Matt Weiner (@mattweiner20) – Football Beat Reporter
The names Tim Farnham and Sean and Amy Triggs probably don’t ring a bell. They’re neither athletes nor public figures.
But what they are, is an explanation to a question some might have had this week:
‘Why would someone go to Boise to watch Eastern Michigan and San Jose State play in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl? In December on a Tuesday afternoon nonetheless!’
Some people spin a globe to decide upon a winter vacation destination.
Not Sean and Amy Triggs.
This past summer the Triggs started a tradition where they leafed through the 43 bowl game slate and picked one for their winter getaway. The 2022 Famous Idaho Potato Bowl is the inaugural year.
“We both love college football, but we wanted to go to a game in a place in a game we’ve never been before and we picked Boise,” said Amy.
The answer surprised. I expected them to be EMU alumnus or fans at the very least because they were donning matching green Eastern Michigan hoodies.
Even more surprising — they made the trip from Phoenix.
Pardon my ignorance, but ‘Who leaves Phoenix, Ariz. for Boise, Idaho in the middle of December?’
“We are in Phoenix so we have bowl games there, like three or four of them. Eh, boring, let’s go somewhere new,” said Amy.
Also … why root for Eastern Michigan? Both of them made it clear their allegiance would last one game. By this time next year and every year after that, they’d wear matching hoodies of a different team.
“Eastern Michigan beat ASU this year,” said Sean, who’s an ASU alumnus, “So I figured if they beat us and got our coach [Herm Edwards] fired we should probably just jump on the Eastern Michigan bandwagon.”
Amy wished she had a “great alumni story” to tell me, but the obscurity and college football fan purity of it fascinates me.
Tim Farnham’s reason for attending the game is the one that Amy wished she had.
He’s an SJSU alumnus and a devoted fan since he saw quarterback Mike Perez lead the Spartans to an upset over Fresno State in 1986. A game Sports Illustrated crowned as the 1986 Game of the Year.
We talked while his wife and four kids participated in some of the fan activities set up inside Boise State’s practice facility.
His loyalty to SJSU hasn’t wavered since the program’s peak in the late 1980s. After all the losses he’s sustained, it’s a ‘till death do us apart’ ordeal.
“Unfortunately I got bit pretty hard,” said Farnham, who flew to Washington D.C. in 2012 when SJSU beat Bowling Green in the Military Bowl.
Farnham prefaced it with “unfortunately” because that’s what the program since he fell in love — unfortunate.
From 1991-2005, SJSU never went to a bowl game and has had 21 losing seasons since 1986.
Despite that Farnham would still take a Spartan bowl game in Boise, “over Maui anytime.”
Unfortunately, SJSU football provided Farnham more misfortune on Dec. 20.
The Spartans cruised to a 13-0 lead six minutes into the game and proceeded to surrender 33 straight points in its 40-27 loss to EMU.
Some fans wake up on third base, while others like Farnham scratch and crawl to get to first and get picked off on the next pitch.
Farnham’s taken it all in stride. Instead of becoming bitter, he walks on a road of gratuity.
“Growing up being a San Jose State fan and not being able to go to a lot of bowl games, when you come here and you see what’s going on and experience the whole deal it makes it even better,” said Farnham.
With the way the Spartans rapidly unraveled some might question if it was worth it for Farnham to go.
I didn’t see him after the game and haven’t heard from him since.
Yet, I’m willing to bet he’d do it all over again in a heartbeat.
“If the Spartans are here we are following them up here. It doesn’t matter where they go we will follow them,” said Farnham.