When I finished graduate school at the University of Virginia and started teaching at Alabama, I had no idea what it meant to be a REAL football fan. My undergraduate degree was from Wake Forest. If you check back in history you will find that during the sixties Wake Forest and Virginia were the two losingest teams in America. You can imagine the football culture shock when I arrived in Tuscaloosa and attended my first football game. The association with the University was enough to make on a huge football fan, but I also had some help.
Soon after arriving in TTown we became friends with a guy similar to the one described earlier. This man knew everything, and I mean everything, about Alabama football. He still does. I recall going to his brother's funeral in another city in the state. I will never forget that. The deceased was lying in his coffin all decked out in his crimson blazer. Every pall bearer was wearing a crimson blazer. And, all the flowers were crimson and white. At that point I began to get a feel for what being an Alabama fan was really like. That Alabama walking encyclopedia is still a very dear friend, even though we visit very infrequently.
My two sons were born at Druid City Hospital. Years later, after we moved to NC both of them attended UNC Chapel Hill. One of them became a big Carolina fan, but the older one never did. His room at Chapel Hill was always decorated in Crimson and White with Alabama memorabilia.
Every school has its die hard fans. But after having lived in several states and many towns, I can testify that none have such a large cadre of true die hards as Alabama. Take NC for example. Here I have to contend with Carolina fans who love the round ball. However, I simply respond by telling them that to a true sports fan basketball is a sissy game played as an interlude between football seasons. The only thing that really counts is football. That can be easily demonstrated by pointing out the amount of money involved in the different athletic programs, womens and mens, and the extent to which all of them are supported by football. Q.E.D.
