Wanna get a laugh? Read this article
December 4, 2008
Life as the wife of a college football coach
By Dona Dunn
Villager Columnist
Contributed Auburn Villager
Dona Dunn
Coach Dunn and I have just finished our 32nd season of college football. In that time I have traveled to many away stadiums. While we have won some and lost some at these different locations, I have never experienced what I experienced at Bryant-Denny stadium Saturday night.
Early in the fourth quarter, I began to sense a mob scene. My son was struggling with his emotions, so I decided it was better to exit the stadium at that point with Jonathan and his girlfriend, Lauren.
Ms. Olive Tuberville, Tommy's mother, had the same thought. She is walking with a cane now, so I took her arm and helped her down the steps where she met an escort who helped her onto the field at the end of the game.
I walked to the spot where the team buses were parked and boarded the defensive one to wait for the end of the game. At that time, there was a barrier in place to keep the crowds away from the buses.
As I feared, a mob scene developed outside the Auburn locker room. It was not AU fans, but Alabama fans. At first I thought they were just trying to exit the stadium. I soon realized they were blocking the exit of our players, coaches and families who had not left the stadium early.
When our security team realized what was going on—and that no Alabama officials were going to do anything about it—Randy Byrd took control. Randy, Melvin Owens, Ron Short, Joe McClellan and Nance Bishop are the officers who make up our escort team. They are just another example of unsung heroes who give up their time to aid the Auburn football team.
They took the barricade already in place, separated it and swung it back to move the unruly crowd back. This cleared a lane for the team to exit and reach the buses safely. As each player, coach and family exited, the crowd taunted them with jeers, boos and many ugly words that made me even blush. Throw in some of the racial slurs I overheard, and I hope you get the picture.
This crowd was not made up of just drunken collage-age students. There were entire families with their children. One person made the mistake of throwing a few choice words at my husband. I saw Coach Dunn stop and walk up so he was nose-to-nose with this man.
As I watched the scene I started to get off the bus. Coach Dunn then turned and walked away. He later told me that when he confronted the man, who incidentally looked like he had never played a down of football, he told Coach they were just celebrating because it had been six long years.
My husband said he understood this, but asked him why he wasn't on the other side of the stadium cheering his team instead of jeering ours. The man and his friend pulled back and left.
One Auburn mom was able to push through the crowd so she could hug her child. She had tears in her eyes, as did her son. They hugged each other across the barrier. One Alabama fan who witnessed this must have realized what this mob scene was costing our families, because he gathered his wife and two elementary-aged children and left.
As I watched this fiasco, I wondered if this ever happens in our stadium. I was assured that our fans can't reach the opposing team's buses. Not only that, but I know our fans have more class. You expect people to taunt the buses as they leave the city; this happens everywhere, but what I witnessed Saturday night was a horror story that could have ended badly had it not been for the action of our security team.
Thank you, guys, for all you do. You saved the day.
December 4, 2008
Life as the wife of a college football coach
By Dona Dunn
Villager Columnist
Contributed Auburn Villager
Dona Dunn
Coach Dunn and I have just finished our 32nd season of college football. In that time I have traveled to many away stadiums. While we have won some and lost some at these different locations, I have never experienced what I experienced at Bryant-Denny stadium Saturday night.
Early in the fourth quarter, I began to sense a mob scene. My son was struggling with his emotions, so I decided it was better to exit the stadium at that point with Jonathan and his girlfriend, Lauren.
Ms. Olive Tuberville, Tommy's mother, had the same thought. She is walking with a cane now, so I took her arm and helped her down the steps where she met an escort who helped her onto the field at the end of the game.
I walked to the spot where the team buses were parked and boarded the defensive one to wait for the end of the game. At that time, there was a barrier in place to keep the crowds away from the buses.
As I feared, a mob scene developed outside the Auburn locker room. It was not AU fans, but Alabama fans. At first I thought they were just trying to exit the stadium. I soon realized they were blocking the exit of our players, coaches and families who had not left the stadium early.
When our security team realized what was going on—and that no Alabama officials were going to do anything about it—Randy Byrd took control. Randy, Melvin Owens, Ron Short, Joe McClellan and Nance Bishop are the officers who make up our escort team. They are just another example of unsung heroes who give up their time to aid the Auburn football team.
They took the barricade already in place, separated it and swung it back to move the unruly crowd back. This cleared a lane for the team to exit and reach the buses safely. As each player, coach and family exited, the crowd taunted them with jeers, boos and many ugly words that made me even blush. Throw in some of the racial slurs I overheard, and I hope you get the picture.
This crowd was not made up of just drunken collage-age students. There were entire families with their children. One person made the mistake of throwing a few choice words at my husband. I saw Coach Dunn stop and walk up so he was nose-to-nose with this man.
As I watched the scene I started to get off the bus. Coach Dunn then turned and walked away. He later told me that when he confronted the man, who incidentally looked like he had never played a down of football, he told Coach they were just celebrating because it had been six long years.
My husband said he understood this, but asked him why he wasn't on the other side of the stadium cheering his team instead of jeering ours. The man and his friend pulled back and left.
One Auburn mom was able to push through the crowd so she could hug her child. She had tears in her eyes, as did her son. They hugged each other across the barrier. One Alabama fan who witnessed this must have realized what this mob scene was costing our families, because he gathered his wife and two elementary-aged children and left.
As I watched this fiasco, I wondered if this ever happens in our stadium. I was assured that our fans can't reach the opposing team's buses. Not only that, but I know our fans have more class. You expect people to taunt the buses as they leave the city; this happens everywhere, but what I witnessed Saturday night was a horror story that could have ended badly had it not been for the action of our security team.
Thank you, guys, for all you do. You saved the day.
