My father isn't a wealthy fella. He used lots of side jobs to make ends meet. At my age of 12 he started going with a friend to college football venues selling merchandise, and sometimes I would get to go with him. We would arrive early morning, get permits, and start walking through parking lots and tailgates selling hats. Jester style will 3 bells on the ends and cat-in-the-hat style, with some having teams logos. Completely goofy stuff, but man did we sell a lot of hats.
We went to USCe, UNC, UGA, UT, VT, and several others.
When I was 13 he let me begin to sell. This was in 97-98. I went with him to several games, making $100-$200 per game off my sales at that age was a big deal, and fun for me. USCe was always a drag, with rude drunks, and I hated going there. UT was always completely nuts, but without the rudeness.
My favorite place to go was Knoxville.
If tickets were low enough we would run back to the vehicle to store our merchandise at the end of the 1st quarter, buy tickets from a scalper who was giving up for the day (usually $10, sometimes they would give them away that late), and go in the gates for the 2nd and 3rd quarters before returning to get the hats to sell to people on their way out. I went into three games in Neyland in 97-98 and 98-99 combined. We sat at the top of the uppers of course and the stadium would literally shake.
I didn't go to UT as I wanted to play college baseball and got an opportunity at a small North Carolina school. Now, however, we enjoy our 4 seats in BB row 1 that I will never give up. Granted some years I have to sell them all to make ends meet (I'm not that much unlike my father), but I won't ever give up my seats barring complete financial ruin.
I always felt and still always feel at home around Neyland. If you wear orange, you are part of the family. I have no official connection to UT football or the school, but anyone that knows me will define me partly by my large fandom of the Vols. My kids know they can't do the gator chomp or cheer for Alabama in this house, and they cried when I told them we had to sell the tickets this year and couldn't go to the Florida game. We will be watching from home and that will be okay this time around.
Vol megafans come from all kinds of places and have all types of origin stories, I assure you that.