Nevada fans travel to bowl game in Boise

Nevada football fever is high in Carson City and the surrounding area.

Nevada athletic department officials expect nearly 1,000 fans to make the trek to Boise for the MPC Computers Bowl game against Miami at 4:30 p.m. New Year's Eve. The game will be aired on ESPN.

Included in that group are four couples from Carson City and a family from Gardnerville.

It will be the second consecutive bowl appearance for the Wolf Pack, which won last year's Sheraton Hawai'i Bowl in overtime. Nevada enters the game with an 8-4 record and Miami, a member of the Big East, is 6-6.

"I just couldn't miss it," said Bob Murdock, of Carson City, who is going to the game with his wife, Mary Alice, as well as with Terry and Bonnie Hubert, Buzz and Ruth Ann Wagner, and Tom and Martha Keating. "I got a hair and said 'let's do it.'

"We started off with 12 people, but there were a few problems, so it's just down to us eight. What better way to spend New Year's Eve than being in Boise and freezing our rears off. We're all season ticket holders (for football) and Tom has season tickets for basketball."

Keating, who coached football at Carson High for many years, can't wait to jump on the plane this morning and get to Boise.

"I'm really excited," he said. "We're playing the University of Miami. They're a total big-time program. That's the direction Nevada would like to travel.

"Hopefully we'll give them a good game, and who knows, maybe we will even surprise some people."

This is the first road trip that Murdock, who has been a season ticket holder for more than 25 years, and Keating have made.

Some of Nevada's away games were on local television, but when they weren't, the group would call around to bars and casinos trying to see which ones would be showing the game.

Without question, Miami is the biggest-name program that Nevada has ever faced. The Hurricanes have won five national titles, the last coming in 2001.

"This is the first time we've ever played a national champion before," Murdock said. "What more can you ask for? I don't understand why there isn't more interest."

Al Baumruck, who retired from his law enforcement job a few years ago in Douglas County, said it's "a girls' weekend" for his wife and two daughters. He said he is staying at home and will watch the game on television.

Baumruck and his family regularly attend football and men's basketball games at Nevada. He said his family is using tickets given to them by Dave and Cindy McIntosh, the parents of Nevada wide receiver Andy McIntosh.

Cindy McIntosh was diagnosed with cancer last spring, and is back in chemotherapy. She's not well enough to attend the game, but said her whole family will watch it on television.

• Darrell Moody can be reached at dmoody@nevadaappeal.com, or by calling (775)881-1281.