Jamie Garrett’s Family Enjoys a Night of College Basketball Fun for Son’s Birthday

Saturday was a great day for Logan.  Not only was his birthday fun spilling over into a 2nd weekend, but he was also called a celebrity by someone that had heard him on the radio.  What more does a 7-year-old need?

My wife and I decided prior to Christmas 2014 that gifts were going to be about experiences, not about toys.  We've seen too many birthday and Christmas gifts waste away to nothing moments after hitting the bedroom floor.  I cleaned out Logan's room a few months back and saw unopened packages of toys he got 11 months earlier at his birthday party just sitting in the bottom of his toybox.  No more.

Tyler, my oldest, got tickets to see a hockey game in Cedar Park.  That was a great dad/son night.  Logan was upset he didn't get to go.  Logan got tickets to go see monster trucks.  Tyler was upset he was forced to go.  For his 7th birthday last weekend I arranged for 4 tickets to see Logan's favorite team, Baylor, play everyone else in the family's favorite team, Oklahoma, in college basketball.

Logan is green-and-gold in a sea of crimson-and-cream.  His first sports memories come from a banner year for Baylor.  I was working for a media affiliate of Baylor at that time, and he witnessed RGIII win the Heisman, the women's basketball team go undefeated to win the title, the men's basketball team started the season 18-0 and the baseball team (who I was working for directly, in addition to the radio station) set an NCAA record for most consecutive wins in a season.

To him, Baylor isn't the joke of the conference they were in the SWC and the Big 12 during its first 15 years of existence.  Baylor's rise to prominence may still leave most in the Garrett household scratching their heads, but for Logan, it's all he's ever known.  That doesn't mean he doesn't get his fair share of flack for being the outcast, but to his credit, he's never wavered.  Tyler switches team more than I switch underwear, with a new team almost daily.  Logan has been a rock.

It was a back-and-forth game, and anytime OU got up it looked like Logan knew he wouldn't soon hear the end of it if his team didn't win.  In the end, Baylor avenged an earlier loss with a convincing 11-point win over a ranked Oklahoma team.  None of it really mattered in the end.  We got a night away as a family, and Logan got to celebrate another birthday weekend with a fun night in Waco.

It still just feels weird to say.