Beasley could run with it, too.  It's a shame that I never got to see them play.  I was 3 in 1971...

Acid:  Anyone drag you to an Auburn game as a boy to see Sullivan and Beasley? There was Acid, taking game notes with his crayons and drinking from the pint of Bacardi in his stroller...

Anyone know when we finally adopted the blue home and white away jerseys?  If you get much older than this footage you never see us in the blue jerseys--we always wear white.

Where's Jabba the Housel to answer a question when you need him?

(okay, I'm going to quit calling him that)

.....exactly once. My dad took us to see the 1968 Alabama-Auburn junior varsity game, at Legion Field. I think admission was free for those things. It was freshmen (who weren't eligible to play on the varsity in those days) and scout-teamers.

.....Frankly, at that point, my main interest in going was that I would get a Coke. We weren't allowed 'em at home. Even at 8 years old, I had a taste for the illicit stuff! I was playing organized football for the first time that year, in 3rd grade. I had no clue what the rules were, other than to try to shove people around, and if someone on the other team had the ball, you tried to rip the flag out of his pants. I scored a safety for the other team once, after I ran the wrong way with an interception. I figured my teammates were jealous that I had the ball, and that's why they were chasing me. I took it out of the back of the wrong end zone, and we lost by 2.

.....Oh, yeah. The JV game. I remember a few big throws, and you could see that Beasley was the fastest guy out there. There was a lot of running the ball, some option. I think Auburn was trying to run the veer. I remember my dad being shocked that Auburn won the game. That didn't usually happen in the 1960s, against Alabama.

.....That was a great find, Jay. Beasley could MOVE! There weren't the hands episodes we see now, either. If it was anywhere close, it was caught, in those days!

.....But I think it should be noted that I have NOT had a pint of Bacardi at Jordan Hare since 1983, for the record. Typically, these days, we drive down on gameday, hit the Amsterdam Cafe for lunch, and drink one or two beers. Then we enrich Auburn with $5 Dasani bottles of water, during the game.

.....This past year, I was a BAD boy, though, for South Florida. Night games are dicey for the Amsterdam being open. And I wasn't interested at eating a Moe's, again. Moe's baskets are kind of like licking up the scraps from the inside of a garbage bag. Vaguely recognizable food bits with green and red juice-bits of lettuce and tomato...

.....So, I planned a little picnic that we would eat between the Architecture and Band buildings. The hoagies and doritos turned out pretty well. But I had the bright idea of taking a couple of stingers. I took four old 20 oz. Gatorade bottles, and poured 'em with 1/3 full of 80 proof brandy, and 1/3 full of 60 proof creme de menthe. I froze all four bottles the night before. We carried 'em down in the cooler, and they were still ice cold when we ate. My brother and I drank all 4 in about 15 minutes. (Each of us had the equivalent of approximately 9 shots of whiskey after finishing two bottles!)

.....We were LIT! It took two port-o-let stops just between Graves Amphitheater and the stadium. Stepping down the stadium steps was an adventure. The game turned out horribly, too. Kick-off coverage problems. Spotted 'em two TDs early. Fannin's fumbles. The dagger throw in OT. It was a LONG, painful ride back home after midnight.

.....When I took my son down for Ole Miss, I stuck to iced tea and water...

I couldn't tell you the last time I had alcohol with me in the stadium--probably during my scholastic tenure. I don't want the hassle of possibly getting caught, and despite me weighing 230 lbs, I evidently have a bladder the size of a walnut, so it's very difficult climbing over thirty people making four trips to the restroom in an hour.

So instead, I do like Acid does and binge drink before I get into the stadium.  I don't know anyone who tailgates anymore, so I hit the bars and load up on more than my share of vodka tonics before it's time to head to the stadium.  I make a quick pit stop at Haley Center for the bathrooms, then hit them inside the stadium, and I'm generally good unti halftime.  That's why I only drink liquor before a game instead of beer--don't want to overload the bladder.

The Amsterdam sounds vaguely familiar.  We found some cool little restaurant last year behind the parking deck that is behind Toomer's drugs.  I don't know if that was it, but they had good food, stiff drinks, and not too big a crowd.

Maybe this year we regulars at Track 'Em ought to pick a game and a site and have everyone come by for a drink.  Doesn't seem that it would be too hard to organize.  It wouldn't have to take away from your regular tailgate duties--like I said, I don't tailgate anymore, partly because after the game I make a bee-line for my parking spot on Glenn and head directly towards the interstate to hopefully get back to the ATL before 2am local...

.....The Amsterdam's on the southeast side of Auburn, on East Samford and Gay. I avoid driving on College street like the plague, on gameday. We park near Auburn Jr. High, on Dumas drive. The Amsterdam's a block away. They have air-conditioning and carpet, it's not too noisy, and they've usually got the JP (Lincoln Financial, these days, I suppose) game on the big screen. They've got a decent burger 'n' fries, and some more fru-fru stuff from fried green tomatoes to shrimp and Gouda grits. You can get at least Corona there, and I think Guinness. They serve mixed drinks, too, but I kind of have the old farte mentality that a joint can't screw up a beer, right? I reserve my worst drunken college football excesses for at home, these days, on nights like the UGA debacles of the past two year. We OWE those guys!

.....That walk into campus through the Hill Dorms is still good. Wow! Who WERE those girls in the orange, skin-tight dresses last year?

.....I'm planning to attend at least two games at Auburn next year, but I'm not sure which they'll be, till the season ticket packages get mailed out. I'd love to meet up with some AU blog folk!

We'll pick a game or two and see if we can't meet up for a drink or a bite or something.  We can all be sitting at the bar, pounding away on our little laptops...    :-)

Acid:  I bet after the drive down the two-lane from Bama'ham, you're always game for a few beers...

Hey, if any of you guys have extra tickets in your section this season, let me know--I'm always game, because I usually do the games a la carte and I can't always coordinate meeting some of my friends down there.

I'd really love to find someone up here in Atlanta with my M.O.--get in with plenty of time to party, get the hell out immediately...

.....280s not that bad, anymore. It's almost all 4-lane, and the drivers are pretty courteous. The worst part is getting through all of the development and bumper to bumper stuff in Shelby County. After that, the rest of the drive is a breeze. All of the little speedtrap towns like Dadeville, Camp Hill, Waverly, etc., have been bypassed. One nasty trick about US 280: all of the gas stations bump their prices up 30 cents a gallon on gameday. Fill up before you leave...

.....We bolt after the games, too. Especially with this trend of every home game being on ESPN at night...