Here is the story of my buddy, C, and his experience at Pete's Tavern in San Francisco, sitting along side Jehuu Caulcrick, watching the Big Green down Maryland:

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First, the setting: the game is at 11:30AM Pacific time. The SF MSU alumn sends out the Facebook update to get everyone to watch the game at Pete's Tavern - a pretty big sized sports bar right across from the Giants AT&T ballpark, and 2 blocks from DGold's (Darrel Goldstein, remember from the MSU days?) pad.

I roll in the bar about 45min before the game. It's still pretty empty except for some Maryland fans in red who already have seats at the giant U shaped bar in the middle of the place. As soon as I enter, some big dude wearing green calls out to me - "hey Michigan State, right on" He and I are both making our way to belly up to the bar. He shakes my hand, asks my name, we sit down together at the bar, I ask his name. He says "Jay hu". I'm like "oh, Jay hu same name that our old running back had. Cool". We order drinks, he introduces me to this MSU grad chica friend he's with and we shoot the shit about the game and whether Morgan is going to play well, etc.

The conversation turns to when and why I moved out to California. I ask him, what brought you out here. He says "football" ... very long pause on my part as I suddenly put two and two together and realize that this is Jehuu Caulcrick. In other words, I'm sitting here having drinks and shooting the shit with Jehuu fricken Caulcrick. The same dude who I cheered on every Saturday from 2004-2007 as he ran the football down the throats of opposing teams and in to the end zone to score a MSU touchdown. That Jehuu Caulcrick. Nice.

He's mentioning that he's now with the 49ers and is talking about that. I'm trying to act all cool and shit, but right the fuck on ... me and Jehuu are having cocktails and talking Michigan State Basketball. I talk him into switching from the Mimosa's over the the Bloody Mary. Shannon and Keely come over and sit down next to me on the other side. Then the DGold rolls in. I put him in a seat next to Jehuu. He's even more clueless about who this is than I was ... rambling on telling Jehuu about his cell phone service provider and other equally as interesting topics. I don't fill DGold in on who he is until about half time of the game.

The bar fills up with MSU alums. They all surround tables and the bar around the area on the bar where we are sitting. We're now really outnumbering the Maryland folks. In fact, probably outnumbering the Maryland and the Cornell and Ohio State fans (who are filing in for their games) probably all put together at this point. Game starts, the bar is full, the bloodys then beers flow well, the Go Green and Go White chants ring through the bar and we're catching State playing some fantastic ball. Jehuu is very knowledgable about his MSU baskball. We're talking about Izzo's sub patterns, we're evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of each of our guys, he's anticipating that Morgan will have a hot game. DGold's pointing out the fact that his cell phone has apps too.

We're in high heaven until about 4 minutes left in the game when Maryland makes their run. The nerves start running high. Bunch of turnovers by us and easy baskets by them. Nerves running very high. DGold notices the game and exclaims "look, they're only down by 4 now". Right DGold. This game isn't ours. The game momentum is shifting. If we pull this one out, I'm doing a body surf down this bar. Shit, we're only up by 2. Fuck, we're actually behind now! Time out with 35 seconds left and us down by one. Maryland fans cheering loud. Dead quiet near us and the State fans. Every one on their feet. Long time out so I (and the beer in my belly) fire up the one obnoxious man rant, loudly proclaiming: we ain't losing this one. no problem. what the hell. Morgan. Roe. Fricken Summers. Green! We ain't losing this thing. Look, sucks that Maryland made a run but come on, this one is ours.

Ball is inbounded. Green with a quick jumper for 2. State fans cheer wildly. We're back on top with 20 some seconds left. Maryland runs it down and makes a quick layup. Maryland fans go wild ... ball quickly inbounded, Green runs it up, pass to Lucious. He drains a 3 with no time left. State fans at the bar erupt. I erupt. Jumping up and down, high fiveing everyone in site ... it's loud and mayhem ... suddently I find myself mounting up on a bar stool. I have one foot on the stool the other up on the bar, pump the fist in the air and CRASH. I punch the shit out of the big glass lamp hanging above the bar sending shards of glass and lightbulb everywhere. Before I know it I'm surrounded by 3 bouncers and, after quickly settling by tab, get whisked out of the building, pausing to shake hands and say bye to Jehuu and high five a couple of other Spartans on the way out.

What a game. We had to go across town to another bar just to watch the replays of the shot.

Epilogue - If you're keeping track at home, here's the final tally from the second annual "c's SF bracket pub crawl" (original schedule below):

* Games watched @ the bar: 72
* Days taken off of work: 2
* # of different bars hit: 6 (The Kezar Pub, The Bus Stop, Greens Sports Bar, Conneticut Yankee, Petes Tavern, the Final Final)
* Broken lighting fixtures: 1
* # of bars 86ed from: 1
* # of people who participated: 7

Michigan State is still swinging and we'll be down at the Kezar Pub this evening to cheer them on. Join if you can. Next year, you out of towners should plan a trip out here for it. Go State!