Back in 2001 I began to play Papyrus’ NASCAR Racing 4. NR4 was a racing simulation that incorporated amazing physics and graphics into Papyrus long NASCAR Racing series. My dad bought me a steering wheel and pedal set and I began to race online against other people. To play online I had to create a online username. I’m not sure how long I thought about it, but I came up with bgcatfan.

BG is short for Bowling Green, where I live and grew up.
CAT is short for Caterpillar, the sponsor of my favorite NASCAR driver at the time, Ward Burton
Fan is, well, a fan. I rooted for Bowling Green sports teams and was a Ward Burton fan.

Funny enough, when racing online, I was asked more than once if I was a Kentucky Wildcat fan. No, I’m not from that Bowling Green. Haha.

When Gmail came out, I chose not to get a personal email. I had an email from my dad’s website, and in a few years I would use @bgsu.edu and @umich.edu for my mail email. I did create bgcatfan[at]gmail for different website registrations, orders, and to keep in contact with people that I raced against.

Now, I’ve decided I want to use Gmail more, in part because the leadership of our campus ministry is using a Google group to communicate. I’m really enjoying the level of communication we are having this way. I’ve set my BGSU and UMich emails to forward into my Gmail account. I still won’t use Gmail as a permanent email address, as I can use one from my own website, but I’m enjoying having everything come to one place and have multiple emails filed within a single “conversations.” It also makes it easy to access the Google group.

I no longer race NASCAR games online, but bgcatfan has stuck. I am still a fan of Bowling Green, but Ward Burton has long stopped racing in NASCAR. Interestingly enough, one of my favorite two drivers today is Ward’s brother, Jeff Burton, whose car is sponsored by none other than Caterpillar. I am still a bgcatfan.

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