Let me start by saying I went to the game with my girlfriend and her dad and sat in a season ticket holder section. I don't talk ****, but I do cheer. This is what I experienced
I cheered when we got a pass interference call, no big deal right? Wrong. Some crazy ***** behind me said "You should only cheer when you earn it!! The refs gave you that one!!!"
From then on out, she audibly talked **** to me with no antagonizing from me. Here's some gems from her
"Incest is best in east tennessee"
"Doesn't it feel good when you EARN IT??" (After carolina went up 42-28)
"How many times did you **** the ref for them to give you this game?"
Aside from her, a group of Gamecocks were talking about how cold it was to stay for overtime. I chimed in and said "Yeah, the way both offenses are playing, it might never end." Their response? "We weren't talking to you, ****er."
I HATE being around those fans, and I may never go to an away game without having tickets in our section again.
But, I LOVED being there and staying until the end. That was insane, and one of the best moments of my life as far as attending a game has went.
Also, they're pretty fairweather.. there were only like 65k there to begin with. After half I'd say it dropped to 55k and even as it was going to OVERTIME, it was at 30k max.
Some Tennessee fans left too, but not nearly on the same scale as them. It was baffling to me.
In any case, Go Vols, 7-5.
Well, this jogged a memory...apropos of nothing. In 1981, I drove from Memphis with a buddy to Athens for the GA- TN game...WITHOUT TICKETS. Stopped by my cousin's house to borrow his game jersey to wear. Got to Sanford Stadium and paid $100 each for two tickets...in the GA section...
And proceeded to watch, in that sea of red and black, the worst beatdown GA ever put on us...44-0.
The punchline?
I was wearing an orange and white Tennessee game jersey...number 44. The GA fans were great to my friend and me and they had some good laughs. Not a single smarmy or nasty comment that I can remember...at least from GA fans.
Right before the end of this debacle, my buddy and I decided to go down to the stadium section where our team would leave the field for the tunnel to the visitors' dressing room. We simply wanted to cheer the guys on, holler "Keep your heads up!" and "Keep fighting!"
There were about 70 or so other Tennessee fans standing there waiting to do the same thing...or so we thought.
As soon as the team started leaving the field, MANY of these Tennessee fans started SCREAMING at several of the players and at Johnny Majors and Fulmer and other coaches..."This s$$t aint gonna cut it, you dumba$$es!" "You'd better start looking for a job, Majors, cause you just lost this one!!" and "You guys stunk it up! You need to be BENCHED the rest of the season!!" and "What the f##k was that??? Don't you girls know how to play this game??"
A few actually threw cups full of something at Majors and his coaching staff, including Fulmer, as they started into the tunnel. No doubt many of these "fans" were liquored up.
These were grown men and women screaming obscenities at college football players -- their own team -- and their coaches. And throwing things at them as they left the field.
It was the most embarrassing moment I've ever had as a Vol fan. I was stunned and shamed.
The rich irony: now those folks' children and grandchildren regularly post their vitriol on Volnation.
And at least these SC fans didn't throw urine on our players leaving the field as FL fans have done in the past.
