Dear Old U.Va.

Around the ACC - My love for the "U"

Wednesday, July 02 2008 by MelbourneHoo

I have never been one to look for extra work.  When Tim asked me to contribute to this I tried to think about what I could bring to the table. I have never played football above the high school level. I have only coached a powderpuff game. I live ~900 miles away from my favorite team and almost all goings-on involved with UVA including recruiting.  I have met very few players and coaches and should NOT be considered an insider in any way shape or form. I do not pretend to know anything about the VAF, the UVA administration, the way things were before UVA beat FSU in the fall of 1995, George Welsh's secrets, and how rude Al Groh can be to the media. I do not really understand what zone blocking means besides block the guy in the zone your supposed too, what the differences in holders can do for placekickers, and why student-athletes can't stay out of trouble.  Then again there are other sources for this info and countless posts on message boards to hear opinions. The one thing that I do have is ties to other schools. I have been to every stadium in the ACC except Lane, Wallace Wade, and Byrd. I plan on going to WW this year.

I come from a family of three boys and my dad was the same. My Dad played football and had a choice of going to school for free at Princeton and Rutgers. Ultimately he chose Miami and an end to his football career.  Why? I have no idea except that he was tired of the cold and New jersey in general.  While at the U, he became a follower of the team and his best friend / eventual work partner was OL Larry L Wilson.  In 1979 my dad was asked if he would like to start parking his and Larry's tailgate RV inside the Orange Bowl for games.  For $100 a season and 8 free tickets, my dad and drunk college buddies would park inside the Orange bowl every game.  There was a little area between the scoreboard and the field on the open side where the color-guard, band and dancers would warm up.  (eventually other motor homes joined in the area including Hooters) To a teenage boy this became heaven. Our motor home was there EVERY home game from 1979 until 2003.  Obviously, this parking spot became more valuable as the canes became a better team, but my dad continued to pay the $100 all 24 years, because he was grandfathered in. Eventually my Dad and Larry became Golden Canes by building the coaching facilities, weight rooms, practice fields and several other features of the U's athletic department in the 1980's.  Our seats in the OB moved around for several years and included seats in the press-box and the media box right next door to the visiting team coaches. Ultimately my dad decided he liked sitting at the 40 with his riff raff fraternity brothers.  One time I got to sit next to Lee Corso, who is a lot taller than I expected.  Thanks to being a friend of the program, I got to be a ball boy and cord boy (coaches headsets were linked with wires- pulling them through crowded sidelines was not easy at all). My brothers and I pulled cords for the Tuberville, Lubick, Wannestedt and others when they were on the field.  My favorite memory was when a Defensive coach I was pulling the wire for got mad spiked his headset and broke them.  I then had to carry a clipboard for him so that he could hit player's helmets with it for the rest of the game.  I saw him smack some pretty good NFLers that day.  I had access to all locker rooms and tunnels below the stadium including the hidden area where the refs sat.  I like to think that I could have helped that 58 game win streak. By  the late 80s I was on the equipment team and would travel with the team to away games.  My job was to use floor wax to make the helmets shiny before games.  Darren Krein a DE for the Canes had some of the deepest gouges in his helmet that I ever saw.  Stephen Mcguire had to reattach the U on his helmet after several games.  The University of Miami was known for thugs through this time, but all of the players I met were gracious, many were very intelligent and all joked as if they were brothers.  They adopted my brothers and I and made us feel like part of the team.  No matter what people say about the U, it will always be an important place to me. 

My ties to the ACC are :

A Cousin and I who went to UVa

Brother, mom and dad who went to the University of Miami

1 Brother who went to Clemson

2 Cousins at Chapel Hill

Highschool best friend who went to GT

Current Rugby buddy from NC State

Too many FSU fans that I work with

I plan on trying to find out what is going on with College football at other schools. Game day experiences, tailgate recipes, drinking games, and traditions.  Something that makes College football unique and great.