Happily Ever Williams: Alabama Crimson Tide Fan Day 2012

If you know my precious boyfriend, Kip, then you know how obsessed he is with autographed memorabilia! And let me tell you...he is one dedicated autograph collector (and I must be one dedicated girlfriend), because this entire weekend was devoted to standing in 2 extremely long lines to get autographs. Saturday, we headed down to Trussville to the Lightning Strikes bowling alley for the "Bama Champs Fighting for Brielle" fundraiser. Derrick Warren's (former Alabama football player) daughter has been diagnosed with a rare disease called Alexanders disease. Prince Wimbley put on a big fundraiser/autograph signing with about 30 former Alabama football players (most of which came from the 1992 national championship team) along with Jay Barker and Coach Gene Stallings. The cost to get in was $10.00 per person, and you were allowed to have 2 items signed by all the players that were there. We got there about 3:45 and doors opened at 4:00. When we got there, there were probably about 50+ people already in line. At 4pm they opened the doors, and we went outside and got in another line. The autograph session didn't actually start until 6pm. So we stood in the heat for over 2 hours waiting to get into the autograph session. We FINALLY made it into the room where the players were about 7:15pm and let a little before 8pm. I was exhausted and hungry, but it was for a good cause and we got some pretty awesome autographs out of it!

This is the only picture I took while we were there. Coach Gene Stallings and Jay Barker

On Sunday, Alabama had there 2012 Fan Day. I had never been before and didn't know what to expect. All I knew was that practice for the football team was 2:30 - 4:30 pm and they opened the gates at 1:30 pm for the autograph signing to began lining up and the session wouldn't start until practice was over. Kip wanted to leave about 8:00 that morning and I wasn't so sure about that. But we did as Kip wanted and got to Tuscaloosa about 10:15am. The line was already EXTREMELY long and yet again...I was questioning every move we made. There were probably at least 200+ people already in front of us and I just knew we were going to stand in line for hours and not get a single autograph. Luckily we carried chairs to sit in while we waited.

The people in front of us.

The gates to the stadium opened at 1:30 pm, so we waited outside about 3 hours before we went into the stadium. Once we got in the stadium, we waited some more. They had BIG fans set up throughout the inside of the stadium and concession stands where we were lined up, so it wasn't too bad of a wait. We could even see a little of the practice where were too. We waited until about 4:15, and everybody started moving. We moved into this tunnel packed in like sardines, sweat just running down everyone's faces. It was SO HOT in that tunnel I thought I might pass out. We were in the tunnel for 30 minutes (but it seemed like hours). As soon as everybody started moving closer to the gate, it was a fight to the front, literally. People were pushing, shoving, just trying anything to get closer to the front of the line. We finally got out of the tunnel far enough to see the opposing team's locker room (The Fail Room). You could see the players on the field, still practicing. We waited there another 10-15 minutes until FINALLY they opened the gate and let us free! As soon as you hit the field it was a dead sprint to where you wanted to go. We hit the defense first, and got a lot of autographs of big name players (and some we hope will be big name players in the future!), then on to the defensive coaches, Kirby Smart & Jeremy Pruitt & strength and conditioning coach Scott Cochran. Next, we HAD to find Carson Tinker. That is the whole reason I stood in that massively long line for HOURS. I WANTED Carson's autograph more than anything. I have followed his story since the April 27th tornados and he has become my favorite Bama football player. Kip's friend, Wolfe (who Kip gets a lot of autograph stuff from) got me a #5 for Carson to sign, and Kip is going to get a jersey made for me! :)

It took us FOREVER to find the Special Teams table. We ran up and down the field 2 times before we finally found him. Once I got his autograph I was set for the day and didn't care who else we got! But I ran around for Kip and for my brother and got lots of autographs. We didn't get a few big names we were wanting like Eddie Lacey, AJ McCarron, Nick Saban, Robert Lester, or Barrett Jones but we still ended up a pretty good collection of Bama players autographs! It was definitely worth the wait, sweat, heat, and exhaustion though and can't wait to go back next year!! :) I will leave you with a few pictures of Dylan's helmet I got signed for him yesterday!