There is one moment - one sound, really - that came 20 years ago that you all can thank for me sitting in this spot right now.
(Or you can curse it. Totally up to you.)
I stood on the turf at Mountaineer Field the afternoon of Aug. 30, 2007, ready to report on the one college football game I cared about covering that entire season - Marshall at West Virginia.
It was the first time the Thundering Herd and Mountaineers had played in the modern era, and also my first year on the football beat at the Daily Athenaeum, West Virginia University's student newspaper. I lobbied my sports editor (and roommate) Joedy McCreary for weeks to be in the press box for that slice of Mountain State history and got my wish.
Before the game began, we all went from the press box to the field to see the action at eye level. The stadium was packed - old gold and blue filling most of the stands, but a solid contingent of Kelly green and white as well. When both teams ran from their locker rooms to their respective sidelines, the crowd roared so loud, I felt it under my feet.
Yup, I thought to myself, I could do this for a living.
A panoramic photo taken early in the first quarter of that game hangs on my downstairs wall. I can point myself out standing on the WVU sideline, 20 years and 60 pounds ago, my hand on my hip. It remains my favorite event I have ever covered.
More than a dozen future NFL draft picks took the field that day, including a few Pro Bowlers and, oh yeah, Randy Moss.
It was Moss, the DuPont High superstar who arrived in Huntington from a short stay at Florida State, that provided the game's true drama. The Mountaineers walked into halftime of that game up 28-3 and I figured that was that. Marshall's debut in what is now the Football Bowl Subdivision would be a hard lesson in moving up in weight class. Then Moss started throwing haymakers.
He caught two touchdowns in the third quarter, the second with 35 seconds left to give the Thundering Herd its first lead of the game, 31-28. Press box eyes grew wide. Would Marshall hold on? Then-Ohio football coach Jim Grobe said of Marshall's inclusion in the Mid-American Conference that the MAC "just let the fox in the hen house." If Marshall were to shock the Mountain State and beat the Mountaineers on their own home turf, would the fox take over the whole farm?
West Virginia rallied, climbing on the back of running back Amos Zereoue and riding him for the final 15 minutes. His touchdown run with 7:56 left set the final score, 42-31, and allowed WVU fans to exhale. Still, Marshall showed it wasn't walking up to the big boys afraid of anyone. There were two FBS teams in West Virginia now.
There wasn't much drama in the series born from that game. WVU won all seven, the margin of victory shrinking to single digits just once. Both teams have done plenty of winning on their own, though.
The Herd has won six conference championships, earned a top-10 finish after an undefeated 1999 season and watched players like Chad Pennington and Byron Leftwich call the Marshall locker room home. West Virginia has won or shared six conference titles and scored stunning victories in the 2005 Sugar Bowl, 2007 Fiesta Bowl and 2011 Orange Bowl. In a state of fewer than 2 million residents, West Virginia and Marshall have kept the college football spotlight trained on the Mountain State for plenty of years, offering their fans a source of pride throughout the last two decades.
And that game 20 years ago - the jam-packed stands, the seismic cheers and the frenzied finish - sent at least one skinny college kid off on his professional journey.