Fight? Why Ruin A Good Party?
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Hill Country Living
By Coulter Fussell
Well, what can one say about that game that hasn’t already been said? I’ll just join the chorus and say that it was the best game I’ve ever been to in my life. I’ll never forget it! Of course, as my dad always pointed out whenever I said I would never forget something, “Well, you might forget it. You never know.” So, if all works out according to plan, I’ll never forget when Ole Miss stomped LSU into the turf of Vaught-Hemingway on Sept. 19, 2026.
There were predictions in the national media that the atmosphere in Oxford, the Grove and the stadium would be unsafe. I have no doubt in my mind those insinuations were coming from LSU projecting their own behavior onto Ole Miss and Oxford. Unbeknownst to themselves, LSU was telling national media outlets that Oxford would be violent towards them because that’s simply what LSU would do. It never occurred to them that Ole Miss knows that fights break up a party and we can’t risk that.
If my many years of service industry work in Oxford has taught me anything, it’s what fan bases have the potential for violence. Not only is LSU at the top of the list, LSU is the list.
I had my favorite fan bases during those years of service industry work. In my experience, Georgia and Texas A&M knew how to travel and didn’t make things harder for anyone or themselves. Alabama fans closely resemble LSU fans in their complete lack of sophistication but, more often than not, a Bama fan’s ace in the hole was that they would win. So, there was never much to argue about.
My favorite fan base to serve was always Vanderbilt. There weren’t many of them, and they tipped higher than other fan bases. They also didn’t discuss football at their tables. I wasn’t even always sure they were there for a game — like maybe they just happened to be in town for an academic conference, and also their football team was there, too.
I don’t like Auburn for geographical reasons having to do with my hometown of Columbus, Georgia, so we won’t discuss them. Next.
LSU games were light years beyond the other teams in terms of drunken, violent potential. It’s their innate crassness. I would have mercy and say they can’t help it but I actually think violence is their goal. Whenever I saw a trashy LSU gameday outfit this past weekend, my first thought was to feel pity that the woman didn’t know better but then had to remind myself that she did know better. She woke up and chose fashion violence.
But, at the end of the day, you can’t help but admire them for the spirit. The most incredible character of my life was my great-uncle Leonard, the deputy game warden of Tangipahoa Parish. He had pictures all over his living room walls of him holding open the mouths of freshly poached alligators. He wore purple pants and yellow suspenders every game day, even when watching from his recliner at home. His wife, my great-aunt, Bootsie Root, not only had the greatest name of all time but would do the Charleston in her little kitchen in their house in Kentwood, Louisiana. While dancing, she would hold her finger and thumb up to indicate just a tiny smidgen and say, “I want me thiiiis much bourbon….in a glass the size of a bathtub!”
