Roll Out The Barrel

I wasn’t able to watch the University of Kentucky vs. University of Tennessee football game last night but as a long time fan I knew better than to get my hopes up when I checked the score on the internet this morning. 30-24 in overtime. And the losing streak continues. November 24, 1984 still stands as the last time Kentucky beat Tennessee in football. It’s hard to believe that my first semester at UK was the last time the Wildcats came out on top in this rivalry. Nothing makes you feel old like realizing that none of the players in the latest game were even born when I set off for college.

Back then I couldn’t check the internet for news of the win because no such thing existed. I brought a pica electric typewriter with correction ribbon that my mom won as a sales prize from Avon to write my papers on. The typewriter, a hot pot, a small cassette player and my box of tapes were pretty much all I needed in my 4th floor walk-up dorm room with no air conditioning. Well, that and my cigarettes. That’s when there were still ashtrays outside of every classroom and some teachers even let you smoke during class. And the tradition of the winners of the UK-UT football game taking home the beer barrel still hadn’t been sacrificed on the altar of political correctness.

I realize that now is the age of alcohol-free campuses but beer was what college was all about for me in 1984. I may’ve been a dyed in the wool GDI but I was hitting the frat houses every Thursday through Saturday night for the free beer being offered to any female who walked through the door. My dad’s also a UK alumni and one of the few stories he ever told me about his college days had to do with the game against Tennessee his freshman year in 1958. That was the first time that UK’s president didn’t let the students have a day off when Kentucky beat Tennessee so my dad joined the resulting protest march through campus. I guess it just shows that the more things change, the more they stay the same. Whether it was 1958 or 1984, we had to fight… for our right… to pa-a-arty.