Wednesday, 26 August 2009

• Extreme College Football Fans

  They are not known for their punting skills, they are not star linebackers, and they have never scored a touchdown in their life. Nonetheless, these fans enjoy a celebrity status alongside some of the most well-known football players.

  
  

  Mike “Big Dawg” Woods is considered the ultimate Georgia Bulldogs fan. This popular Athens native does all the usual fan stuff like wear the team logos and colors. But his signature trademark is on his head. His wife paints a bulldog on his bald head for every game. In 2007, he won the Lincoln Financial “Super Fan” award. Big Dawg Woods has his own following with about 1000 fans on his facebook page.

  
  

  Nathan Davis is an Alabama Crimson Tide fan who has the most college football tattoos ever documented. His entire body is inked with Crimson Tide pride including a large tattoo of Paul “Bear” Bryant stretched across his back.  Though he never attended the University of Alabama, he paints his face red, dons a kilt, wears white eye contacts, and proudly holds a flag at every game. Nathan Davis has gotten the attention of nationwide media for his dedication and appearance. 
  

  Extreme tailgating fans

  Tailgate parties are almost a required ritual for serious college football fans. Many fans prefer to conglomerate in parking lots and driveways rather than get a seat at the stadium during the game. Drinking, grilling meat and innovative displays of team loyalty is a tradition for fans at tailgate parties.

  The most famous college tailgate party takes place each year in October in Jacksonville, Florida. The football match is between two notorious rivals; The Florida Gators and The Georgia Bulldogs. Dubbed “The the World’s Largest Cocktail Party”, fans show up at the stadium parking lot as early as Wednesday for a Saturday game and continue to party as late as Sunday afternoon. This tailgate event is estimated to have a $25 million economic impact on the local economy.

  On tailgating.com, a website devoted to the art of tailgating one fan describes the experience at the University of South Carolina;

  “The University of South Carolina has the ultimate tailgating setting. A developer bought a large number of the cabooses from the railroad when they discontinued using them and parked them on a deserted track by Williams-Brice Stadium and formed the “Cock-A-Boose Railroad”! Supporters bought the “Cabooses” and lavishly restored them with plush carpet, marble trim wet bars, closed circuit TV of the games and sun decks on top. The party atmosphere is unbelievable and unequaled anywhere in college football.”

  ~Gene, a Gamecock Tailgater from South Carolina

  Die hard college football fans

  Sometimes the passion that college football fans have for their teams gets out of control. Fatal injuries and even death are the result of some unfortunate college football fanatics.

  In November of 2006, James Walter Quick, 42 and Richard Allen Johnson, 43 drank beer all afternoon and watched the South Carolina -Clemson football game at Johnson’s home. After a bitter argument over a $20 bet on the game, James Quick, a Clemson fan, fatally shot his friend with a high-powered rifle.

  An argument between college football rivals Alabama and Louisiana State University turned deadly for a south Alabama couple at a game on November 8, 2008. Dennis and Donna Smith, Tigers fans, were shot to death following a heated dispute over the game. Michael Williams, a devoted Alabama Crimson Tide fan, was arrested and charged with murder.

  Fans who take their college football pride to the grave

  For some college football fans, living, eating and breathing the game is simply not enough. They want to die by the school’s colors too. Extreme fans leave huge sums of money to the school’s football department in their will, their ashes get sprinkled on the playing fields, and some are loyally buried in logo-themed “shrines”.

  
  

  Photo by Collegiate Memorials

  In November, 2005 Christopher Noteboom, 33, of Tempe, Arizona claims he was only honoring his mother’s last request when he ran onto the turf of Lincoln Financial Feild holding a plastic bag during Sunday’s game.

  
  

  He left a cloud of ashes behind him as he ran toward the 30-yard line, dropped to his knees and made the sign of the cross before getting handcuffed and arrested. His mother was a life-long Eagles fan.

  Spreading ashes on college football turf is (technically) not legal. But many people do it anyway. There are a few colleges that actually welcome ashes. Notre Dame University has Cedar Grove Cemetery where catholic fans of the college can be cremated and laid to rest.

  Collegiate Memorials located in Macon, Ga, is the first and largest company to specialize in a line of college themed memorial products. College football fans can express their loyalty to their alma maters with an urn, a solid wood casket, or even a monument adorned with the logo of their favorite college football team.

  This is a guest post by April Lentini.  She writes for apartmentguide.com.

  Mancouch asks: What do you think of extreme fans: awesomely dedicated?  Or a bit over the top?
  

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