Nothing Sucks Like a Big Orange
I've never liked UT.
I know it's my state school, but a true-blue Memphis fan has no time or place for orange.
When My Kid played on a community basketball team whose colors were orange and white, I said, "No offense, but I won't be wearing orange to your game. I refuse to buy orange." And he understood.
He hates UT, too.
I think people who say, "I'm a Memphis fan, unless they're playing UT" should be tried for high treason. Public hangings are too good for them. The rot.
And people who drive around with those UT Vols National Championship tags on their cars? Just go ahead and ram into the back of them. You're allowed.
Big Daddy & I were at the football game that one year when we beat them, when Peyton was QB. A night I will never, ever forget. Such euphoria.
The intrastate rivalry gets even more heated when a highly sought-after high school basketball player from Memphis chooses to sign with the Vols.
Like Tony Delk. When we played UT the last time (some five years ago), the entire crowd boo'ed in unison every time he touched the ball.
Ha ha ha! It was great! Trader.
And Dane Bradshaw.
The pointguard led his White Station HS basketball team to a state championship....and then he went orange.
Now a Junior at UT, he took some jeering by the LSU fans recently. Then he said to the media, "I'm not worried about some LSU frat boys. I'm more afraid of gang-bangers in Memphis."
Nice way to speak of your hometown, no?
Needless to say, it fired people up.
One of the signs in the student section said, "Memphis Gangsta Hit List: #1. Dane Bradshaw"
Look, this is a crowd of 18,000 who BOO'ED THEIR MAYOR AT HALFTIME. All he wanted to do was present a key to the city to DeAngelo Williams and the crowd boo'ed him. We are not a lot that's afraid to show our true emotions. Especially when they comprise loathing, resentment and scorn. (DeAngelo, on the other hand, got a standing ovation. Big Daddy suggested that perhaps he should run for mayor.)
And if Bradshaw really said about Memphis, "The past has shown they might seem to fall apart at times, but this year they've really held it together. They made it through the first semester of school, and everybody's still there."
because he thought it was off the record, then someone in the UT Sports Information office isn't doing a very good job at media-training their kids. And Dane? You might want to change your major. Something tells me you have no great future in communications.
Final Score: Memphis 88, Tennessee 79
Go Blue.
