More Than Just Football

When a subscriber contacted UGASports.com during this past football season with a story idea regarding a father-son pair, which had been attending a college football game at a different venue annually for the last few years, I jumped at the chance for an interview.

You see, ever since I began covering Georgia football on a full-time basis in 2015, I can no longer take my young son to Bulldog games; therefore, like Chris and Tyler Redlitz, my son, Trip, and I have attended a game at a different venue for the last four years on Georgia’s annual open date. This last season, we visited Camp Randall Stadium for Illinois at Wisconsin—where it actually snowed during the game (and in mid- October). As for the Redlitzs, they attended Tennessee at Georgia in Sanford Stadium where, among other things, their appreciation for Southern football and the hospitality of the region’s people was heightened even more so.

“I grew up in California, so I had gone to a lot of Pac-10 games—and Tyler and I had attended a lot of Big Ten games together—but it seemed like everybody talked about the SEC,” said Chris Redlitz, who runs a venture capital firm and a non-profit organization in San Francisco. “So, we were like, okay, let’s see how the SEC compares to the Big Ten.”

Tyler, who is in his mid-30s and works for a financial company in New York City, attended the University of Michigan, where he was a student manager for the school’s football program. To see his son, Chris attended Wolverine games—both home and away—and was fully exposed to the culture of Michigan and Big Ten football.

Nearly a decade later, the pair decided to do a 14-year, entire tour of the SEC, beginning with an LSU game in Baton Rouge during the 2016 season, followed by Tennessee in 2017. It was in Knoxville, where the Volunteers were hosting Georgia, that they had a chance meeting with the aforementioned UGASports.com subscriber.

“We met [the subscriber] at the Georgia-Tennessee game last year, and told him what we were doing,” Redlitz said. “He said that if we were to visit anywhere in the SEC, we had to go to Athens. So, he convinced us to go to Georgia for 2018.”

The day prior to the game at Sanford Stadium, the Redlitzs first played golf at The Georgia Club, then toured the UGA campus before going out in Athens that night.

“The Georgia campus is phenomenal and super clean,” Redlitz said. “Coming from the different schools we’ve seen, the UGA campus was something that was super impressive to us.”

Wearing the local flavor, as they do every year, the father and son tailgated donned in red and black, when they promptly sensed character traits familiar to them in the South—and not necessarily before embarking on their tour of the SEC.

“The hospitality of SEC football fans and the congeniality between fan bases are unparallel,” Redlitz said. “Southern hospitality really is true, and we’re experiencing that for the first time as we do this tour. Big Ten fan bases can be pretty confrontational, especially between Michigan and Ohio State. The congeniality between SEC fans has been very impressive. It doesn’t exist as much in the Big Ten.”

After witnessing a 38-12 victory by Georgia over Tennessee, Chris and Tyler Redlitz again went out in Athens that night. By the end of their trip to the Classic City, as had been the case for their two previous trips to SEC schools, the father and son had connected again—and beyond a common interest they shared.

“For my son and me, it’s great to have a similar interest which revolves around football,” Redlitz said. “Still, our trips to SEC schools are more than just about football, but a chance for us to connect—and it’s so important we do that.”

For next year, the Redlitzs already have plans to see Alabama host a game at Bryant-Denny Stadium. As for my son and me, we usually don’t plan our annual college-football excursion until late summer, but realize our options will be expanded since Georgia has two open dates scheduled for the 2019 season.

Since last corresponding with Chris, when I informed him of our trip to Wisconsin, I’ve also realized to heed some of his advice, you could say—Redlitz’s last statement to me via text—something I admittingly thought little about during Trip and my first four ventures to college campuses.

“You have a lot to look forward to as your son gets older,” Redlitz started, “whether that involves football—or revolves around anything else.”