I was so looking forward to this road trip.  My first chance to see the Rebs in person and all the hype and hysteria of an SEC game on a thursday night.  Of course, I had sensed early on that this could be coffin nail on our schedule.  Whatever.  It was a chance to visit a new place and watch some football.  That said, I'm not sure I've ever been as treated badly as we were in Columbia.  I should mention that we were the guests of some very gracious hosts and enjoyed our afternoon of game preparation.  Yes, there was the harmless banter between fans.  They made fun of our fashion sense.... the fact that our shirt tales were tucked in and stuff.  We sort of commented on their tailgating prowess... that tailgate is just a term and they need not actually be limited to sitting on the tailgate.  Again pretty harmless.  

The real problem started when we walked into the stadium.  Our hosts let us have two of their season tickets which were seven rows up in the upper deck but on the fifty yard line.  As we slid into our seats I took the flask out of my back pocket and was going to set it on the ground under my seat.  The guy sitting next to me immediately stood up and demanded that I leave the stadium.  I asked what he was talking about and again he said that he was going to tell the police if I didn't immediately leave the stadium.  I couldn't believe it!  I told him that I guess he should go get the policeman because the game hadn't even started and we had no intentions of leaving.  Four or five minutes later he returned with the policeman.  I asked the policeman if we could walk out to the stadium tunnel so we could talk and not be distracting to the others sitting around us.  I told him that I would gladly pour out my bourbon but I didn't want to throw away my flask.  He was fine with that so all seemed good.  When I made my way back to my seat the same guy was sitting there in such a way that he took up much of the open space on the row.  I guess he had no intentions of letting us enjoy our seats.  My friend and I looked up and saw that there more space around in the endzone and decided to move there so we could at least sit comfortably.  As I got up to leave, I tapped the guy on the shoulder and tried to let him know that we were going to move on so that he had enough space to sit comfortably.  He immediately shot up, like I was threatening him, and asked I wanted him to go get the policeman again.  I said no and that I just wanted him to be able to enjoy the game.  Finally, I leaned in real close and thanked him for being a "tremendous douchebag".  

It is a well known fact that Baton Rouge and Fayetteville have more than their fare share of douchebags but I've never experienced anything like that in either of those towns.  Does Columbia surpass them?  Not quite yet but it looks like they are making a concerted effort in that direction.  If you find yourself in the neck deck at Williams Brice and you are sitting near Section 305 Row 7 seats 10 and 11, tell my new friend Hotty Toddy!

“There is a valid distinction between The University and Ole Miss even though the separate threads are closely interwoven. The University is buildings, trees and people. Ole Miss is mood, emotion and personality. One is physical, and the other is spiritual. One is tangible and the other intangible. The University is respected, but Ole Miss is loved. The University gives a diploma and regretfully terminates tenure, but one never graduates from Ole Miss.”

Every morning this statement...poem...thought greeted me as I came down stairs to begin my day.  It resided in frame and was printed over a watermark of the Lyceum.  It hung in our foyer amongst family photographs.  I never really understood what it meant.  Now reading it can hardly be accomplished without emotion.  God forbid, I should ever have to recite it in a public setting.  What change has occurred?  Certainly not the words.  Perhaps the reader!  

Being a Rebel fan was never really a question in my family.  Just about all of my mother's side of our family graduated from Ole Miss.  We did have one cousin who went to State but we don't speak of her.  Last we heard, she moved to California!  Every family has one I guess.  Anyway, for as long as I can remember only one team was talked about with any sort of passion in our house.  My earliest memories of Ole Miss football consisted of my parents leaving very early on Saturday mornings for a game that wouldn't be played until the afternoon.  Strangely they wouldn't return until late that evening?  In high school, my brother and I started making the saturday trips to Oxford.  It was glorious!  Some games we didn't have tickets but would joyfully spend the afternoon in the Grove without giving it a second thought.  Those were different times...cars rather than tents... and plenty of room to spread out a bit.  I'm not sure who we played the first game I actually attended but I vividly recall that the grass in Vaught Hemingway was the greenest I had ever seen.  I also believe that the Rebels caught every pass that came their way... or, whether called or not, pass interference was the cause of every dropped pass.  It didn't take long before my brother and I would leave the safety of our parent's seats and venture to the student section.  Everyone smoked and had their own bottle of bourbon.  And the girls... well you know.  What was once glorious became whatever is just beyond glorious.  Scrumtralescent?

The fall of 1987 I entered Ole Miss.  Things get a little hazy in my mind at this point but, in no particular order, I do remember winning some games, being looped in the Peabody lobby, losing some games, Billy Brewer in a sweater vest, beating Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Chucky Mullins, my first road trips to New Orleans, Athens and Knoxville, going to the Liberty Bowl, having our asses handed to us by Michigan in the Gator Bowl, driving to Jackson to play LSU on Halloween, the Stand against State, Dwayne Dotson and Cassius Ware, Creek Mitchell popping that guy from Arkansas on the goal line and the girls... well you know.

It took a few years to get back to Oxford for a game.  I had a friend here in Atlanta that was getting married and rather than give a china place setting as a gift, we decided to take he and his new wife to the Ole Miss Georgia game that fall.  When we rolled into Oxford on that friday afternoon I took them straight to the stadium (there used to be a Rebel Shop right there).  To my knowledge the gate was never locked at the stadium so I asked him if he would like take a little look.  We walked right on to the field.  David Cutcliffe was out there chatting with some folks.  He strolled over to us, where I was sure we were about to be tossed out, and just chatted us up a bit... asked where we were from and who we'd be rooting for tomorrow.  He told us to enjoy ourselves as he walked away.  He may be a wheezing heart attack waiting to happen but he was a nice enough guy to us that afternoon.  My friend tried to buy the Gin that night.  He had to cancel the check he wrote in a stupor on friday night.  The Grove of course was glorious.  The game not so much.  Georgia won.  I remember a questionable call.  Subsequent trips have been made from Atlanta the past couple years.  The reaction of friends is always the same and words can't ever do it justice.  There is just "something" truly unique about attending a game at Ole Miss.  Even though they are wearing opposing colors they are treated with the respect reserved for the closest of friends and family.

i've been to a few games at other schools.  But thats all that it is...going to a game.  Sure, everyone has their thing that makes them unique.  But there's something different at Ole Miss.  Its an experience!  It hits you all levels... mind, body and soul.  It'll take root deep in you heart if you let it.  I think Frank Everett got it right.  He hit the nail on the head.  Ole Miss is mood, emotion and personality.  It is spiritual and intangible.  It is loved!

Somewhere on my mom's wall there an old framed picture with a watermark of the Lyceum and its inscribed with the words of our heart... There is a valid distinction between The University and Ole Miss....