Prime Time meets party time as Colorado soaks up the spotlight
-
Kyle Bonagura, ESPN Staff Writer
BOULDER, Colo. — Just as the sun peeked over the horizon, the line to get into The Sink started to form. By 6:45 a.m., roughly 100 people were wrapped around the block, waiting for the iconic 100-year-old bar and restaurant to open its doors for what promised to be a historic day.
“There hasn’t been this much energy here in 25 years,” said Mark Heinritz, who took ownership of the beloved Boulder institution in 1992.
As fans waited outside, some traded undergraduate stories. Others heckled red-clad Nebraska fans. Mostly, though, they shared their amazement of the moment. Less than a year after Colorado finished one of the worst seasons by a Power 5 football team in the last few decades, there was a palpable predawn buzz for the Buffaloes’ home opener under coach Deion Sanders.
“We bought [The Sink] two years off the national championship and it was intense,” Heinritz said. “People showed up right off the bat; they’re ready to go. They would get up on a Saturday, we would fill right up and be busy all day. And through, let’s call them the hard years, that dissipated quite a bit.”
For now, those days are over.
Even for an establishment like The Sink, which is so engrained in the local community that it has an exhibit at the Museum of Boulder, Saturday was special. This is a place that has been featured on “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives” and “Man vs. Food,” and welcomed the likes of Anthony Bourdain and President Barack Obama. But those visitors didn’t necessitate Heinritz opening four hours early to serve breakfast beers.
By 7:20 a.m., the place was so crowded they had to briefly stop letting people in, and inside it might as well have been 2 p.m., as servers deftly navigated the standing-room-only bar area, carrying trays of shots and pizzas.
“I tell you what,” Heinritz said. “The [athletic director] makes one of the most important economic decisions for the city of Boulder. It’s night and day between Deion Sanders’ potential and a 1-11 team. Night and day. The restaurant’s sales are incredible. We’ll go from just having some extra business on a Saturday to where we’ll actually get business Friday and Sunday. It turns into a three-day deal.”
The Prime effect has been felt all over town. On Pearl Street, Boulder’s eclectic brick-paved downtown strip, all kinds of shops and restaurants have bought into the craze. One clothing store offered a 21% discount on a single item, as an homage to Sanders’ number in the NFL. Prime Time merch is everywhere.
All of that came without a ball being snapped at Folsom Field.
When the gates opened two hours prior to kickoff, thousands of students burst through like they were trying to escape from Ralphie, the Buffaloes’ live mascot, and ran to claim the best seats possible. As the stadium filled with 53,241 people — the largest crowd in Boulder in 15 years — there was an anticipatory intensity that exists only before truly meaningful games in college football.
“It was phenomenal just feeling the energy of the student body as well as the fan base here,” Sanders said. “It was unbelievable. That was my first time. We didn’t get to really feel it in the spring because there was snow. I didn’t want to go out there. It was cold. So, I really didn’t get to feel it. But we felt it today.”
Had this game been played in Boulder a year ago, there would have been a real risk — maybe even an expectation — the stands would have been overrun by red shirts. And while Nebraska fans still traveled well, their impact on the atmosphere was negligible.
“I’ve seen the pictures of red in the stands a couple years ago,” Buffs quarterback Shedeur Sanders said, referencing a recent Colorado-Nebraska game in Boulder. “I don’t know when that was, but I’ve seen that. This looked totally different. Our fans came out to support.”
New fans and old.
Since the spring, the school has been preparing for the parade of celebrities expected to make their way to Boulder this season. Saturday’s VIP list included the Wu Tang Clan, former NFL receivers Michael Irvin and Terrell Owens, rapper Cam’Ron, and Denver Nuggets players Peyton Watson and Collin Gillespie, among others. The athletic department set a record for media credentials distributed.
Everything that occurred before kickoff was a product of hype and hope. Hiring Sanders ensured the first part. His larger-than-life presence guaranteed the Buffs would be relevant again, but it would only stay that way if they started to win.
So far, so good.
Even on a day where the Buffs had plenty of sloppy moments they’ll want to get cleaned up, they had no trouble swatting away an overwhelmed Nebraska team, whose own first-year coach, Matt Rhule, signed an eight-year, $74 million contract in November.
The game’s outcome was determined long before the Cornhuskers scored a touchdown with one second left to make the final score 36-14. As the clock wound down on that final Nebraska drive, Colorado students forced their way to the lowest rows behind the south end zone, preparing to storm the field.
A call for them to remain off the field from the stadium’s PA system — at the request of Coach Prime, no less — had no impact, and before Nebraska could kick off to officially end the game, delirious students spilled over the barrier.
Another reminder from the PA announcer that the game was not over was equally ineffective, and with a second still on the clock, the officiating crew called it. Chaos ensued.
“I’ve never been on the field when it was stormed,” Sanders said.
And he didn’t get to experience much of this one, either, as his security detail quickly escorted him away. His son, however, wasn’t about to miss out this opportunity.
“This is my first time when somebody rushed the field, so I’m excited for it,” Shedeur Sanders said. “Then it was bittersweet. I started getting beat up in there. It looked fun, but I’m telling you, stay out of that. They tried to tell me, but with me being so hard-headed, I’m like, ‘Nah, I want to enjoy it.'”
Just like everyone else.
SEWELL, N.J. — A few days after brothers John and Matthew Gaudreau died when they were struck by a driver while riding bicycles on the eve of their sister Katie’s wedding, family friends were visiting parents Guy and Jane at their home during a rainstorm. Looking outside after the skies cleared, they saw a double rainbow that brought them some momentary peace.
Since then, Jane Gaudreau had not gotten any signs she attributed to her sons, so she sat in their room Friday and asked them for some divine intervention to clear out bad weather in time for an event to honor their legacies. After a brief scare of a tornado watch the night before, a rainbow appeared Saturday morning about an hour before the sun came out for the inaugural Gaudreau Family 5K Walk/Run and Family Day.
“I was so relieved,” Jane said. “I was like, ‘Well, there’s my sign.'”
Thousands attended the event at Washington Lake Park in southern New Jersey, a place John and Matthew went hundreds of times as kids and around the corner from Hollydell Ice Arena, where they started playing hockey. Roughly 1,100 people took part in a walk or run in person, along with more than 1,300 virtually in the U.S., Canada and around the world.
“I think it speaks to them as a family, how close they were and how everybody loved being around them,” said Ottawa Senators captain Brady Tkachuk, one of a handful of NHL players who were close to the Gaudreaus and made a point to be there. “You just see the support from this community and from other players as well that are here and traveled in. It just says a lot about Johnny, Matty, their legacy and this family as a whole, how much support they have because they’re such amazing people.”
Along with honoring the NHL star known as “Johnny Hockey” and his younger brother who family and friends called Matty, the goal of the event was to raise money for an accessible playground at Archbishop Damiano School where Jane and her daughter Kristen work. It was a cause John and Matthew had begun to champion in honor of their grandmother Marie, who spent 44 years at the school and died in 2023.
It became their mother’s project after their deaths.
“Jane works every day with children with disabilities, and she knew how important it was for the playground to be built,” said family friend Deb Vasutoro, who came up with the idea for a 5K. “The playground has been a project for, I think, four or five years, and there just never was enough funding. When the boys passed and Jane needed a purpose, she thought, ‘Let’s build the playground.’ It was the perfect marriage of doing something good to honor the boys and seeing children laugh and smile.”
The Rev. Allain Caparas from Gloucester Catholic High School, which the brothers attended and played hockey for while growing up in Carneys Point, said raising funds for the playground is an extension of the impact they had on the community.
“They’re continuing to make a difference in the lives of so many others,” Caparas said. “Johnny and Matthew lived their lives with purpose, and now we’re celebrating that.”
Social media filled with mentions from folks in Columbus and Calgary, the NHL cities in which John Gaudreau played, and as far away as Ireland and Sweden. Paul O’Connor, who has been tight with the Gaudreau family from son Dalton being childhood best friends with Matthew, couldn’t empty out his inbox because he kept getting notifications about signups and donations.
“It just keeps growing,” O’Connor said. “And people that couldn’t be here, they’re doing a virtual [5K]. If they can’t do either, they’re just throwing money at the cause.”
Tears welled up in the eyes of Guy and Jane as they talked about the event. His speech to the crowd was brief and poignant at the same time.
“I’d like to thank everybody for coming,” Guy said after running the 5K. “It really means a lot to Jane and the girls and the family. We miss the boys, and it really means a lot for us to have you here to honor my boys. Thank you.”
The sea of people first in the rain and then the sunshine included folks in gear from all across hockey. Tkachuk wore a “Johnny Hockey” hoodie with Gaudreau’s name and No. 13 on the back.
He handed sticks, collected from various vigils in late August and early September, to race winners along with fellow players Erik Gudbranson, Zach Aston-Reese, Tony DeAngelo and Buddy Robinson.
“Our family wouldn’t have missed this,” Gudbranson said after flying in Friday night following a trip to Walt Disney World. “Hockey’s a very tight community. It’s still a tragedy. We miss the boys.”
The aim is to hold the event annually moving forward, potentially in Calgary and Columbus.
“We thought this was such a good thing to honor the boys we want to keep it up,” Jane said. “I just think each year it’ll just get better and better.”
Florida Panthers forwards Eetu Luostarinen and Anton Lundell will be ready for Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final on Wednesday night in Edmonton, coach Paul Maurice said Saturday.
Both players were injured in Wednesday’s series-clinching Game 5 win against the Carolina Hurricanes.
Panthers forward A.J. Greer‘s status for the series opener against the Oilers remains uncertain. He missed Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals and was on the ice for only 4:22 in Game 5 due to a lower-body injury.
All three players did not participate in Saturday’s practice, the first team skate since the defending champions booked their spot in the Final rematch.
“I think the only question mark is Greer,” Maurice said. “We will list him as day to day. The other guys are fine. They will be back on the ice tomorrow when we do a little bit of an optional.”
Luostarinen, 26, recorded 24 points (9 goals, 15 assists) in 80 games during the regular season and 13 points (4 goals, 9 assists) in 17 games this postseason.
Lundell, 23, tallied 45 points (17 goals, 28 assists) in 79 games in the regular season and 12 points (5 goals, 7 assists) in 17 playoff games.
Greer, 28, posted 17 points (6 goals, 11 assists) in 81 games in the regular season and three points (2 goals, 1 assist) in 12 playoff contests.
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Business3 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway