My earliest
memories are not of my first bicycle ride or of my family opening presents on
Christmas Eve. I don’t remember my first day of school, and I do not remember
the first time I lost a tooth. I do not remember which Saturday morning
cartoons. Instead,
I remember watching College Gameday and SportsCenter on Saturdays. When I find myself
reflecting on my childhood, I realize that most of my memories are of one
thing… Florida Football.
My dad is
an alumnus of the University of Florida and first bought his own set of season
tickets in 1990. I hadn’t even turned two yet but that moment would shape my
entire life from that point forward. From that point on my weekends for every
fall were set in stone. I was either going to make the trek down to
Gainesville, Florida or I would be watching the game on TV. In the still
blistering hot September days of northern Florida, I would be there in row 73
of section 19. I would get there about an hour before the game and watch the
Pride of the Sunshine take the field at The Swamp. I know that for the
rest of my life I will hear the jaws theme come over the crowd and turn my
head towards the South End zone, bracing myself for the roar of one of the
loudest crowds in all of sports.
My biggest heroes
as a child were not the red power ranger or Leonardo the ninja turtle (although
they certainly would be honorable mentions). Instead they were guys like Danny
Wuerffel, Ike Hilliard, Jaquez Green, and Rex Grossman. I remember as a five
year old watching from my grandmother’s living room in Jacksonville when
#1 Florida lost to Auburn in 1994. I remember sitting in my grandparents’ house in
Virginia just a little over a month later and watching the “Choke at Doak”. I
remember going to Athens, Ga in 1995 to watch the Gators play the Bulldogs at
Sanford Stadium; the only time those two teams have done so in my father’s
lifetime. I remember my dad telling me that one of the last things his father
said to him before passing away from Cancer the summer before the 1995 football
season were, “I will see you in Athens.” That day in Athens was a beautiful
day, and I remember understanding as I gazed up into the clouds that there was
no doubt my Grandfather was up there somewhere, watching his Gators play. Those
moments are much more a part of me than my first spelling bee, my first bus
ride, or the first time I scored a goal.
Florida Football
was simply a major part of my life. However, once my older brother Jonathan
started high school and had marching band competitions pretty much every
weekend in October, it began to consume my life. Since that year, the 1999
football season, I have missed only two Florida-Georgia games. That same
brother would be accepted to attend the University of Florida. I will never
forget the smile on my dad’s face that day. And then the look of disgruntled
frustration on my brother’s face when he realized that he could not turn the
down the scholarship he had received from the University of South Carolina. It
simply made too much sense for him to become a Gamecock instead… the thought of
becoming a Bulldog was never truly entertained.
I remember
Jonathan’s freshman year when the Gators went to Columbia, South Carolina and
not understanding how he so easily could cheer against the Gators. He
experienced the same childhood I had, so how could he just abandon that so
easily? I asked that question frequently and said I would never cheer against
the Gators even if I did attend another school. He told me I just didn’t
understand, and the truth is I didn’t…
And frankly
even after I enrolled at Georgia State University I still didn’t understand.
Georgia State didn’t have a football team and I was a commuter student. My time
was filled with being a full time college student and being a high school drum
instructor… and of course, going to Florida football games. My first two years
at Georgia State I attended 20 out of Florida’s 27 football games, including
road trips to Tennessee, Florida State, LSU, Ole Miss, South Carolina, and both
Florida-Georgia games. During that same time period I attended just one Georgia
State sporting event: a 15 point loss to VCU in basketball.
I believe
that what I had told my brother had been exactly right. I did not care about
Georgia State nearly as much as I did about Florida. I owned maybe one or two
Georgia State t-shirts and hoodies while I could have gone two weeks without
wearing the same Florida shirt every day. Even when Georgia State announced
they would be starting a football program during the Spring of my Freshman
year, little had changed. Certainly I was excited about my school starting a
football program, but they were going to be FCS, and while I would support them,
they would never threaten my allegiance to Florida, even if they did one day ascend
to the FBS level.
I could not
have prepared myself for what was going to happen to me. I simply could not
have thought it possible. My perception of college football was about to
drastically change, and I have already talked about how much college football
impacted my life. However, like most people who refuse to accept change, I
fought it until the very end...
I first
started getting excited about Georgia State football when I began reading Ben
Moore’s blog, Covering Panther Sports From Every Angle. He was the only one
that I had seen thus far that wrote so frequently on Georgia State athletics.
So I became a regular reader, but as anticipation grew for September 2, 2010 I still
refused to accept what was about to happen to me.
We had
already announced at that point that we would be travelling to Tuscaloosa, Alabama
to play the Crimson Tide. Alabama was the defending National Champions, a title
which came after they embarrassed my own Florida Gators in the SEC Championship
game. They were the odds on favorite to run the table once again and become the
first team to repeat as unanimous national title winners since Nebraska in the
mid-nineties, who also accomplished such a feat by defeating the Gators.
One morning
my brother and I were eating breakfast and he asked me about Georgia State
football. As suckers for cheesy ending sports movies, we entertained the
thought of the first year Georgia State football team defeating an undefeated,
defending champion Alabama team. We agreed that it would be the greatest upset
in the history of sports and something that would never be duplicated. I had
also already decided I wanted to be at that game, so he asked me what it would
mean to me to witness such a thing. My answer was obvious to me, but I watched
as that answer made my brother’s jaw hit the table.
“That would
be incredible,” I said. “But it wouldn’t mean as much to me as seeing Florida
win a National Championship in person.”
I could
tell right away he was upset with me. I don’t remember the first words that
came out of his mouth, but I am sure they expressed incredible disbelief while
most likely including a few expletives. How could I possibly think that?! THE
GREATEST UPSET IN THE HISTORY OF SPORTS?! How would that not mean as much as
seeing Florida, a team that had already won three national championships, win
another one?
My answer
came to me quickly and made absolute perfect sense to me at the time. Upsets
are the novelty of sports. They are what keep the casual fans interested in
18-22 year olds playing a game. Real fans don’t care about their teams pulling
off upsets; they care about their teams winning championships. There is no
greater feeling than saying my team is the best team in the world. Furthermore,
I had never been there in person to see my team accomplish that goal. I
certainly savored every moment of the 1996 Sugar Bowl, the 2006 BCS
Championship in Glendale, Arizona, and the 2008 BCS Championship in Miami, Florida.
But I savored all of those victories from my own living room. Being there in
person to witness that would be the single greatest moment I could experience
as a sports fan. Jonathan was flabbergasted and once again told me that I just
didn’t understand…
I don’t
think there was a single precise moment when I realized he was right. There
wasn’t an “Ah HA!” moment when I knew my life had changed. But I can tell you
the day it all started... That day was September 2, 2010. The place was the
Georgia Dome, where I had run around carrying my “Welcome to the Wuerfell
House” sign with “Wuerfell House” imitating the Waffle House lettering. I had
been there in that same building to see the Gators win five SEC Championships
and lovingly referred to it as “Ben Hill Griffin- North”.
But this
day was different. This day I wasn’t watching the Gators… I was watching MY
team. I will never forget the first time MY team ran out onto the field… I will
never forget seeing over 30,000 people watch MY team play their first game… I
will never forget MY team scoring their first touchdown… And I will never
forget how I felt when I walked out of the Georgia Dome that night after I had
watched MY team win a game.
I knew immediately
that I certainly did care about Georgia State football much more than I had
thought I would. But it didn’t just change my perception of Georgia State
football; it changed my entire perception of MY school. Suddenly I cared about
Georgia State sports. That winter I went to Georgia State basketball games, and
the ones I didn’t go to I listened to on the radio. I started going to Georgia
State baseball games. I bought more Georgia State Football shirts than I had
Georgia State shirts of any kind whatsoever before that year. I learned the
names of people like Dave Cohen, Carl Patton, Greg Frady, Bob Heck, Cheryl
Levick, Shernard Long, Kevin Morris and Thomas Terrell and what those people
meant to Georgia State University Athletics. I will be able to tell my kids
about the time Georgia State beat South Alabama in overtime and I sprinted
through the halls of the Georgia Dome in order to celebrate with my friend
Logan. I didn’t care in that moment how stupid I looked… because MY team had
won!
Ultimately
I can tell you that my older brother Jonathan had been right all along. I
didn’t understand how I could possibly care about a school’s athletics more
than I did Florida’s… until September 2, 2010. That day changed my perception
of college athletics and therefore my life. Now, to be fair, does this changed
perception mean I am telling my father to sell his tickets in row 73 of section
19 at Ben Hill Griffen Stadium? Absolutely not. Does this change where I will
be the last Saturday in October from now until probably the end of my life? Not
likely.
However,
the fact that I am writing this story is something. Georgia State faces many
struggles ahead in trying to build a successful football program. One of which
is convincing the alumni base and student body, who did not grow up with
memories of Georgia State like the ones I had of Florida, to change their
perception of their school. I am an example of a student who wanted nothing to
do with his own school. I wasn’t ashamed of it and it wasn’t that I disliked my
school… I was simply indifferent. I had my team and there was nothing that was
going to happen to change that. Oh man was I wrong.
But when
something has impacted your life so much, it is impossible to let it go so
easily. I will never stop making that trip down I-75 to Gainesville, Florida.
But there will be a day when I won’t be able to claim both any longer… I know
that one day, when the two things that I care so much about will meet on the
playing field. And I am proud to say that I will have learned yet another
lesson from my brother and there will be no orange in my attire that day. I
will be dressed in my blue and white and will cheer as loud as I can in hopes
of a glorious Panther victory.
