However, I could not quite justify going to San Diego just to spend Saturday night listening to the game in the Qualcomm Stadium parking lot.
So Grandma - Elsie Hansen, a lifelong resident of the Salt Lake Valley, is 93 - and I sought to extend our televised Golden Hurricane winning streak to four games over the past 12 months, while Utah was looking for its sixth straight bowl win.
The Utes' postseason power, illustrated again in a 25-13 victory in Fort Worth, was just too much for us to overcome in our effort to repeat the Liberty Bowl success we enjoyed together last December.
There's Steve, Grandma. He doesn't look too happy.
Have you noticed how frequently ESPN's cameras focus on the coaches during a football game? It's upwards of two dozen times a game, which must be annoying, unless you're 93 and your youngest grandson lives in Oklahoma and there he is, on your TV screen.
Grandma smiled, recalling the days when we would drive to football games around the Western Athletic Conference.
The Armed Forces Bowl was another bonding event for us, watching from afar with a deep emotional investment. After watching the Utes play in person 29 times over the past four seasons, I was disqualified from covering Saturday's game, for objectivity reasons. My brother's response to that decision was something like, "How did your editors know you would treat Tulsa too harshly?"
My wife remained loyal to her school, pasting "U" tattoos on her cheeks and joining Ute fans at a sports bar. Grandma and I settled in at her apartment and stuck with the Hurricane, even if in her case that meant cheering against the school she attended in the early 1930s.
I did have to keep her from switching sides in the third quarter. We're the team in the white jerseys and gold helmets, Grandma.
Ultimately, there would be no stopping the Utes from their traditional season-ending celebration, but nobody could have had as much fun watching the game as we did.
Grandma was entertained more by my antics when Tulsa was playing badly than when good things were happening. My frustration helped her last the whole three-plus hours, while occasionally wondering how long the game would take.
Meanwhile, we kept adjusting our goals. When winning seemed hopeless as Utah took control, we just wanted Tulsa to score more than the highest point total (10) of Utah's previous four bowl opponents. Then, it became a quest to help Grandma spot as many relatives as she could on the Tulsa sideline.
Finally, having teased a feature story early in the second half, ESPN came through in the fourth quarter with glimpses of three generations of Kragthorpes.
Tulsa was still losing. I would drive home unhappy. Yet when it comes to bowl games, everybody has different objectives. "That," Grandma said after the family piece, "was worth it."
kkragthorpe@sltrib.com
