Wednesday, March 13, 2002

Who is the Tigerpundit?

My name is Trey Barrineau, a lifelong Clemson fan from Charlotte, N.C. I was born in 1966, and was taught to love the Tigers by my father, Bill Barrineau. He's a businessman in Charlotte and has been an IPTAY member and season-ticket holder for many years. Now here's the funny part: Neither I nor my Dad went to Clemson. He went to Pfeiffer College and I went to Appalachian State. But we are both dedicated fans. (He was taught to love Clemson by his dad.) We've attended at least one (usually many more than one) game a year every year since 1975. We sit in the North Stands, Section U, and have for a long time. My father was inspired to join IPTAY by his uncle, Yank Barrineau, a huge Clemson supporter. He used to hook us up with tickets before Dad joined. We'd drive down from Charlotte and meet Uncle Yank and Aunt Thelma at the Holiday Inn there in Clemson, have a buffet breakfast or lunch, and head to the game. That was in the late 1970s, when Clemson was emerging from a long down period. Boy, did we stink. I was only a kid and I could tell we were lousy. We may not be a college football superpower nowadays, but I don't think we'll ever revisit the kind of gutter we inhabited in 1976. I now live in Northern Virginia, and am unable to attend as many games as I could when I used to live in Asheville, N.C. But I still went to five games last season, and I'll probably do the same this year. Heck, I'm already anxious for that Georgia game on Aug. 31. We will be there for that. It should be fun. I haven't been to Athens since the mid-1980s.

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