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This won't make a certain Citibank employee very happy. 
http://www.argusleader.com/sports/Mondayarticle3.shtml
Life on I-AA's pinnacle
Chris Solari
Argus Leader
published: 11/1/2004
SDSU gets a feel for an elite-level program in journey to Georgia
STATESBORO, Ga. - Jonathan Childree went to his first Georgia Southern game at 3 weeks old, every bit as much an infant in his mother's papoose as the first-year Eagles' football team was on the field.
Childree has since grown up, now a senior at the school and a member of a fraternity. His passion for Georgia Southern football has matured along with an Eagles program that has become a year-in, year-out contender for the Division I-AA national championship.
"It's just a laid-back atmosphere," 22-year-old Childree said while sipping a beer before Saturday's game with South Dakota State. "Everybody gets ready for the Eagles. It's just a tradition, a longtime tradition."
South Dakota State administrators hope a similar tradition one day spreads throughout their state with the Jackrabbits' move to Division I. Saturday, fans from South Dakota who made the long trip got a first-hand view of what the top rank of Division I-AA football looks and feels like.
In Statesboro, the GSU team is every bit a part of the town's fabric as a steamy helping of grits and the Dixie-inspired state flag.
In the late 1970s, then-Georgia Southern President Dale Lick decided it was time to revive the school's football program, which went on hiatus during World War II and disappeared shortly thereafter. When Lick hired Erk Russell in 1981 to start the program from scratch, legend has it that then-Athletic Director Bucky Wagner had to run across the street to a department store to buy a football before the official announcement because the school didn't even own one.
Play began in the 1982 season. Russell, a former University of Georgia assistant coach, brought immediate credibility to the effort and an excellent eye for talent. In 1985, the program's fourth year, it all paid off as Russell led the Eagles to their first national championship. In 1986, the team repeated and a national power was born. . . .
GSU also won championships in 1989, 1990, 1999 and 2000. The last one came at Big Sky Conference member Montana, which SDSU will play next year.
Ever since 1982's first season, Bohler and his children and grandchildren have ardently supported the Eagles' team, making game days a family occasion. Most of the community shares the same backing. The capacity for Allen E. Paulson Stadium in Statesboro is about 18,000, and the school has full houses on a regular basis. Against SDSU, 17,463 fans showed up. . . .
Strips of pavement divide the grassy rows that Eagle fans park on to tailgate, with barbecue grills and picnic benches lined up underneath a white water tower with the Georgia Southern logo and "Southern Boosters" written on it. Fathers pass footballs to sons while mothers and daughters sip their drinks and nibble on food under canopy tents. The blue-and-gold Eagle flags display their passion for football even more prominently than rebel Dixie ones that show their pride in being a Southerner.
The two-tent tailgate the Childrees and Bohlers throw is no exception. Generations of his relatives sit around mixing talk of politics with the usual bonding and reminiscing. And when the subject changes to football, it just like bringing up Aunt Millie - it's family.
As the team's beat-up, old, yellow school bus pulls up with its police escort , which has its lights flashing and sirens blaring - another GSU tradition - every fan's attention turns toward Paulson Stadium. Within minutes, tailgaters' car horns begin to chirp like crickets, spreading across the parking lot in homage.
State Senator Jack Hill, stumping throughout the sea of minivans and SUVs during the pregame festivities, graduated from Georgia Southern, as did most of his family. He estimates the state has infused about $300 million on the Statesboro campus in the last 20 years.
"This is the Land that Erk built," Hill said. "(Football) completely raises the view of this area. If it was not for Southern, this would just be another rural town."
Inside the 20-year-old stadium, beside the pole with the American flag and a Georgia Southern flag below it, stands another one flying all six NCAA Division I-AA national championship banners. A video scoreboard shows the Eagle Band during its pregame show just before kickoff. Throughout the contest, fans on the north side stands in front of the SDSU bench boom out "Georgia!" in a call-and-response, with the south bleachers answering "Southern!" That's followed by the first side chanting, "Whose house?" and the others replying "Our house!"
Those in the north bleachers, predominantly students, get on the SDSU players as soon as they take the field, spending the entire afternoon jawing at the Division I-AA rookie Jackrabbits . . .
Go State! ;D
http://www.argusleader.com/sports/Mondayarticle3.shtml
Life on I-AA's pinnacle
Chris Solari
Argus Leader
published: 11/1/2004
SDSU gets a feel for an elite-level program in journey to Georgia
STATESBORO, Ga. - Jonathan Childree went to his first Georgia Southern game at 3 weeks old, every bit as much an infant in his mother's papoose as the first-year Eagles' football team was on the field.
Childree has since grown up, now a senior at the school and a member of a fraternity. His passion for Georgia Southern football has matured along with an Eagles program that has become a year-in, year-out contender for the Division I-AA national championship.
"It's just a laid-back atmosphere," 22-year-old Childree said while sipping a beer before Saturday's game with South Dakota State. "Everybody gets ready for the Eagles. It's just a tradition, a longtime tradition."
South Dakota State administrators hope a similar tradition one day spreads throughout their state with the Jackrabbits' move to Division I. Saturday, fans from South Dakota who made the long trip got a first-hand view of what the top rank of Division I-AA football looks and feels like.
In Statesboro, the GSU team is every bit a part of the town's fabric as a steamy helping of grits and the Dixie-inspired state flag.
In the late 1970s, then-Georgia Southern President Dale Lick decided it was time to revive the school's football program, which went on hiatus during World War II and disappeared shortly thereafter. When Lick hired Erk Russell in 1981 to start the program from scratch, legend has it that then-Athletic Director Bucky Wagner had to run across the street to a department store to buy a football before the official announcement because the school didn't even own one.
Play began in the 1982 season. Russell, a former University of Georgia assistant coach, brought immediate credibility to the effort and an excellent eye for talent. In 1985, the program's fourth year, it all paid off as Russell led the Eagles to their first national championship. In 1986, the team repeated and a national power was born. . . .
GSU also won championships in 1989, 1990, 1999 and 2000. The last one came at Big Sky Conference member Montana, which SDSU will play next year.
Ever since 1982's first season, Bohler and his children and grandchildren have ardently supported the Eagles' team, making game days a family occasion. Most of the community shares the same backing. The capacity for Allen E. Paulson Stadium in Statesboro is about 18,000, and the school has full houses on a regular basis. Against SDSU, 17,463 fans showed up. . . .
Strips of pavement divide the grassy rows that Eagle fans park on to tailgate, with barbecue grills and picnic benches lined up underneath a white water tower with the Georgia Southern logo and "Southern Boosters" written on it. Fathers pass footballs to sons while mothers and daughters sip their drinks and nibble on food under canopy tents. The blue-and-gold Eagle flags display their passion for football even more prominently than rebel Dixie ones that show their pride in being a Southerner.
The two-tent tailgate the Childrees and Bohlers throw is no exception. Generations of his relatives sit around mixing talk of politics with the usual bonding and reminiscing. And when the subject changes to football, it just like bringing up Aunt Millie - it's family.
As the team's beat-up, old, yellow school bus pulls up with its police escort , which has its lights flashing and sirens blaring - another GSU tradition - every fan's attention turns toward Paulson Stadium. Within minutes, tailgaters' car horns begin to chirp like crickets, spreading across the parking lot in homage.
State Senator Jack Hill, stumping throughout the sea of minivans and SUVs during the pregame festivities, graduated from Georgia Southern, as did most of his family. He estimates the state has infused about $300 million on the Statesboro campus in the last 20 years.
"This is the Land that Erk built," Hill said. "(Football) completely raises the view of this area. If it was not for Southern, this would just be another rural town."
Inside the 20-year-old stadium, beside the pole with the American flag and a Georgia Southern flag below it, stands another one flying all six NCAA Division I-AA national championship banners. A video scoreboard shows the Eagle Band during its pregame show just before kickoff. Throughout the contest, fans on the north side stands in front of the SDSU bench boom out "Georgia!" in a call-and-response, with the south bleachers answering "Southern!" That's followed by the first side chanting, "Whose house?" and the others replying "Our house!"
Those in the north bleachers, predominantly students, get on the SDSU players as soon as they take the field, spending the entire afternoon jawing at the Division I-AA rookie Jackrabbits . . .
Go State! ;D
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