It’s Homecoming: You Know What That Means Dukes!
It’s about that time!!
To paraphrase a favorite Drive-By Truckers songs, Shut Your Mouth and Get Your Ass to the ‘Burg! It is, after all, Homecoming. Yes, it comes a little late this year, but the weather’s looking perfect (Sunny, 63) and pumpkin beers are thankfully mostly gone from the shelves of your local store. Kickoff time (2:30) is a tad early for our liking thanks to television, but a) that’s a good reason and b) is hopefully in a sweet spot in this binge-alicious weekend for students where they can stay the entire game without fear of missing out on parties or even getting cold. Plus it’s daylight savings night so you all get an extra hour to party and/or sleep it off later anyways!
And best of all (ok, maybe around 121st best for most people), we’ll be setting up and a good ole’ fashioned JMUSB official tailgate, and we’ve even got Godwin Field parking for what we hope will be the most central location we’ve ever had for getting a lot of us together! We’ll have the Start Wearing Purple JMUSB Banner up on the tent nice and early this weekend and we even have a real crew of our own this year (10 deep including two little ones!) so stop by, say hi, and share in some rootin’ fer Dukes! On that note, if you park in a satellite lot like we sometimes do, feel free to bring a cooler and a chair and come set up with us. [We’d especially like to extend an invitation to those great Hanson Field gentlemen with the ‘shine we met last year!]
For the next five days, we’re calling for a moratorium on ALL negativity surrounding JMU Athletics. Here’s a quick, but certainly not all inclusive list of things we as a community can surely agree for this short period of time not to bitch, whine, or get angry about: Mickey, Realignment, Bourne, King, O-Line penalties, JT, Nation, MadiZone, playcalling, realignment, mickey, realignment, and mickey. If the Dukes lose and fall entirely out of the playoff picture, they’ll be all the time in the world for hashing, rehashing, and thrashing about what JMU needs to do from here on out, but again, it’s freakin’ Homecoming! In case you’ve forgotten (and we certainly have at times), Homecoming’s about way more than the run/pass ratio. Dukes have lost games through the years, but we’ve never lost a party! The Elias Sports Bureau is very clear that JMU has never lost a tailgate! And this week we’re even playing the ultimate anti-tailgate opponent: Vanillanofun. We know you’ve got one more great one in you for old times’ sake!
In fact, here’s a quick, but certainly not all inclusive list of things we as a community can surely agree to get fired up about: Tailgating in the ‘Burg on a beautiful fall day (and if you graduated pre-05 you know how much that means!), morning parties, Four Roses Bourbon, MRD’s!, Start Wearing Purple, Brighten the Lights, Plymouth Gin, P-Lot rootin’, streamers, purple Solo cups, reheating bbq in a crockpot hooked to the car’s lighter, walking to the stadium with a full purple solo cup and taking pics on the DukeDog statue, afterparties in what was just named “Best Beer Town” by Blue Ridge Outdoors (we recommend Clementine’s but plenty of options abound), overspending at the bookstore (and telling yourself your just knocking out all the holiday shopping), making a weekend of it and attending either Friday or Sunday’s field hockey game, a Three Bros. Brewing tour, mountain biking at Flagpole, a Route 11 chip tour, and of course crashing a college party only be chanted back out to the sweet stylings of an “Old Guys Leave!” chant.
Feel free to add to the “fired up” list in the comments and leave your Debbie Downer jeans at home! Let’s Go Dukes!
Awesome ideas all! No trip to Harrisonburg for me this year — I get to spend my Saturday watching my two JROTC teams compete in an outdoor adventure / Raider meet at Fort Knox, KY AND joining my daughter at Western Kentucky University for dinner with a bunch of her new sorority sisters. Both events are much more enjoyable than the I-64/77/81 slog to the poulty capital of the world.
Have fun and make it home safely!
*poultry
Add to all of this that there will be a Tremonte in the building, and you have loads upon loads of positivity in the ‘Burg this Saturday! GO DUKES!
Indeed! Can’t wait to have tremonkey back where he belongs. Make sure you boys make it out of Hillside and over to Godwin for a bit. What time are you guys arriving. We’re parking a car early in the baseball lot and will come by your spot if you all are set up then.
I think we’ll be there around 10? Word is trying to depart DC by 8ish.. now I think Ron and Dave will be there earlier though.
From Mississippi back to the burg tomorrow… This better be worth it!! #startwearingpurple
That’s what we’re talkin’ ’bout Deep South! Hope to see you!
I’m going to drink so many Mad Dogs on Saturday. Fake life for a day.
That’s the spirit Rugby, or a couple of Mickey’s big mouths, stinger always does the trick.
Man I hate that I’m missing it guys. Had every intention of being there but my daughters team made the championship and the game is at 11 Saturday. By the time they finish, we load up and make the 4.5 hour trip we’d be there in time to see everyone leaving… :(. Hopefully happy but after the debacle I saw last week I just don’t know what to make of this team.
Anyway have fun, drink 10 for me (unless you got your kids with you) and know ill be there in spirit.
let us raise a glass to all those JMU football players that will be missing out on a Friday night of homecoming while preparing for the Wildcats of Villanova. Go Dukes!!
Coming from NJ ready to drink like I used to be able to. Haven’t been to a game in a few years I am excited.