My friend Clay Travis missed college football Saturday and Kentucky is to blame. Travis is a blogger for FanHouse and the author of two excellent books, Dixieland Delight and On Rocky Top. I say we’re friends even though we’ve never met, but I feel safe in saying we’re both related to Henry Clay. (In my case, distantly related.)
Anyway, Travis wrote that he did not see a single snap of his beloved college football this past weekend because he was serving as an usher at the wedding of a UK graduate. In fact, the entire wedding had a UK-Auburn flavor, quite a coincidence considering the two teams met that night.
Excerpt 1:
The wedding featured a bride who had graduated from Auburn and a groom who had graduated from Kentucky. Are the alarm bells going off yet? The two teams played Saturday night. Seven of the 11 groomsmen and ushers graduated from Kentucky, all of the bridesmaids went to Auburn. The result was a near riot. But that comes in the future. First, the beginning.
Excerpt 2:
The groom says there will be no televisions at the reception because the bride believes they would be a “distraction.”
The Kentucky grads all groan.
Question: If millions of people choose to do something, i.e. attend or watch a football game, and 125 do something else, say, attend a wedding, doesn’t that make the wedding the distraction?
Excerpt 3:
We begin to drink inside the reception.
Heavily.
At some point, I learn that it’s 14-7 Auburn at the half. “Should be 10-7 Kentucky,” says Tardio.
Excerpt 4: Well actually, you have to read the rest. (Sneak peek: “The C-A-T-S, CATS, CATS, CATS” cheer is included.) If you’re a Kentucky fan, it’s definitely worth it.
John Clay is a sports columnist for the Lexington Herald-Leader. A native of Central Kentucky and graduate of UK, he covered UK football for 13 seasons before being promoted to columnist in 2000. Born in Paris, he graduated from George Rogers Clark High School in Winchester in 1977. He lives in Lexington with his wife and two sons. You can e-mail him at jclay@herald-leader.com.
Funny, I didn’t see a single play of UK beating LSU in 2007 because I was in a wedding in Atlanta. The reception was at an swank country club. They actually threw my tux clad, completely sober, 65 year old dad out of the bar where he was watching the game because he wasn’t a member.
To make matters worse, my friend was marrying a Duke grad.