A Shootout Win, an Engagement Ring and a Carpenter Who Asked First
Cleveland State46
Iowa State39
- Game
- 2026 Week 3
- Date
- 2026-09-19
- Site
- Home
- Result
- Win
- Record
- 2-1
Vikings 46, Iowa State 39, at home, and friends, this was only the second best thing that happened to me this weekend.
Friday night, Sam, my daughter Kate’s carpenter boyfriend, the one who fixed our dining table last Thanksgiving, knocked on my door. Alone. He had his hat in his hands, like a man in an old movie. He said, “Mr. Bridges, I’d like to ask Kate to marry me, and I wanted to ask you first.” I said, “Sam, you fixed my table without being asked. You can marry anybody you want.” Then Donna came out of the kitchen and hugged him so hard his hat fell off.
He asked Kate Saturday morning at the West Side Market, right in front of Teddy’s kielbasa stall. She said yes. Teddy gave them a free ring of kielbasa, which in Teddy’s culture is a sacrament.
Then our guys bounced back from Tulsa and won a seven-point shootout against Iowa State. Eighty-five points! We’re 2-1, and my daughter is getting married!
Five pierogi. One for each of us, and one for Teddy.
First, congratulations to Kate and Sam. I’ve met Sam. He’s quiet, competent and fixes things. He’s the opposite of this football team’s defense.
Forty-six points scored, thirty-nine allowed. The Vikings bounced back from the Tulsa embarrassment by winning a game in which neither defense appeared to be legally present. I’ll take the win. I’ll also take note that the Vikings have now allowed forty-one and thirty-nine in back-to-back weeks.
At lunch Monday, Big Stan was so happy about the engagement that he gave the whole counter council free pierogi and, I’m told, briefly considered renaming The Bazelak “The Sam.” The council voted him down. Chester abstained, which tells you he wanted it to pass.
Here’s the encouraging part: the young quarterback answered a terrible week with a big one, and the team didn’t let Tulsa become a slide. Colorado is next, in Boulder. You know my feelings about Boulder. Two years, two losses, one very sad piano record.
Back and forth
My daughter’s getting married, Kenny!
To a good man. Congratulations, Mick. Sincerely.
You said “sincerely” in print.
It was a typo. In a church bulletin. You know how it goes.
A bounce-back win, a carpenter with manners, and a free ring of kielbasa that may be legally binding in Slavic Village.
Split Decision is fiction. Mickey Bridges, Ken Hogmanes and The Lakefront Ledger are invented; the games and scores are not.