Even when I was an undergrad at Stephen F. Austin State University, I wasn’t much of a Lumberjack fan. I went to maybe two football games in my three years there. My affection hasn’t grown over the years, but still, I was hoping SFA would give the Griz a respectable game on Saturday.
That didn’t happen. I turned off the TV at halftime and headed to work, listening to the second half on the radio. That’s where I heard some weird complaining from Griz coaches and players (I guess; it wasn’t 100 percent clear who was being interviewed) that SFA had disrespected the Griz by arriving in Missoula a couple of days early and hitting the bars on Wednesday and Thursday nights.
Jeez. Maybe something went on that I haven’t heard about, but this sounded like the oddest complaint I have heard in a long time. Doesn’t anybody at UM know that SFA draws large segments of its student body to the Piney Woods of East Texas from well-off Dallas and Houston kids who partied too much in high school to get into Texas or A&M? The running joke when I was at SFA was that you might not be able to afford to eat in Nacogdoches, but you could always find a keg of a beer and a hit of Mexican weed. And there was the informal school slogan: “SFA: Home of virgin pines and tall women.”
The Lumberjacks meant no disrespect. They were paying tribute to Missoula in the best way they knew how. And they got it repaid on Saturday afternoon.
