Fanship

I have waited for the eventual shakeup of the college football conference realignment "cluster". After a considerable waiting period I have come to the conclusion that the saga is perpetual.

Those who know me, realize that I am not one to be short winded or do I exhibit brevity. I do not tweet since I am incapable of containing and condensing my thoughts. I realize my flaws may dissuade potential readers but I want to be honest.

My writing style is disjointed and sometimes pretty convoluted. I am guilty of hyperbole sprinkled with a little Texas Bullshit, but what I write is historically factual or least (depending what I say), opinionated. I have been accused of being insensitive and sarcastic. I do not deny it but honestly speaking, I rarely intend insensitivity or sarcasm. It only is interpreted that way. So, I suppose what I am saying is that “perhaps it is not what I said but rather what you heard”. Should I be held accountable for your inability to truly understand what I am saying? Damn…I have started it already.

With my mea culpa and caveat thus said, I shall commence ….

So what is a fan?

I am a fan. I am a fan of a lot of things but for this blog I suppose I will admit I am a college football fan, specifically a LSU Fighting Tigers Fan.

A little history.

My father’s mother Bessie was born in 1899 in the small farming community of Lacassine, ( pronounced lack-ah- seen) located in Jefferson Davis Parish, Louisiana. Her grandfather, my great great grandfather Ruffin Meloncon (pronounced muh lawn sawn) attended Louisiana State Seminary of Learning & Military Academy in Pineville. My grandmother’s father, a graduate of the same school died when she was only three years of age. Her mother remarried a man named William Jennings who served as the Parish Extension Agent. He too was a graduate of Louisiana State University. In 1915 when she was only 16 years old, my grandmother, along with her older brother James, left their home and attended school at the Pentagon Barracks of Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. My grandmother was one of only a handful of female students at the small school located on the banks of the Mississippi River. Her brother became a member of the LSU Corp of Cadets, as was required of all male students. After about a year, the United States entered World War I. Nearly all of the male student body and members of the LSU Corp of Cadets enlisted in military service. My uncle James was commissioned a Second Lieutenant and was eventually sent to Europe to fight in the “front”.

My grandmother Bessie eventually received a “degree” (Home Studies) from LSU. She was working at a worker’s camp near Pleasant Hill, Louisiana when she met my grandfather.

Her brother James was mortally wounded in France in early 1917 and is buried at a small country cemetery near Marthaville, Louisiana. My grandmother and my grandfather are also buried in the same cemetery.

Beginning in 1926, the campus of LSU was moved from the Pentagon Barracks to a 2,000 acre former dairy farm on the South side of Baton Rouge. The very first structure constructed on the site was a 175 foot clock tower (known as the Campanille). The tower was funded by the American Legion of Louisiana and is a memorial to the 1,447 fallen World War I Louisiana soldiers. The same year, 1926, thirty live oak trees were planted near the center of the future campus. The trees were planted as a memorial to the 29 former students who lost their life in WWI and the 30^th tree as a memorial to those former students who were Missing in Action. On the bronze rotunda inside the tower and on a granite monument at the base of one of those thirty trees is the name Lt. James Ruffin Meloncon, my great uncle.

In 1942 my father who was seventeen at the time, enrolled at the Ole War Skule. As his great grand father, grandfather, step grandfather and uncle did before him, he became a member of the LSU Corp of Cadets He had begun his second year of school (majoring in Pre Dentistry) when he was “drafted” in the United States Army. After the war, my father elected to pursue his college education elsewhere.

In the fall of 1969, I enrolled at the same school many of my ancestors had. Beginning that year, the requirement to be a member of the Corps was no longer a prerequisite of male students at LSU. I was relieved by that fact. The day I was to register and choose classes, my father actually showed up at my dormitory room and promptly informed me that I still had to join the Corps. I was reluctant and I argued my “case” but eventually my father escorted me to both the Camanille and the Memorial Grove. Up until then I did not know about my great uncle. Later that day I became fifth generation in my family to become a member of the LSU Corps of Cadets……

I was an eight year old third grader in Mrs. Thigpen’s class at Pelican Elementary School. For days, my class mates and I did nothing but talk about the upcoming Saturday night wherein we planned to go Trick or Treating. It was going to be my first outing on Halloween night. My mother had purchased a Superman mask for me and made me a cape out of an old sheet. As I got off Mr. Gregory’s bus on October 30, my whole world seem to come to an end. I was informed that I would not be going Trick of Treating and that we would be driving up to Shreveport and spending the night with my Aunt Pete and Uncle Jay. My dad I would be traveling by train the next morning to go to a football game down South. I cried all the way to Shreveport and I cried myself to sleep. I had really been looking forward to Trick or Treating. I had no idea what football was nor I did not want to go see some guy by the name of Ellis Shoe

Around eight o’clock the next morning we boarded the Tiger Train... I was still disappointed but the thought of riding a train was pretty cool too.

In LSU folk lore, the game of Halloween Night 1959 between defending national champion and number one ranked LSU and the number three ranked University of Mississippi was one of, if not the best, games ever played at Tiger Stadium. Thousands of people claim to have been there. I actually was there. The final score ended at 7-3 LSU with the eventual Heisman Trophy winner Billy Cannon running 89 yards from a 3rd down punt reception to a touchdown. To this day, over fifty years later, the sports announcer’s account of that play is played repeatedly over multiple radio stations in the Baton Rouge area. leading up to the annual LSU - Ole Miss game.

To be honest, I do not recall much from the game. I remember that it was foggy and very loud. I remember seeing a real live Tiger in a cage. I remember that my cousin Donny picked us up at the Baton Rouge train station. He had a convertible and it was the first time I recall riding in one. I was very impressed.

That game, or should I say, that experience, was a true epiphany. That moment in time transformed me into a lifelong fan. Let me change that. That night I became a Fan.

That night I was “baptized” in a sacred river of Purple.

In September, nearly ten years later, as I gazed at my uncle’s name engraved in bronze and granite, I was “confirmed” with the holy Gold chrism to become a true LSU Tiger Fan. LSU is embedded into my very soul and DNA. My passion for LSU and their athletics remain just as fierce.

Ok I realize that I have dwelled upon myself some here. It was my intent to qualify myself as a “fan”. Fans are the ultimate subject of this blog. I have the utmost respect for a true fan, regardless of whom you are a fan. On the other hand I have the utmost contempt for someone who simply poses as a fan.

Over the course of this blog I will address this issue in a lot more detail.

Geaux,

The Third