By Nick Gibson
The author humbly suggests you put on headphones and listen to local boys Sandrider while you get pumped up; come back for the links afterward.
Fourteen thousand years ago, on the spot where the Brougham End now stands, a wall of ice rose up one thousand yards above you. Its massive weight forced the bedrock from the Olympics to the Cascades three hundred feet downward, below you, gouging out the waterways like so many fingernails through sand. The glaciers receded, the land rose up, and the Sound was born.
Know your history.
Four thousand years ago, the first Sounders arrived. Many centuries ago, the doo-AHBSH, the "people of the inside" from which Europeans named the Duwamish River, built a gathering place: dzee-dzee-LAH-letch, "little crossing-over place". This Saturday - as you lead the march to the match - you will pass over its remains at King Street, where once hundreds lived in 7,000 square foot longhouses. For countless generations, people awoke under brooding gray skies, felt the rain on their faces, and looked with awe and reverence towards the Sound.
Know your history.
144 years ago, on December 9th, 1869, some twenty years after the Denny party landed at Alki, the City of Seattle was incorporated. Timber harvested on the hills of our town built California. Our Salmon canneries fed a Gold Rush.
Warplanes built here won a world war before our airliners revolutionized transportation. Hometown boys remade the world in their digital image, and looked good doing it. We blew up the record industry and never looked back.
Know your history.
The date most important to us: January 23rd, 1974. Forty years ago, our Seattle Sounders were born. Some of you are lucky enough to have been there, to have watched the first-ever squad of blue and green play in Memorial Stadium and the Kingdome that once stood where we now support. Others of you can count yourself blessed to have sat with ECS in section 113 in the days of the USL Sounders. Your love of our Sounders may have been passed down through generations by your family - maybe you're passing it down now to those you love. For some of you, this is your first season with us. Regardless: all of you are brothers and sisters of Seattle, united behind this club; Brougham Faithful; Sounders 'Til We Die.
Our history is legend. When the first match kicks off mere hours from now, look around you. Breathe deep. Feel the power of the ground below you and the skies above. Give your all for our club: will them to victory. Let the power of this land course through your veins.
40 years is but our very beginning!
Sing with full hearts for our boys, our city, and our ancestors.
You’ve got a lot to live up to. Act like it. Welcome to the 2014 season, ECS.
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