Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Inside the mind of a fan without boundaries

ESPN's Wright Thompson does a masterful job in this portrait of Harvey Updyke, an almost hypnotically fervent Alabama fan accused of poisoning the oak trees at Toomer's Corner in Auburn.

The insights are many as Thompson -- and Updyke -- swing back and forth between the two personas in play here -- one of them a fan so over-the-top that his means of dealing with the pain of Auburn's comeback win in Tuscaloosa last year was to inflict some pain of his own.

Read more here.

MG

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

That was a fascinating read. I sense that Wright Thompson constructed the article to stir up sympathy for the guy. Good luck with that. His defenses, "I didn't know it was illegal" and "I didn't do it, he did!" ring hollow.

I also found interesting his accusation of Auburn fans deficating on Bear Bryant's grave. I imagine he heard that from the same source that told him the rolling of the Toomer's Corner oaks began on the day of Bear's death - someone as crazy as he is.

Anonymous said...

The ACC was 2-0 against the SEC in bowl games last year