Guest Blogger: The Story of a JMU Life

Last week Jason Adkins predicted JMU would beat CCSU 38-14 and they did. As a result he won the right to be our guest blogger this week. Here’s his story about how JMU became such an important part of his life. Take it away Jason.

What was life like before JMU?

On Sunday morning, after a wonderful Saturday with the family at Bridgeforth, I realized I had won the JMU Sports Blog prediction contest, my mind was filled with “what will I write about?”  FBS football? Conference Realignment? Do I look fat in this JMU UnderArmor shirt?  After pondering the question for a while, it hit me. There are a million different JMU topics and thoughts that run through my head daily. My life has become so intertwined with JMU I can’t fathom or remember what it was like before JMU.

Now there are Clemson, LSU, and Alabama fans that are literally born into rooting for those teams.  However, I wasn’t born in to the JMU family.  In fact my earliest memory of JMU involved JMU playing my beloved UNC Tarheels and a JMU cheerleader getting in the way of a UNC layup. * Note: The author was born in North Carolina and still will pull for, as we say in the south, UNC when JMU is not involved.

In the fifth grade my family moved to Broadway, north of Harrisonburg.  This was right after the amazing run of JMU basketball from ‘81-‘83 and before Lefty came.  My first JMU basketball game was UNC Wilmington.  Heck it was my first college game in general.  My first question to my parents was “who are these imposter UNC folks we are playing and why are their colors green and yellow?”  However, that night the spark was lit. Maybe it was sitting behind the goal in the bleachers on the second level near the students screaming things my mom thought I wasn’t supposed to hear (Eat SHIT Wilmington). Maybe it was the pep band or maybe it was the Duke Dog coming over and taking my dad’s snickers bar and “eating it” (My dad was not amused) something happened and JMU was on my radar. (Thanks mom and dad!)

Then Lefty Came.

When Lefty announced he was coming to JMU, for a kid that followed the ACC, it was like the Moses himself had come down from the mountain.  I begged by parents for season tickets that we kept until I was accepted into JMU.  Lefty may have been a difficult person behind closed doors, but in public he was great.  I saw him at Jess’s quick lunch at the lunch counter, he made my day when I approached him and he spent five minutes talking basketball with me.  The guy at the hardware story kept a clipping from the DN-R pasted to the wall about Lefty coming to JMU.   JMU and Harrisonburg had a real live star in their presence.  I was there for the that first season and the wins over VMI and Tech, the midnight Richmond game on ESPN, the UNLV game, the Purdue game against Glen Robinson, The ‘94 CAA tournament win, the Steve Hood miracle shot to beat American.   I was also there for the lows, the Navy loss in the first round, the ECU loss in Championship, that last loss against ODU in ‘97, and the horrible decision to fire Lefty.  But it was all pure magic.  There was no way the JMU bug would ever leave me after the Lefty years.

Along the way I started dating a girl in high school who’s mom worked at JMU and parents where also big JMU fans. (Hi Bill and Bobbie!)  Is still see them to this day at football games. They took me to JMU football games and basketball games and fed the passion that was growing.  My girlfriend’s mom would take us to campus and lets us roam around for the day during the summer.  The freedom was wonderful and seeing JMU up close, in a non-athletic related way was awe inspiring.  I could see myself here.. * Note: to this day the Author can still tell you the best place for a couple of high school kids to go and get to second base during the summer on JMU’s campus, I hope they never tear down Godwin Hall….

There was almost no question where I would go to school.  If JMU would have me I was going there…  My GPA wasn’t stellar but somehow admissions took pity on a “townie” from Broadway High School that wrote his admissions essay about JMU Basketball.  I would never make it in today (without some major donations), but somehow I made it then.

Fast forwarding, my college years were all they should be, dime drafts, fake ID’s (kids please note this was pre-9-11 before you could end up in Guantanamo for such things), Pi Sigma Epsilon, Hunters Ridge, Ashby Crossing, Melrose Caverns, my internship with CFW Cellular which got me into the industry I’m in today.  There was nothing bad at all about my JMU experience.

I met my wife for the first time at BW3’s across from the quad, the night of my brother’s fiancée’s, who was a JMU grad, bachelorette party.  That night ended with me kissing my future wife, after shots of Jager, on the dance floor of the Blue Fox, while my future wife’s friends watched in horror because my wife was engaged at the time to someone else (another JMU grad) but that is a whole different story..

My wife and I experienced the glorious 2004 Football National Championship run together.  We were even at Lehigh and Furman (where a lady from Atlanta that was JMU fan sitting beside us told me she was “going to pee her pants she was so excited” after the last JMU touchdown). We still laugh about that.  My wife also jumped the fence with me to storm the field at Furman, however I couldn’t get her to drop the 10 foot plunge off the wall in Chattanooga… My wife was now fully a JMU fan also.

My three kids are JMU fans. They were literally born into it.  My kids were all at JMU sporting events from the time they were born and they all love JMU.  My daughter had a beer dropped on her at age 1 at a tailgate on Godwin Field and she just licked her lips and smiled. I see trouble brewing for that one.… My kids’ passion brings joy to this father’s heart.  However, living in North Carolina may bankrupt me when it comes time to send them JMU if they want to go!

When I moved to Charlotte, I was lucky enough to help two JMU grads with their latest startup company.  My first call when I knew I was moving, was to a casual acquaintance that was a JMU alum that lived in Charlotte.  We now live on the same street and our kids are best friends. He and his wife are some of our best friends in the world.  We plan fall weekends around watching JMU football at my house if I’m not going to be in the burg.

I still keep football and basketball season tickets and serve on the Board of the JMU Duke Club. (If you are not a member you should be!) I love seeing my friends while I tailgate on Godwin field on beautiful fall Saturdays, while watching my kids run and play.  (I’m easy to find flying the State of North Carolina flag)

There are a dozens of other JMU storied to tell about Ron Carrier (best dude ever!), a semi-formal where a fraternity brothers leg was defiled in a way that you can’t imagine at the Ingleside Inn in Staunton, how I met my fraternity little brother and why I still have a shot of bourbon from that night, brawls at the Turner Ashby memorial, where Jimmy Hoffa is buried, and how a landing strip can distract someone playing beer pong.  Maybe when I win the prediction contest again you JMU masses on the interwebs will be lucky enough to hear about those gems.

The common theme to this rambling is most everything that defines me as a person, my wife, my family my friends, my church, how I send my free time (checking the JMU Sport Blog and thedukesdomain.com) has a JMU connection.  If you are still reading this blog I’d guess that JMU has touched your life in a major way also.  I give up, JMU has gotten me in its grasp and I will never escape.  It will be a hell of a ride.

Does anyone know if they make a Duke Dog shaped tombstone?

Jason W. Adkins in a 1996 graduate of JMU with a major in Marketing and minor in Economics.  He resides in Charlotte with his wife Tennille and three children Cora, Reid, and Ella.  Jason currently serves on the JMU Duke Club Board of Directors, and is the Senior Vice President at a Mid-Western based Telecommunications Company.  He enjoys good bourbon and occasionally cutting people off in traffic just for the heck of it.  You may also know him as “jjthebutcher” on thedukesdomain.com

Photo courtesy of epicsnapshots.com