I was in the paper today!!!!!

Here is an article about the University of Memphis Fanfest that I ended up in!!!! I thought that it was kind of cool!!!! Looking forward to football and fall weather, it has been too hot this month!!!!

Tiger fans' hopes can't be doused this early

By Geoff Calkins

Sunday, August 26, 2007

Saturday, late afternoon, several dozen Memphis football fans are huddled under a small, merchandise tent, driven there by the rain.

They ponder the larger significance of this. After weeks of dry, blazing days, why did it rain -- no, pour -- on Memphis' Fan Day?

It must be a bad omen. There's no other way to interpret it.

"Not at all," said Jonathan Nuckolls, one of the sodden fans. "It's a metaphorical rain. It washed away last year."

Nuckolls grinned at his own spin. A little rain can't dampen a true fan's optimism this last football-free weekend of the year.

A week from today, there will be a column about the Ole Miss-Memphis game in this space. While one team will have won, one team will have lost.

There will be grumbling. And unhappiness. And second-guessing. And you know the drill.

But not Saturday, not this last weekend of expectation and -- whoa, out of the way, here's a sousaphone player coming through.

"Sorry about that, I'm late," said Brandon Williams, ducking his bell down to fit through the doorway to the practice fields.

Williams played in the Memphis marching band two years ago. Last year, he left school because his family was having a rough time.

"I worked," he said. "But now I'm back. I didn't realize how much I missed it. This is the best time of the year."

Williams made his way to the back of the band. In front of him, the football players spanned out over the field, holding little signs that said "Quarterbacks," or "Receivers," or "Linebackers," or "Special Teams."

This ritual is one of the things that separates college football from pro football. Pro football teams have an essentially commercial relationship with their fans.

The fans buy tickets. The players perform. If the money is right, the players will be back to perform again next year.

In college, the relationship is different. College fans like to know the players they're pulling for. So they wait in line at Fan Day just to say hello. And when the players graduate, some of them come back to Fan Day.

One woman brought her brown standard poodle, named Koko. Koko was wearing an actual Memphis Tigers shirt.

"It's a human shirt," said Janice Kold, the owner. "I bought it just for this. He's going to be tailgating with the Tigers all year long."

A cynic would say he'll have room to run, given the sluggish ticket sales for the Ole Miss-Memphis game. As of Saturday, more than 20,000 seats remained.

"Because Ole Miss has only sold 5,000 seats," said Bill Kinkade.

Ahhhh, but it's not Ole Miss's home game.

"Honestly, we should be able to sell 45,000 seats without Ole Miss," said Steve Lovelace.

Exactly.

"But it's 100 degrees and we went 2-10 last year!" he said.

That's why this season is so important for the Memphis football program, maybe even more important than for Ole Miss. Memphis fans like to think the school could get into a BCS conference at some point. But how do you make that case with a 2-10 football team?

The BCS conferences don't give a flip if a school is good in hoops. The year that Syracuse won a basketball national championship, the ACC passed over Syracuse to add Boston College and Virginia Tech.

Football is what matters, and Memphis football is coming off an awful year.

"If you don't bounce back this year," said Scott Forman, a Memphis fan, "you lose a lot of the momentum the program built up going to three straight bowls."

Naturally, everyone at Fan Day was predicting a return to glory, with the exception of Silky's goat.

Silky Sullivan brought his new goat, Petee, his old goat having gone to the great pasture in the sky.

"That was Maynard the Magnificent," Sullivan said.

And this is Petee the ... Pathetic?

"No, the Predictor," said Sullivan. "You newspaper people always look for the negative."

Sullivan said Petee predicted last year's Liberty Bowl matchup of South Carolina and Southern Miss.

"This year he likes Kentucky or Alabama against either Southern Miss or South Florida," Sullivan said.

Nobody had the heart to tell Petee that South Florida left Conference USA along with Louisville and Cincinnati. Besides, what about Memphis?

"A mediocre year," said Sullivan.

Who brings that kind of prediction to Memphis Fan Day? And speaking of killjoys, where were R.C. Johnson and President Shirly Raines?

Harold Byrd was hailed as a conquering hero, accepting congratulations and go get 'ems for spearheading the movement for an on-campus stadium.

"I haven't met a -- what I call a 'real person' who isn't for it," he said.

Right about then, Byrd learned the university had released a statement saying that Raines and Johnson had asked the Athletics Advisory Committee to review the results of the city's feasibility study concerning a new stadium at the Fairgrounds or the renovation of the Liberty Bowl.

"Additionally," the statement said, "the committee will review any viable financial plan for the construction and ongoing maintenance of an on-campus stadium."

Whoo-hoo! Progress, at last.

"I'm pleased," said Byrd.

And then the rains came. People sprinted for their cars. A domed on-campus stadium, anyone?

Whereupon, some cheerleaders decided to frolic on the field. They skipped. They did some routines. After a bit, they headed for the giant Tiger slide.

It was now a giant Tiger water slide. The cheerleaders climbed up and slid down, climbed up and slid down, all mud and splashes and laughter.

Rain? A bad omen? Heck, no.

"Water," said Rodney Brown, one of the soggy cheerleaders, "is a sign of life."

Contact Geoff Calkins at 529-2364; e-mail: calkins@commercialappeal.com