A Starkville Hit and Run

It had been eight years since I had been back to Humphrey Coliseum, aka “The Hump,” one of the most significant stops (for me, anyway) on the college sports landscape.

Starkville, Mississippi is one of those towns that is generally ridiculed by barnstorming TV personnel, who refer to it as “Stark Vegas.” But like most other “happening” college towns like West Lafayette IN, Manhattan KS, or Pullman WA, the desolate journey to the middle of nowhere is the problem. The towns themselves are alright. Lunch at the Cotton District Grill was very strong.

Starkville has sentimental value for me, since 10 years ago I met my wife while she was a grad student in MSU’s fine Broadcast Meteorology department, and she was living in this quaint, stand-alone house known as "the temple." An appropriate moniker considering the number of times she would shout "Oh my God!" on my visits there.

That’s where the roller-coaster ride began. Omaha. Kalamazoo. Savannah. Two kids. Our first house. And a future that is still unwritten. You’d think life would age me.

But fortunately video tape wizard and TV archivist “Hash” was on site with me this week (hadn't seen him in years either). And it just so happens he had pictures of me, taken at age 20 and 30.

Now I was blown away that my 40 looks so much like my 30. Must be all that clean living. That and I guess nobody will ever know if my hair turned gray. Even Hash is Gray (in more ways than one) and he's younger than I am. But he also extrapolated my looks to age 50, and it's not a pretty picture.

Dr. Evil, you complete me.