LEXINGTON, Ky. - Out in the Commonwealth Stadium parking lot were plenty of ghosts and goblins and witches late Saturday afternoon. It was Halloween, after all, which meant the Kentucky-Tennessee game figured to have plenty of tricks and treats once the gray, damp sky turned dark.
And true to form, the underdog Wildcats delivered an early treat to their fans when defensive lineman Cory Johnson picked up a fumble by UT quarterback Joshua Dobbs and returned it 77 yards for an early 7-0 lead. But true to a series in which the Volunteers have won 30 of the last 31 meetings, Tennessee rolled to a 52-21 win.
But the fact that Kentucky was playing its ninth night game in nine contests has been anything but a treat for both fans of the Wildcats and their opponents, as well as school employees.
"The atmosphere's great, but it's a long night," said UK fan David Johnson, a resident of the Louisville area. "It makes getting to church tough on Sunday morning."
Saturday's Breeders' Cup thoroughbred racing event at nearby Keeneland made it tougher on everyone, including the thousands of Tennessee fans who make the trip every other year to the Bluegrass for the longtime rivalry, which reached its 111th game between the two on Saturday.
Even the Tennessee team stayed nearly 80 miles north of Lexington in Cincinnati, leaving Knoxville in five buses. After stopping at Commonwealth for a 20-minute walk-through, the Vols proceeded on to Cincy, where they stayed until 4 p.m. Saturday before taking the 90-minute bus ride back to Commonwealth. The team was due home sometime around 2:30 this morning, or 1:30 once the end of daylight savings time is factored in.
Yet the Vols fans were just as inconvenienced as the team by the Breeders' Cup. Knoxville residents Brian and Craig Nelson had tried for months to get a hotel room near Lexington, never finding anything closer than Louisville, which is more than 80 miles away.
"But we kept trying, calling every day," Mr. Nelson said. "Finally, sometime last week, we got a Hampton Inn in Georgetown (Ky.), which is just a few miles north of here."
Said Mrs. Nelson: "And it couldn't be nicer. It's perfect."
Asked the price, her husband said, "I don't know yet. We're just grateful to have a room."
As game time approached, stories of outrageously high prices due to the double trouble of attempting to house both football and race fans were as common as little girls in Elsa costumes.
Single nights as high as $500 were repeated more than once. One member of UT's traveling party told of his parents paying more than $215 for a Saturday night at a well-known economy hotel chain in Georgetown.
Still, the Breeders' Cup conflicting with a UK home game has never happened before, nor may it happen again.
But as the demands of television move more and more games to night kickoffs, the fans aren't the only ones enduring longer and longer Saturdays.
"Whether the kickoff is at noon or 7:30 at night, we open our gates at 8 a.m. on game day," said Tony Neely, UK's assistant athletic director for media relations. "Our staff gets paid, but on a night game it can be after midnight when they go home. That's a long day. And when you're the road team, particularly support staff and coaches, you get home at 2:30 on Sunday morning, then have to work a full day later that day, it's a real challenge."
And only one Sunday a season do you get one of those hours back.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com