Damn. Really?
Yes, but a worse experience occurred in 1968 when I was 11. But, I believe in redemption, and I was redeemed. I had a paper route since I was 9 delivering the Des Moines Register, so I had my own money. Mom and Dad had tickets, I had none. So I put my index finger up out-front signaling I needed 1-ticket. A guy offered me a ticket for I think $5, so I asked, where is it? It was in the end zone and in that day, Iowa sold "knot hole" tickets to kids in the end zone for select games for $2 or $5, I don't remember which price, applied to which years. But Iowa wasn't selling knot hole tickets for that Indiana-Iowa game.
I wasn't so sure I wanted a ticket in the end zone at his price. I said to him let me ask my dad, but dad was no where to be found at that moment. I found dad, and he started hollering at me harshly about dadgummit, and he wasn't Bobby Bowden so that isn't exactly what he said. I was feeling really bad. I put my finger up again, pretty much not crying. A few moments later a middle-age woman found me, and I said, "How much?" For a cute little boy like you this ticket is free.
I didn't question the seat location. I accepted it. My mother was beaming. I sat on the 25-yard line about 25 rows up. At half-time the stadium announcer asked the Iowa legislators to stand and everyone around me stood up. It was the best seat I sat in until I went to one of Iowa's Alamo Bowls in 1996 and we sat in Row 2 on the 40 behind the Iowa bench. My brother-in-law was the San Antonio I-Club president.