Ok, so the 20-year anniversary of the first post on this site was actually last month, but only missing a milestone by a month is pretty good for these days.
At that time in 2006, I was a 22-year-old college student with little thought of or aspiration to spin this off into a full-time gig (or gigs). It was just something that I really, really liked doing, and the realization that at least three or four people who I didn’t share a last name with seemed to enjoy it as well was more than enough sustenance
to keep me going.
Plus, Louisville was awesome at sports, which always helps.
In the two decades that have transpired since, Card Chronicle has been home to stories and discussions pertaining to the first basketball national championship of my lifetime, a pair of major bowl victories, the meteoric rise to prominence of the U of L baseball and women’s basketball programs (among others), the move to the ACC, a Heisman Trophy winner, some really cool off the field stuff … and, of course, some not so cool off the field stuff.
Personally, I’ve gone from college kid who drank too much and studied too little, to post-graduate 20 something trying to figure out a plan of attack, to law school student, to law school dropout, to married father of two who gets to write and talk about sports for a living.
Twenty years changes everyone, and because of that, the voice and the direction of this site is different than it was on this same day in 2006. Because of the other jobs and the fact that I take pride in being a good husband and dad, I don’t have 18 hours a day to dedicate to writing about Cardinal sports anymore. That has been an adjustment.
What hasn’t changed is how I feel about Louisville sports and the city the Cardinals represent. I still get too high after wins, too low after losses, and I still spend too much time daydreaming about the next time I get to watch the good guys in red and white (or black) compete. The day that changes is the day I’ll do something else. That’s not bullshit.
Team-specific sports websites typically have a shelf-life of four months to a year. People get caught up in the emotion of wanting to feel like they’re contributing to the cause of something that excites them and excites other people, so they lock down a URL and start typing. Once the excitement dies down, or once it becomes apparent that it’ll take more than five or six weeks to start pulling in 2 million page views a month, usually the site ceases to exist.
I can’t count the number of times over the last 20 years where I’ve thought about giving up this website, or where I’ve thought that this website probably needed to be given up. The reason that never happened and why it won’t happen any time soon is you. Whether you were here from the beginning or just started reading a couple of weeks ago, you are the fuel that runs Card Chronicle, you are the reason this site has been updated on a consistent basis for the last 7,400(ish) days, and this place is as much yours as it is mine.
I could probably spend another 10,000 words reflecting on the ways this site has changed my life or counting down my favorite moments from the past two decades, but I won’t. Instead, I’ll just say thank you.
Thank you to all the people who have contributed to CC over the years, who have signed up for accounts and commented, who have told friends and family members about this weird place where they make the same jokes you all make when you watch games together, and to anyone and everyone who has ever typed CardChronicle.com into their browser and read for a little bit. You’ve all made my life as both a Louisville fan and human being more pleasurable than it would have been otherwise.
The best part about being a Louisville fan, I’ve always thought, is the shared experience with people who enjoy it for the same reasons that you do. My intent with Card Chronicle was to create a place where that shared experience could manifest itself on the internet and reach as wide and diverse an audience as possible. Has that been accomplished? I hope so.
I hope that this place has made being a U of L fan and following Louisville sports at least a bit more enjoyable for a chunk of the Cardinal fan base, because I know it’s done that for me. I also hope that it continues to do so for another two decades.
Thank you all for making these last 20 years possible, and here’s to all that the future will bring us.
Peace, Love, Cards
