When I was a kid, there were no pro football teams in the south. College football was the big deal down here. It wasn’t about your Alma mater. Plumbers and garbage men had a favorite college team.
College football wasn’t on TV all that often, and teams from the south even less. If you were fortunate, you attended a game or two in person, but the vast majority of fans listened on the radio.
I didn’t have a favorite college team until I attended UT. At my second high school, I played in the band and attended all the football games. Our team wasn’t that good, but in my final year, we went to a big, new school and beat them 21-6.
Their band was huge, and their halftime show featured an electric quartet on a platform. Our tiny band marched out in chevrons to Also Sprach Zarathustra. We changed our formations in quick time to wild drum cadences, pointed our horns at the stands, and played as loud as we could.