West coast Dawg fans prepare for Rose Bowl
IRVINE, Calif. - Bulldog country stretches countrywide.
University of Georgia football fans who live in California are looking forward to seeing their team compete in the Rose Bowl for the first time in 75 years.
"It's really weird actually because you never think of Georgia playing outside of the southeast. You know, we played in Colorado once, I think Arizona once several years ago, but you never think about Georgia going anywhere this far out west," explained Mark DelRosario, who graduated from both UGA undergraduate and UGA law. "When you say we're going to a major bowl game, you think, 'Oh, we're going to the Sugar Bowl,' or maybe somewhere in Texas, but you'd never think of the Rose Bowl [...] It's really surreal for us, even for those of us who live here."
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DelRosario works as an attorney in Irvine, California, which is located a little south of Pasadena. He is the former President of the UGA Alumni Association's Southern California chapter, which he said has about 3500 members.
The lawyer and many other alumni are planning a large tailgate before kickoff of the Rose Bowl on Monday. He said it is exciting to see so many people are headed out to California to cheer on the Dawgs.
"You never know what you got [un]til it's gone and to have all these Georgia people coming here even from my hometown in little Vidalia, Georgia, it's really cool to have home come to us. It's really heartwarming," said DelRosario.