while I stared at that TV for two hours was…well I’ll be dammed….its a blue football field. I didn’t even know what team it belonged to. It was just there and it was blue. The more I watched, the more I learned, The team that owned the field was the Boise State Broncos. 

The Broncos, another football team called the Broncos. They dressed in blue and orange just like the Denver Broncos and they had the same spiked uniform stripes as the Denver Broncos…but so did every team by that point. The name Broncos, the blue and orange….and they had an entire blue football field. It was the coolest thing that I had ever seen. The more I watched the more I found out. The broncos were apart of a conference called that WAC. I had never heard of it. I though it’s just another crummy team in some small conference that no one knows about, ill never get to watch them again. One thing caught my eye. Boise State was in the middle of trying to pull off an undefeated season. An underdog team from a no name conference that no one had ever heard of was trying to run the table and go undefeated and mess up the BCS….and did I mention they HAD A BLUE FOOTBALL FIELD?!?!?! 

I had found my team. Boise State was never on TV and I never had any special college football packages or satelliteTV so I was never able to really keep up with them except for when they were rarely shown on sports center. They did get on TV one time late in the season in a game against San Jose State. It was in San Jose so I didn’t get to see the blue field again, but what I did see was amazing. A 56 to 49 double overtime thriller in which two teams each put up over 500 yards of total offence. 

I saw a team fight its heart out to keep an undefeated season alive. Yes, this was my team! In the end the Boise State Broncos finished the season 11 and 0 and went on to play Louisville in the Liberty Bowl. I remember how I thought that they, much like auburn, was getting screwed. What is the point of an undefeated season if you can’t win the National Championship? I was soon shut up as Boise State was beaten by Louisville 44 to 40, and once again all the kids told me to keep quiet about Boise State and how they were no good.

I didn’t listen; I told them next season you just wait and see, Boise is going to do it again! Well in 2005 that did not happen….not even close. In their first game of the season Boise traveled to play a big conference team. An SEC team. The Georgia Bulldogs. They got killed, 48 to 13. The week after they played Oregon State. Another big conference team. Again they lost. Was this really my team? Was this the team I stuck up for? This team is horrible. This team has no heart….this was not that team I saw a year ago fighting for an undefeated season and giving Louisville every thing they could handle. Again I had to face my friends at school…they said I told you so. “Why don’t you just pick a big conference team to cheer for?” They said. “Boise is a crummy team and can’t compete with the big schools” After hearing that. I stuck with them. They were my underdog team.

Those were Boise’s two big games on TV that season. With Boise not on TV that much it was so hard to keep up with them, but I did my best. As the season went on the Broncos started winning and winning again and finished the season 9 and 3. Not too bad. 

The bowl game that year…The MPC Computers Bowl. Live from Boise Idaho at Broncos Stadium. The Broncos had their bowl game at home, on the blue field. This was the first time I had seen an entire game on the blue field since that day in the sports bar. Boise State vs. Boston College….on the blue! I could not wait! Excitement died down quick as Boston College jumped out to at 27 to 0 lead and carried that into much of the 3rd quarter.

Boise was getting thrown around on their own field. The awesome, cool, amazing blue football field. Just as I was starting to doubt things, The Broncos showed me that heart that made me a fan of them from day one. The never say die, go for broke attitude that I love in my sports teams. The Broncos stormed back into the game, with one minute left in the 3rd quarter the Broncos refused to give up and scored and minutes later scored again. Before I knew it the score was Boston College 27 and Boise State 21. The Broncos, my Broncos were one touchdown away from winning the game! 

Just like last season in the double overtime game and in the Liberty Bowl, A Boise State game was coming down to the last play…and I was loving every second of it. Boise was not the best team, but every time I watched them they had games coming down to the last play. They were not blowing any one out. They were doing one thing. The only thing that I cared about. They were showing heart, refusing to give up and playing until the last play of the game. That’s why they were my team……that and they had a cool blue football field :P.

In the end the Broncos drove down to the 10 yard line. Getting ready to score and perform the improbable comeback….just like the Liberty Bowl the year before, Boise State Quarterback Jared Zabranskey threw an interception in the back of the end zone that ended the game….DAMN IT! That was the only thing I could yell….My mom whips the door to my room open. “What’s going on in here?!” She said. “Eh, Boise State just lost there bowl game on the last play just like last year” I replied. My mom says “Boise State? Oh that weird team with that field?” 

That’s all the Boise State Broncos was to any one. Just that weird team with that weird field. But you know what? That’s why I loved them. They were a weird team from a weird conference with a weird looking football field with some pretty weird players with some pretty weird names. Jerard Rabb, Legedu Naanee, Drisan James, Ryan Putnam, Jared Zabranskey, Vinny Perretta, Marty Tadman, Orlando Scandrick. Who had ever heard of these players with these goofy names? I had. They were my team. No one knew who they were. They weren’t from a big conference. No one cared about them. No one except me. Just like the Denver Broncos a few years before…It was EVERYONE against me and my team….and I loved it that way!

Here comes the 2006 College football season! Every one was talking about USC, Texas, Florida, Oklahoma, Florida, and Alabama. Every one was waiting to see what the new big schools were going to do. Not me. I could care less. I was ready to watch Boise State. Winners or Losers, I was ready to see my team play there hearts out like they do every week. Boise State’s first game on TV was in week two. Boise State vs. Oregon State. Boise State playing a big conference school. I had never seen Boise State beat a big conference school. Since I became a fan…They had lost to Louisville, Georgia, Boston College and this Oregon State team. Yea I was nervous about this game! Boise State vs. Oregon State on the blue turf that I loved so much! It was this game I discovered a player by the name of Ian Johnson. Single handled, he tore the Oregon State defense apart. Boise State had won the game on the blue. 42 to 14.

Boise had finally beaten a big conference team. I walked around school all the time wearing my “Boise State 4-Time WAC Champions” and “Boise State 5-pete WAC Champions” Shirts. My friends would always say, “Yea WAC Champions, 5 in a row that’s nice, but they can’t beat any one good.” Well now they had. I loved this team. They were so much fun to watch and they had an awesome football field and now they were winning. 

Boise continued to roll through opponents that season, Wins by scores of 36-3, 55-14, 49-10, & 38-7. The Broncos also had there heart attack games too, 17-10 and 23-20. I’ll never forget the 23-20 game. It was against San Jose State. The first team I remember Boise playing and having an awesome game against that really made me notice them. This weekend I was in Orlando visiting relatives. It was thanksgiving break from school and my mom ran us up to Orlando for thanksgiving. This game was not on TV…I had to survive watching the ticker run by the bottom of the screen giving me score up dates while every one else watched the gators game. Boise had to score a touchdown, two point conversion and later got a field goal to win the game….that was my team….never giving up! Of course me being loud about the Broncos while every one was trying to watch their big conference games on the TV prompted thoes many questions I always get. Why are you cheering for them? Do you even know what state Boise is in? Who does Boise even play? Isn’t Boise that team with that weird looking football field? The same things I was hearing from my friends, I was now starting to hear from my relatives. As I do with every one, I engaged with several arguments and I stood my ground and they stood there’s. It ended with them telling me, “Wait until Boise plays a good big team again, see what happens!”

That day would be here before I knew it. The Boise State Broncos, The weird team with that weird football field had finished the season 12 and 0 and was going to the Fiesta Bowl. The Biggest game in Boise State Bronco history against the toughest opponent in Boise State History…The Oklahoma Sooners! The seven time national champions that had just come off of several national championship seasons and a few national championship game appearances. A 10 and 2 Oklahoma team that would have been in the National Championship that season had it not been for a bad call going against them in a game against Oregon earlier that season. Boise States first real test…A National Championship Caliber team. The ultimate “I told you so!” game for me and every one against me that wanted to see Boise State fall, not because they disliked Boise State…they mostly wanted me to shut up! haha I more I talked about how Boise should be in the National Championship and not another random bowl game was getting every one fired up and the more fired up they got the more I loved it! 

The 2006 National Championship Game saw the 12 and 0 Ohio State Buckeyes playing the 12 and 1 Florida Gators and I was PISSED! Boise was 12 and 0…..Ohio State was 12 and 0. The only two undefeated college football teams that season. Yet Boise State was getting left out for a one loss Florida team. Running around in Florida saying that Boise State should be in the Championship and not Florida was never a good thing! Especially when I had a rhyme going. See this season Boise State beat Oregon State, Oregon State beat USC, USC beat Arkansas, Arkansas beat Auburn, and Auburn beat Florida. There for I felt that Boise State was better than the gators. None the less, the Broncos got the bowl that they did and it was put up or shut up time!

January 1st, 2007. The Tostitos Fiesta Bowl Game, The underdogs Boise State vs. The National Power House…..Oklahoma. I was so excited for this game. Me and my mom went to the store and got Tostitos and dip for the game and my mom made me a chocolate cake for dessert. A cake that was completely covered head to toe in blue icing. White icing stripes down the cake and orange icing for the end zones. A Blue football field cake. It was awesome! 

Just me and my mom watching the game…and this time she was on my side. She wanted the broncos to win as much as I did. They were no longer just “Boise State? Oh that weird team with that field?” They were my team.

Like every year I try to watch all the bowl games, no matter how important. I’ll never forget the night I was watching FSU play UCLA in the Emerald Bowl and my mom thinking I was watching a High School football game. “Oh this is a bowl game? No one is in the stands and its so quiet I though you were watching high school football” Then the fiesta bowl game came around. The stands JAM PACKED. A Nationally Televised game on FOX, one of the few Boise games I was able to watch on TV that season. The lights, the fireworks, the opening videos and my mom made the comment “Wow, now this is a bowl game, This is a pretty big game for Boise huh?”

Before I knew it the Broncos jumped out to a 14 to 0 lead over Oklahoma. My mom jumped up and garbed the phone and told me to call every one in Orlando. I said no! This game is a long way from being over. I have been though a lot with this team….any thing can happen….and it did. Boise dominated the game. They threw the Sooners around like they were another no name WAC team. Late into the 3rd quarter Boise State lead the mighty Oklahoma Sooners 28 to 10….and I was all smiles. 

One play though….one play changed the ENTIRE game. A punt by Oklahoma that bounced off the foot of a Boise State player, Thus making it a live football. A football that the Sooners jumped on. A football that was 20 yards away from their end zone. Momentum swung Oklahoma’s way and before I knew it there was 2 minutest left in the football game….Oklahoma had just scored another touch down….Now only losing to the Broncos 28 to 26, getting ready for the 2 point conversion. I was holding my breath….Due to penalties the Oklahoma Sooners ran the 2 point conversion play 3 times….3 plays, Finally, the 3rd play ended with out a penalty…and it ended with The Sooners tying up the game 28 to 28.

Less than two minutes to go in the game and the Broncos had blown their lead….they forced 4 turnovers on the Sooners and could not put them away….and then it happened….instead of running out the clock and taking the game to overtime….on the first play after the Sooners scored…the Broncos threw the ball….It was intercepted and taken back for an Oklahoma touchdown…..35 to 28. For the 3rd year in a row I was watching my team blow its bowl game…another bowl game loss. I kept saying to my self, you know what, every one said they could not hang with the big schools. Boise State is no good, well they hung with the biggest school of them all and even though they are going to lose, they proved they can hang with the big schools. I looked at the clock…there is still one minute and thirty seconds left….there was still time for my team.

The Broncos moved the ball to midfield…and were stalled out there. It was 4th and 18 for Boise State. 18 Seconds to go. “A last gasp for the Broncos” That’s what the announcers said. On that entire drive I kept picturing in my head the Broncos pulling out this game, I kept saying they are going to do it, a long pass, their going to score, just one big play they can do it! However now it was 4th and 18. Even with a first down at this point there was hardly any time left on the clock, simply a mere 18 seconds…..Boise State needed a miracle.

They got one. The most amazing play that still to this day, I have no idea how they pulled off. I rewind that play over and over and over and I still have no idea how they pulled it off. A play Boise State called circus. A hook and ladder lateral play….On that play, on 4th and 18, with 18 seconds left in that game…50 yards away from the end zone. The Broncos scored a touchdown. I held my breath on the extra point. It could not have got through the uprights any more beautifully. 35 to 35 going in to overtime. I was on the floor at this point. 

The first play in overtime Oklahoma had the ball….Adrian Peterson, the Oklahoma running back scored on a 25 yard touchdown run. Just like that. With seemingly no effort at all, the Sooners were back in the lead. 42 to 35. 

Boise States turn….3rd and 7….FIRST DOWN. Now slowly moving the football was the Broncos…with not as much ease as Oklahoma has just done. Now its 4th down and 2, Boise’s football….a game that had been going on for 4 hours….I wanted it to end….With the game once again on the line, Boise pulled out a trick play, The quarterback went in motion and lined up as a wide receiver….whatl were they doing? 

The Wide Receiver took the snap from the center, chucked it up toward the back of the end zone…..The pass was caught by Derrick Shoeman….Touchdown Boise….42 to 41. The Broncos were about to go for the 2 point conversion to win the game. Once again a trick play, A fake pass to 3 Wide Receivers lined up to the right, a hand off to Ian Johnson behind the back…a run to the left side of the field…..a 2 point conversion….They did it, They pulled it off, 43 to 42…I was still on the floor…..I could not believe what I just watched, it really happened. 

I still was not sure. I was taping the game in my room. I rewound the taped and watched the entire game again that night. That really happened. My team did that. That team no one believed in except for a few people. Those people called Bronco Nation. I was apart of it. It was awesome…Boise State finished the season as the ONLY undefeated team in college football that season. The true National Champions in my eyes. Since that day I have shown that game to countless amounts of people. I have watched that game over at least 20 times. I still have no idea how they won that game.

The next day every one looked at me….wow is all they could say. A game no one would have watched if not for me, they finally saw what I saw. A team with heart, that never gives up. They were Bronco fans now.

Another quote from my mom “How is this team going to do after this? A lot of those players are seniors right? They can’t keep having good seasons now with new players can they?” I simply answered “Yes they can”.

The next year Boise State went 10 and 2, Not a bad season at all, but they lost the WAC Championship to Hawaii, the streak was over and the Broncos not only were not going to a good bowl, but they lost the conference championship….a conference they had owned from day one. Boise went to the Hawaii bowl that year. ESPN.com said that 98% of the people voted that the Broncos would win the game. No longer was Boise State the little school no one knew with that weird looking football field, they were one of big boys in college football now….and I can always say….I was a Boise State fan before being a Boise State fan was cool.

Boise went on to lose the Hawaii Bowl to ECU 41 to 38, again in a game were Boise State had to come from behind and a game that came down to the last play. Win or lose….every time I sit down to watch a Boise State game, I have fun.

2008 Season is here and Boise goes 12 and 0 with a big win vs. Oregon. At this point Boise State is on TV every week and I’m loving it. Even with a 12 and 0 record, Boise State gets shut out of another BCS bowl game, Instead they play TCU in the Poinsettia Bowl. A bowl game in which once again, Boise loses, but once again…comes down to one final play. Any time Boise loses…they play to the last play and never give up. That is why they are my team.

Now this season, Boise is once again undefeated. The 4th time in 6 years. 13 and 0. This season, like no other is Boise State History, has had its ups and downs. I have seen every single game this season thanks to ESPN 360.com and I have drug my friends along with me on the wild ride! Right Max! ;)

So now I sit, Christmas Eve turned into Christmas day. I open my gifts and half of them are Boise State gifts. A book, a DVD, and a T-Shirt that says “13-0…Perfect Season” and I begin to wonder….how did a kid living in Florida, a kid that goes to college at Troy University, love a team so far away? So I sat down tonight at 2 A.M. and began to type…and now I look at the clock at it is now 4 A.M.. 

Boise State is the underdogs that no one gave a chance. A no name team that I discovered 5 years ago because they had a blue football field. A team that fights for every little school each and every year to have a shot at the big schools. Yes I am a student a Troy University and I love Troy very much….Troy is a 4 time conference champion; they play the big schools hard week in and week out just like Boise. Maybe one they will be the next Boise State putting on a show in a BCS bowl game. I’m just a kid living in Florida, A kid attending Troy University, A Kid that bleeds Blue and Orange….Just not Florida blue and orange, Boise State Bronco Blue & Orange. A member of Bronco Nation, Trapped thousands of miles away….no matter how far away I am, I know each and every week they hear me cheering all the way down here.