The entire football experience was soured for me when I watched our boys blow a 21-0 lead at the half to lose the city championship. The coach must've told them at halftime that if they won, they'd play Valdosta next week. I got my B.A. from a little school in Nashville with no football team. It wasn't until I started graduate school at UGA in 1996 that I realized the appeal of the gridiron. Sanford Stadium was just next door to the journalism building, and tickets were dirt cheap for students.
Nothing compares to standing in the sea of red and black that is the fan section.
You can feel the beat from the Redcoat band pulsating through the metal bleachers. The air is heavy with the smell of smuggled booze and perspiration. I don't drink myself, but I've heard that those collegiate cocktails have a slight bouquet of armpit. Graduate school involves a lot of research, quantitative analysis and other fancy words, so I couldn't get to our away games. I went over to John and Michelle's house to watch.