My first college football road trip came early in my freshman year, when Lou’s Gamecocks travel down to Athens after losing the week before to NC State in the hurricane game. Not sure what to expect, when rolling up the UGA campus blasting 2001, trying to figure out where the Fraternity house we were staying at was located.
I really don’t remember much from Friday night except going from room to room trying to find free liquor since somebody had stolen my beer from the downstairs ice maker. Granted I was 18 years old and those 18 beers were pretty high on my priority list at the time. After finding the room where the guy had a dance floor and a bar set up, I was home for the evening.
The following day was pretty blurry as well with a lot of jackass Jawga fans yelling about how great they were. Then a drinking contest broke out between a homeless black guy and Brad, which turned out to be more entertaining then the football game. Looking back now that was probably a bad idea to cheer on a fellow brother while partaking in a drinking contest with homeless people.
Well this is where the story goes a little crazy, because most of us headed to the game and lost track of what happened with the drinking contest. Returning to Columbia that night on probably one of the coldest nights of all time, riding in the back of a Jeep wrapped in a sleeping bag. You wouldn’t think it would 30 degree’s outside in early September in Georgia, but it was.
Well after returning the great state of South Carolina we heard the myth or legend that makes college stories great. Brad had won the drinking contest against the poverty stricken drunk in the parking lot before the game and had entered Sanford stadium to see Courtney Leavitt shank a extra point to keep the spread in tacked. Well after stumbling out of the stadium Brad thought that everybody had left him so he chased down a cab and said “Columbia please, I have cash.” Well on the 3 ½ drive back to the Capital City, Brad finished off his handle of Jim Beam and passed out in the back of the Cab. When the taxi arrived in Columbia, Brad told the driver to drop him off in Five Points as not to let the cabbie know where he lived. So Brad exits the cab and pretends to get money out of the ATM on Blossom Street, then takes off running towards Salty Nutt and Pavlov’s. Where Brad found a nice place to hide and sleep in a Green Dumpster behind Salty Nutt.
It doesn’t matter if this story is true or not, it still made Brad a living legend at the University of South Carolina and gave us something to talk about for years. I don’t think I could have asked for a more eventful first trip to Athens, except for maybe a win. Please feel free to add, because there are plenty of more stories to come.
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2 comments:
well the jeep part is true because i was driving
i still remember stopping at the waffle house to put out dress clothes on because it was so cold
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