DEL.ICIO.USNCAA BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT
UGA hoops diehards have kept faithThe Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 03/19/08
Athens — Roy Bell has been a Georgia basketball season-ticket holder since 1978. But it wasn't until this year that he decided to do something he'd thought about for three decades.
Bell went to every SEC road game the Bulldogs played. Of course, that meant seeing them Georgia lose seven out of eight times.
"I have no idea why all the sudden I told my wife I'm going to do it this year," said Bell, who owns a construction company in Athens. "I wanted to see the different venues. I wanted to stand in Rupp Arena."
Fortunately for Bell, he decided to include the SEC tournament in his travels. He watched every minute of every game as the Bulldogs won their first tournament title in a quarter century.
"It was like the dream basketball weekend that I always felt was going to happen at some point," he said.
Bell's not about to pull out now. He packed his pickup truck Tuesday night and left at first light Wednesday morning to make the 610-mile drive to Washington, D.C., to see the Bulldogs take on Xavier in the NCAA tournament.
Bell is, of course, a rarity of sorts. Though his wife, Debbie, works at UGA, he doesn't go to football games.
But Georgia basketball of all things is something he just can't get enough of.
"The main reason is I saw Pete Maravich play [at the Coliseum] when he was at LSU," said Bell, 56. "I went to one game with my girlfriend's family when I was in high school and it got me hooked."
Believe it or not, Bell is not alone. There is a small but fiercely loyal group of basketball-only Bulldogs fans, all of whom are beside themselves this week.
Here are a few:
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Jesse Kenney, Bogart
Kenney owns a business that assists schools and non-profits with fundraising. It was that enterprising spirit that got him involved with UGA basketball.
"I'm from Kentucky so I've always loved basketball," Kenney said. "When I moved to Athens I just started playing golf with bunch of guys that were involved with the basketball program I went to the games and noticed they didn't have any boosters. I realized if you spent a little bit of money you could get front-row seats so I got involved."
It just so happened that Kenney's first season was 1983 when Georgia went to the Final Four. But he said even that didn't compare to what happened this past weekend.
"It was incredible. My feet haven't hit the floor yet," Kenney said.
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Aubrey Garrison, Athens
Garrison, a financial consultant, first attended Georgia basketball games as a student in the mid-1960s but he didn't really get into it until 1983 when the Bulldogs went to the Final Four.
"That's right about the time I moved back from Colorado," Garrison said. "I didn't go to the Final Four but I was there at the airport when they came back from Albuquerque."
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Roger Harris, Athens
Harris, who owns an accounting and tax franchise in Athens, became involved with the basketball program in the 1980s when he started handling the taxes of coach Hugh Durham. Since then he has done — and still does — the taxes of all of UGA's basketball coaches.
Harris traveled with the team as a guest of the athletics department to two road games this season and attended all the SEC tournament games.
Though Harris will be in Washington, D.C., Saturday he more than likely will have to miss Bulldogs' 12:20 p.m. game.
"As luck would have it I have a meeting at the IRS [Internal Revenue Service] until noon and one on Capitol Hill at 1:45," Harris said.
"I'm saving my dollars for the Final Four anyway."
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