Guest Post: A Lump of Dirt
Last week Brandon Newbill came closest to picking the winner & score for JMU’s game, so he won our prediction contest. As a result, he got to write a guest post. Here it is.
To keep with the recent guest post trends of being positive instead of highlighting our administration’s apparent apathy towards FBS, our struggling pass rush, or the fact that the Buffalo Bills look as horrible as ever, I’d like to share a story that melds together two great road trips; one to Chattanooga in 2004, and one to Chapel Hill in 2016.
I have always enjoyed road trips for JMU sports. From my junior year drive down to ‘Nooga for the National Championship to the first round of the NCAA basketball tournament (you may have seen me, I was the idiot who’s ex-girlfriend made him wear the yellow teletubby costume), I’ve always been ready and willing to hit the road to support the Dukes. This past weekend was no different.
Myself and a long-time friend and JMU alum hit the road from Richmond and went to visit another long-time friend and JMU alum (and his wife, who went to UMASS but proudly rocked her JMU attire) in his newly purchased Durham home. It certainly made attending the UNC game much easier having a friend within uber distance of UNC’s campus! While taking the tour of my buddy’s new home, something oh so sweet captured my eyes on the wall in one of the extra bedrooms. Behold, the most beautiful lump of dirt these eyes have ever seen!
For those who can’t figure it out, that’s one of the hundreds of giant lumps of turf from the field in ‘Nooga back in ’04. Instantly, my mind started racing with flashbacks of just how awesome that trip was. Tailgating with some very pleasant and moonshine-bearing Montana fans, seeing a giant church van pull up next to our tailgate spot and have about ten of my buddies drunkenly spill out of the back, watching Rascati become a JMU legend, storming the field after the win, and champagne in the parking lot!
The truth is, as sweet as that memory was, it could have been so much sweeter if more of my friends and fellow alums would have made the trip. The point I want to get across is quite simple: Make the trip Dukes!!! It’s easy as we get older to find excuses not to go. “My kid has a soccer game”. “I need to cut the grass”. “I have to work”. “Obama”. But I promise you, even on the bad trips, you come home with memories that are well worth it. It was so cold in Boone, NC in 2007, I had to chisel the beers out of my frozen cooler, all just to watch JMU fumble away its national championship hopes on quite possibly the worst offensive play call in JMU history. You know what I remember most from that trip? That was one of the last trips I got to make two friends of mine that are now too busy adulting to do much of anything.
Make the trip Dukes, it’s worth it!
Brandon Newbill, Class of 2006
Well said! Trip to Chattanooga was a highlight for me, too.
I was there too along with an 84 grad. We had lost our voices by the end of the game. I also remember PA announcer said Montana band would be playing after game at one point, I don’t believe they did after we won the NC.
My roommates and our girlfriends (now wives) all went to the Villanova playoff game in 08. Super cold and windy, I remember wearing my purple out shirt over my jacket just so I could still rock the purp. My roommates left during halftime, but I knew I would marry the girl who was tough enough to endure the cold and stay for a W.
Hear hear. It astounds me how many of my FBS fan friends don’t go to away games. The first quarter last week was all the sweeter for watching it among a sea of pale blue (we weren’t jerks about it, we want to represent JMU as the class act it is…and we figured the tide would turn.).
And the 2007 game at App St remains the only game we’ve ever left early (by about 20 seconds)
My lump of dirt is encased in glass in my bar.
If my g/f made me wear a yellow teletubby costume on national TV, she’d be an ex too.