you'll have to sit by me. 1st to pm.
I didn't have many personal interactions with fatty, but even so I felt like I knew him. I remember him as a young poster (he and others like Torguga were sort of the Winters of the early 2000s), then the videos, then the optimistic fan we've seen the last several years. I have always had an extra measure of respect for those fans that stuck with basketball and liked to post about it when being a K-State basketball fan was hard. By the time BBSing came around it was easy to be a football poster, but basketball was different. GPC had a free board for a time devoted to basketball, called the "Ahearn board", but like Altman, Asbury, and Wooly, it went away. A dozen or so of us were regulars, and when it died most migrated to other places with what I'm sure most thought was a foolish hope for the future of K-State hoops. The losses continued to mount and the disappointing season piled up, but a few of us remained, and fatty was one of those.
It was spring break, March of 2006 when much of that changed. I remember being in Bramlage and seeing him. There was an surreal excitment for fans like us, and we listened with hope as Bob Huggins was introduced that day. We talked about the anticipation of finally having some hope for basketball. It was a good day.
There were some other interactions through the years. A time or two at the westside Dillons for a quick conversation about K-State sports. The Central Florida football game when I got a call from a strange number (it ended up being fatty's) that ended up being from my wife and youngest son. They were sitting elsewhere in BSFS when the weird weather hit and were alright; somehow they ran into fatty and he let them use his phone to give me a call.
But then came that post and I thought going to a game with fatty sounded like a great time. I was not disappointed. Back and forth discussion about great moments of Wooldridge ball and the joy that the last couple years had brought. Memories of Snyder's first set of great years and the pride K-State football brought at the time. Little did I know that not only would I not ever have a chance to enjoy a game with him, but more importantly never would fatty get a chance to enjoy a game at the OOD, a place he had likely been hundreds of times.
Today I brought my 8 year old with me, and we sat in those same seats that I sat with fatty in a few months ago. A fellow goemawer told me before the game what he knew and I didn't really want to believe it. I only got confirmation after the game started. It was bittersweet watching with my son, hearing him enjoy going back and forth from his iPod to watching the game to finding his favorite player JO and remembering the game I got to watch with fatty. But I thought as I watched that fatty would've wanted me to enjoy the game and to cheer. So I did.
Fatty loved K-State, but more importantly he loved what K-State sports did for people. We talked quite a bit about our families that warm December night and even though our backgrounds were dramatically different, both of us came from families where sports (specifically K-State) brought us together in ways nothing else could. Sure, there were down times as a K-State fan, but the highs and what they did for K-Staters were special. The bowl games, the Big 12 title, Beasley and Bill beating KU, the Xavier thriller, and countless more. Only things like these could bring together people like fatty and I. Fatty had a knack for understanding this like few others fans; the things that make K-State and its fans special.
Its for this fatty will be extremely missed. Its a sad day to be EMAW, we've lost not just a good one, but one of the best.
