Southern hospitality is alive and well

Southern hospitality is alive and well

MICHAEL FITZPATRICK

Issue date: 9/8/09

FITZPATRICK [Click to enlarge]

Perhaps Georgia fans can learn a thing or two about "Southern Hospitality" from the fine people of Stillwater, Okla.

Heading into the then No. 13 Georgia football team's highly anticipated matchup with then No. 9 Oklahoma State on Sept. 5, I had no idea what to expect as an opposing fan.

I had been to road games before and had generally bad experiences with the opposing fans. But Oklahoma was new.

I had never been to Oklahoma, never planned to visit Oklahoma and honestly did not care. And now, I'm not sure I want to leave.

From the moment I arrived, the graciousness of the entire city has been something to behold.

Friday night, while decompressing after a 14-hour drive in a popular downtown bar named Eskimo Joe's, patrons decked in orange and white approached me - an obvious Georgia supporter - to wish the team luck, welcome me to Stillwater and to buy me a drink or two.

"This is the biggest non-conference game in our history," OSU fans would say. "And we are just so excited that [a team like Georgia] would even come to play us."

I couldn't believe the congeniality of Cowboy fans was sincere, and decided Saturday would show their true colors.

And show their true colors they did, by showering us with warm-wishes, mouth-watering barbecue and alcohol. Every OSU fan who walked by our Georgia tailgate section wished us "good morning. Welcome to Stillwater, hope you enjoy your day."

Can you imagine any SEC foe doing that?

I felt more welcomed at OSU tailgates as the opponent than I did in Athens amongst fellow Bulldog fans. OSU fans who traveled to Athens two years ago, said they were treated well - before the game, not so well after - and just wanted to return the favor.

"There's no reason to be an ass," one tailgater said. "We are all here for the same thing, granted we want a different result, but we have the same basic goal. We want [Georgia fans] to enjoy our town, and this is just a game after all."

It was a sentiment echoed by nearly every Cowboy fan I talked to. They wanted Georgia fans to enjoy Stillwater and have a good time. They said they had played second-fiddle to the University of Oklahoma for too long and they wanted to be different.

"It's good and bad, that we are so pleasant," said another tailgater, who also teaches Spanish at OSU. "The people here are so friendly, but they are also content with being a town of 30,000. They don't want to expand to become like Tulsa or Oklahoma City, something the school would love.

"But in a town with 72 different churches and a law that prohibits the sale of liquor within 1,000-feet of a church, it makes growing pretty difficult."

After the game, with the 'Pokes having won arguably the biggest football game in their history, their fans continued to walk the high road. Within 10 minutes of leaving Boone Pickens Stadium I had four different OSU tailgates - some alums, some students - giving me beer and saying Georgia played a great game. There was even a high-five line, just like in Little League baseball.

That night while on The Strip - where OSU students party - students bought me shots, some asked if I had been treated well, and a group of OSU kids even asked me to join them so I wouldn't be wandering the strip alone.

That doesn't happen in Athens.

Back outside Eskimo Joe's, the door guys mentioned how pleasant Georgia fans made the weekend for the folks of Stillwater and how every opponent will be measured against us.

But I think we should measure ourselves against them. For the 10,000 plus Georgia faithful who flew or drove to Stillwater, remember how they treated us.

And students, if you see an opposing fan on Broad after a Georgia win, show some kindness, buy him a shot or two, because you'll never know how much that gesture means.

- Michael Fitzpatrick is the opinions editor of The Red & Black.