Chip Kent and his son C.J., 9, of Suwanee, Ga., watch from their sleeping bags as the movie “Rudy” is played during a sleepover in the College Football Hall of Fame just after midnight on Aug. 14, 2014, in Atlanta.Ask 100 college football fans what they like best about the sport and chances are you’ll get 100 different answers.
Lifelong Tennessee fan Clay Pogue, for instance, might write: “College football is great because you get to see guys put it all on the line for their state and teammates before some become tainted by the money and it becomes a job.”
Notre Dame supporter Tom Darrow, whose father was a Golden Domer grad, could choose to pen: “In 1956, my father boarded a bus with one suitcase in Green Bay, WI, for the long ride to South Bend, Indiana. He worked serving food in the priests’ dining hall for four years and worked his way through the University of Notre Dame. I realized a few years ago that I was really proud of my father for working his way through Notre Dame and laying the legacy for my sister and me. Growing up a Notre Dame fan and having it amplified through my four years as a student and now as an alumnus has taught me much about college football.”
Those are portions of the essays that won Pogue from Estill Springs, Tenn., and Darrow from Murphy, N.C., a free night’s campout at the new College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta courtesy of Chick-fil-A, which sponsored the contest.
“Oh, it was great. Chick-fil-A really rolled out the red carpet,” said Darrow, a businessman who splits his time between Murphy and Atlanta. “They even had 20 kids or so lining the entrance to the Hall when we arrived, cheering us on. When they saw my Golden Dome hard hat with the Mother Mary statue on top, a couple of them even sang the Notre Dame fight song.”