blitz
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Apr 23, 2013
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With all the negativity and disappointment surrounding the football program right now, I have found myself questioning why I invest so much in Tennessee football. This is not new. We have all suffered many disappointments over the years, but this is a new low. However, I do not find myself out on the same ledge as many of the people in this forum and I wonder why?
I live in Greenville, SC, Clemson and SCAR country, and believe me, I wish our football program was doing better, but I am surprised that I am not more upset. It sucks to drive three hours to witness a loss (the drive back is even worse). So, I have been thinking about why I’m not more upset. Why am I still excited about having season tickets? There was a time when I didn’t know if I would ever be able to afford season tickets and I have wondered, for the first time this year, if the expense is worth it.
Then I think about my first game. I grew up in Chattanooga and I played football until High School, but then I focused on track and wrestling. I really liked playing football, but I didn’t care much about watching college or pro ball. Then someone took me to a game at Neyland. I was hooked. The band, the team running through the T, over 100,000 people wearing orange, TN kicking the sh*t out of some poor team 40 to nothing… I loved it and have been a die hard ever since.
I decided to go to college at UTK and I can’t imagine going anywhere else for undergrad. I remember so many great classes. I remember my anthropology lab being in a classroom in Neyland stadium. So, (Blindside), there are or were, actually human skeletons in the stadium. I remember going into the empty stadium and walking on the field, looking up at the enormous empty bowl. Playing football and softball on the intramural fields. I ran laps on the same track as Justin Gatlin and Christian Coleman and so many Olympic medalists.
I remember making out with my girlfriend in the stacks at the library. I remember the girl who got away because I was an arrogant prick. I remember spending so many hours in the studio, so many hours studying. I remember the triumph of doing well in classes and the disappointment in myself for doing not so well in others. I remember getting caught spending time “studying” (without permission) my dorm roommate's Playboy magazine.
So much great music! I saw Ween on the strip and got thrown out for getting on stage. I dropped acid and saw Medeski, Martin and Wood at a tiny bar in Market Square. I saw Buddy Guy, Susan Tedeschi, and B.B. King. I saw 311 and No Doubt. I saw the Violent Femmes at the World’s Fair Park amphitheater. Hell, I went to the World’s Fair when I was a kid. Not necessarily great music, but my girlfriend, the one who got away, was an intern at a radio station and got tickets to INSYNC at Thompson Boling and made me go with her. I remember my graduation ceremony in that same arena. Besides that, there were so many great local and indie touring bands that I saw in Old City.
I went to graduate school at the University of Georgia and I loved that too. I could legitimately become a bulldog fan at any time, but the bulldogs never did it for me. The Big Orange was and is the only team I really care about. I guess that is why I am still proud to wear the T at work, why I still hang the UT flag on my house every game day and why I still want to go to games.
A win or loss by a Tennessee sports team does not define me, nor does it define any of you. I am, as a person, however, made up partly of my experiences in Knoxville and at the University of Tennessee. So, that is why I feel no shame, in fact pride, when I continue to display my TN gear. I hope my nostalgia will help some of you remember why Knoxville and the University of Tennessee is, and always will be, a special place.
I live in Greenville, SC, Clemson and SCAR country, and believe me, I wish our football program was doing better, but I am surprised that I am not more upset. It sucks to drive three hours to witness a loss (the drive back is even worse). So, I have been thinking about why I’m not more upset. Why am I still excited about having season tickets? There was a time when I didn’t know if I would ever be able to afford season tickets and I have wondered, for the first time this year, if the expense is worth it.
Then I think about my first game. I grew up in Chattanooga and I played football until High School, but then I focused on track and wrestling. I really liked playing football, but I didn’t care much about watching college or pro ball. Then someone took me to a game at Neyland. I was hooked. The band, the team running through the T, over 100,000 people wearing orange, TN kicking the sh*t out of some poor team 40 to nothing… I loved it and have been a die hard ever since.
I decided to go to college at UTK and I can’t imagine going anywhere else for undergrad. I remember so many great classes. I remember my anthropology lab being in a classroom in Neyland stadium. So, (Blindside), there are or were, actually human skeletons in the stadium. I remember going into the empty stadium and walking on the field, looking up at the enormous empty bowl. Playing football and softball on the intramural fields. I ran laps on the same track as Justin Gatlin and Christian Coleman and so many Olympic medalists.
I remember making out with my girlfriend in the stacks at the library. I remember the girl who got away because I was an arrogant prick. I remember spending so many hours in the studio, so many hours studying. I remember the triumph of doing well in classes and the disappointment in myself for doing not so well in others. I remember getting caught spending time “studying” (without permission) my dorm roommate's Playboy magazine.
So much great music! I saw Ween on the strip and got thrown out for getting on stage. I dropped acid and saw Medeski, Martin and Wood at a tiny bar in Market Square. I saw Buddy Guy, Susan Tedeschi, and B.B. King. I saw 311 and No Doubt. I saw the Violent Femmes at the World’s Fair Park amphitheater. Hell, I went to the World’s Fair when I was a kid. Not necessarily great music, but my girlfriend, the one who got away, was an intern at a radio station and got tickets to INSYNC at Thompson Boling and made me go with her. I remember my graduation ceremony in that same arena. Besides that, there were so many great local and indie touring bands that I saw in Old City.
I went to graduate school at the University of Georgia and I loved that too. I could legitimately become a bulldog fan at any time, but the bulldogs never did it for me. The Big Orange was and is the only team I really care about. I guess that is why I am still proud to wear the T at work, why I still hang the UT flag on my house every game day and why I still want to go to games.
A win or loss by a Tennessee sports team does not define me, nor does it define any of you. I am, as a person, however, made up partly of my experiences in Knoxville and at the University of Tennessee. So, that is why I feel no shame, in fact pride, when I continue to display my TN gear. I hope my nostalgia will help some of you remember why Knoxville and the University of Tennessee is, and always will be, a special place.
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