I didn't actually become completely engrossed until the Florida game this year. I know we got drilled, but when Eric Berry pick-sixed Tebow, well...there just wasn't anything better than standing on the bleachers and singing Rocky Top and chanting "GO BIG ORANGE!" as the Florida fans sat dejected.
Obviously, our elation was short lived, but it was the first away game I'd been to (except for the 2003 Peach Bowl).
I've always been a "fan," I guess. I can still remember some of the older games I went to. I still have a poster of Leonard Little in my room, because he was my favorite player when I was younger. But I only went to games once or twice a year, and there for a while, I had a bad streak going. I went to the Florida game in 2000, the Peach Bowl in 2003, USC in 2005, LSU in 2006...it had been a while since I had seen Tennessee win in person.
But of all the places, it was rooting for Tennessee in the Swamp that forever cemented my fanhood. Surprising, really, when you consider how utterly badly we lost.