Sunday, April 1, 2012

Watching Andy Griffith

I was born in Kentucky.  I started listening to UK basketball games when I was around nine or ten years old on and old radio that had been converted from batter to regular electricity.  When I was growing up and UK was on TV we would all watch the game but we would turn the sound off and listen to Cawood Ledford calling the game on the radio.

We did not see a lot of the games live but they were replayed on a delayed basis at 11:30 PM.  On game nights I never got to bed before 1:30 AM.  And I listened to Cawood call the game live first.  I'll tell you, Cawood was no 'homer'.  I'd watch the delayed telecast and not recognize the game except for the score.  Cawood was hard on "our boys" even if he was paid by UK.

Then when the VCR came along I'd listen to Cawood live, watch (and record) the game at 11:30 then watch it every day on the VCR until the next game came on.  You might say I was a UK fan.  I'd never miss a second of a UK basketball game if I could help it.

That all changed in the 1978 NCAA tournament against Duke.  Early in the game Duke was delivering a good butt kicking to my beloved Cats.  I could not stand to watch that (especially because it was Duke) so I flipped channels until I came to an old Andy Griffith show. 

I'd flip back to the game to check the score and UK would be closing the gap.  Until I started watching the game then Duke would pull away again so I'd go back to watching Andy.  This was repeated and the longer I watched Andy the closer  UK got.    Eventually, UK won and whenever UK has been behind since I've always switched channels and preferably to Andy Griffith reruns.  I'm firmly convinced I'm a UK Jinx.  As long as I don't watch the game they will win but as soon as I tune in they start screwing up and I go back looking for Andy so the Cats will win.

Tomorrow is the NCAA finals.  My Cats are one of the teams.  I'd love to be watching them kick some Jayhawk butt but I'll be looking for Andy Griffith reruns so the Cats will win.  I'll sacrifice my pleasure in watching the Cats  so I won't Jinx them.  I hope everyone appreciates my sacrifice in this.

GO BIG BLUE!

2 comments:

  1. so your who i got the jinx from... every time i watch a game the team im watching loses... its so bad I have been banned from all games of my kids and nieces and nephews... I always wondered why this happens now i know
    Your Loving Niece
    Patty Jo

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  2. cool page!!!!!!!! could you make a page just on Andy smoking? i have a project on it.
    a friend (you no who)

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