Did anyone here go to the 89' Citrus Bowl (This is long!)

Dec 18, 2014, 2:25 AM

*** Please forgive the length and grammar. It's late and I just started typing and didn't stop.***

and go to Church Street Station the night before the game and to the party that night after we won?

What a trip that was... and a he!! of a game... We walked by Barry Switzer talking to reporters behind an open door, underneath the stadium after the game... He was raising all sorts of He!! cause of the loss and some of the questions he was being asked... We taunted him as much as possible and kept moving. It was his last game.

If I remember right, Jessie Hatcher ran Jamelle Holieway down on the first play from scrimmage and took the personal foul out of bounds to let the poor guy know it was going to be a long day. And it was... for them!

We were high fiving the Oklahoma fans throughout the game, even when Oklahoma made a good play and the fans seemed to enjoy our enthusiasm and good nature fun.

We had met some fellow Clemson Tiger fans who were parked next to us for tailgating. A couple in there late 30s or early 40s from Greenville with their 17 year old son. We ended up changing our seats just so we could sit with them. It was a little different back in the Eighties and they were letting the young man (their son) have a couple of beers. I was not drinking the day of the game because of the day and night before.....

Eddie, my GF Renee and I had left Lexington early in the morning after attaching the Tiger Paw flags and magnets to my car. My GF almost didn't make it because we had had a drunken argument a week earlier and she was still pi$$ed at me. Hey... We were in our early twenties and both pretty immature... oh well. She had wanted to argue again and I said, "Are you going or not?" She got in the car while glaring at me.

By the time we got to Orlando a few hours later everything was fine. We checked into a Daze Inn (literally) and went out to Church Street Station. Somehow after eating at one of their restaurants we managed to run up a liquor bill of over $700.00 on Eddie's Credit Card. We went between Rosie O'Grady's and Phenous Fogs and the other two or three bars all night long while mingling with fellow tiger fans in the thousands.

At the end of the night around 2:00 am we were polluted and staggered out to see dozens upon dozens of Orlando's finest. I told Eddie we were going to have to find a cab ... there was no way I was going to drive especially with all of the Law Enforcement around us. Eddie and Renee are screaming at me telling me they are not there to arrest us but to protect us because all of the Clemson fans bring in too much money... I told them they were crazy... Eddie takes my keys and they argue with me to get in the car. So I do...

We are way too drunk to be driving and get lost... about an hour goes by and were are in the ghetto... I start screaming that we shouldn't be driving because we are going to wreck and the car is going to catch on fire... I demand they stop and let me out... I make it impossible for them, so they stop and let me out... I shove my Nunchuku down my pants and run off between two houses and dive a fence into a back yard... run through it and over another fence, between two more houses out to the next road... I am on a mission...

Dogs are barking but I keep moving in the shadows... running and ducking then running again... I see a street lamp on a corner where there about 15 guys hanging out... I'm about 40 yards from them and I know the light over them keeps me in the shadows... I run across the road and head between two houses and I can hear one of them say loudly..." what was that... Did you see that?" I dive over the fence and get met by a barking dog and go immediately over the fence to my right and keep on running.

I manage to circle around, taking cover looking at the "Gang Members" now from the other side of where I originally was but further up the street, I have flanked and circled them... i am a Master Ninja... I go to run across the road and almost get run over by a taxi cab out of nowhere! At 3:00 AM in the morning a taxi nearly flattens my drunk a$$... It would have admittedly been a Darwin Award on my part.

The Cabbie gets out and yells... "Get in here... Get in here" as he waves for me to get into the cab. Looking back on it, he had the look like I was about to get shot... So I get in the cab and melt into the back seat... the Cabbie is a black guy in his 40s and there is a young black girl about 19 or 20 in the passenger seat. He drives off fast and keeps looking back at me asking, "What the he!! are you doing out here? Where are you from? What are you doing? Do you know where you are at?" The Girl keeps looking back at me smiling not saying anything just twirling her hair. I smile back.

"Where do you live?, he ask me and I reply, "Lexington, SC." He shakes his head with a look of disbelief... much like the bartender earlier that night when I asked for a shot and when he poured it, I asked him if he thought I was a pu$$y? "Pour me a real shot," I said... (back then we had mini bottles in SC and as anyone from that era can tell you, it was hard to get drunk out of state.) I throw back the shot of Jack and look at him... "You guys water the liquor down, don't you!," I exclaim. He gives me the look that I would be greeted with again in just a few short hours by the Cabbie.

I finally explain the situation to him, I think. He tells me I'm lucky I'm alive and I'm one crazy white boy... I show him the Nunchuku and say, "I got these." He laughs at me, "Those won't do you no good out here." I grunt. The girl twirls her hair and smiles at me. I smile back. "Where are you staying"... I reply, "The Days Inn." "Which One?" "I don't know." There's that look again.

The forth Days Inn was the charm. I tell the Cabbie I have cash in the room. The Girl says, "I'll go up with him and get the money." The guys says, "You ain't going up there with him." She smiles at me. I smile back.

We get up to the room. The fare is a surprising $19.00. I give him $50.00 and tell him Go Tigers.

I look around and notice Eddie and Renee are nowhere around. I go out to the ice bin and get ice. Time for a drink. I make a Beam and Coke in one of those little plastic hotel cups and fall back onto the bed right next to the air conditioner and window. I wake up holding a full Beam and Coke with ice on my chest without a drop spilled. I'm right up on the air conditioner and it is wide open and blowing on me. Renee is right by me and Eddie is in the other bed. It's 10am and we are missing tailgating. I raise the alarm and everyone swings into motion.

We pull into the stadium parking and the parking lot attendant waves me into my spot with his flag. I run over his foot. He says, "Hey.. you ran over my foot." I give him a twenty.

For the next two and a half hours Renee sips on a beer and I drink water. Eddie is in true "Boys Club" form though and he is putting the beers away. We grill with the family next to us and Eddie ask if he can give the young man a beer after he finished the one his parents had let him have. They say it's fine. Eddie must have taken this to mean he has a drinking buddie because the young guy kept up with him before we got into the game and through the whole game. I think I told him to slow down with him which was met with the attitude I had displayed the night before. The party was on.

As the seconds ticked off and victory was ours... The natural desire to rush the field took hold and the kid was off before we could get out of our seats. The isles filled and there was no way for us to catch up to him. Alas... You can't rush the field at the Bowl game.

After two hours of searching, the parents said they were going back to the hotel to see if he would call or show up. We had talked to all of the local police and EMS at the stadium and they had no info on him. I felt terrible. The parents didn't seem like they blamed us but I couldn't help feel partly responsible.

We got back to the hotel and Eddie passed out as did Renee. I called around to a couple of hospitals and the local police departments with no luck. I decided to take a nap.

Renee and I woke up around 8:30 PM and got ready to go back to Church Street Station. Eddie refused to move... "Go on without me!" He was drunk as a skunk still. We headed out and had dinner. The place was rocking with Clemson fans. I don't remember the name of the band they had but they were good and it was an all out Tiger celebration.

About 10:30 I told Renee there was no way Eddie could miss it so we went back to the hotel and dragged him out of bed and put him in the shower. He finally woke up enough, cleaned up and got dressed. We were off.

The party continued, this time to the tune of a $500.00 tab. Eddie was happy we didn't let him miss the festivities. The place was even more packed than the night before.

On our way back to the hotel that night we stopped into several hotels to see if our friends were staying at any of them. We were too drunk to remember what they had told us. We hung out with one night Auditor for an hour or so telling him about our ventures in Orlando and the Great Tiger Victory. I seemed to notice that look again I had seen before from the Cabbie and the Bartender. We took pictures and headed back to get a few hours sleep before heading home.

Can't believe the insane things we did back then and still survived. Even better yet we didn't hurt anyone else.

All in all a great road trip for a good cause. Just wish I knew what happened to the kid.

Go Tigers.

Disclaimer: I haven't had a drink in 17 years. : )

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Did anyone here go to the 89' Citrus Bowl (This is long!)

Re: Did anyone here go to the 89' Citrus Bowl (This is long!)

Just one question...are you proud or ashamed?***

Hey... I was a kid...

To quote William Munny...

TL;DR but I was at the gane and at Church Street Station

x2...It was my Senior year also. Good Times!

Re: Did anyone here go to the 89' Citrus Bowl (This is long!)

Re: Did anyone here go to the 89' Citrus Bowl (This is long!)

Re: Did anyone here go to the 89' Citrus Bowl (This is long!)

Re: Did anyone here go to the 89' Citrus Bowl (This is long!)

I was there...and I remember Switzer's hissy fit. LOL!***

Re: Did anyone here go to the 89' Citrus Bowl (This is long!)

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