Card Chronicle turns 10 years old

On this very day 10 years ago -- at 2:13 a.m. to be precise -- the first post on CardChronicle.com was published.

At the time, 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.

In the decade that has 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), some really cool off the field stuff, and 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 man, to guy who gets to write and talk about sports for a living.

Ten 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. 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 10 years where I've thought about giving 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 3,650 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 decade, 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 decade.

Thank you all for making these last 10 years possible, and here's to all that the next decade will bring us.

Peace, Love, Cards