The Catch And The Punch

By Sonja Sykes

I counted up the other night and realized that I’ve been to the Liberty Bowl in Memphis 17 times over the years to watch football, and will be in attendance again this Friday. The University of Louisville football team faces the Tigers again in a series that has offered some exciting (and forgettable) games over the years.

My most memorable game? It would have to be the 1999 win, which featured “the catch” and “the punch.”  I’ll explain. We had made the trip to Memphis with several couples and arrived the day before the contest. The guys played golf that first day, and the girls made a trip to Tunica, memorable because I won $550 on a dollar slot machine as we were getting ready to leave.

“One of the guys told Bob to make him shut up, and before I knew it, this guy had shoved Bob to the concrete.”

After several hours of tailgating on game day, we entered the stadium wondering how our 3-3 Cardinals would do against our arch-rivals. It didn’t take long to find out. Louisville jumped on the Tigers early, scoring 19 points in the first quarter.

Quarterback Chris Redman was on fire early, and a disillusioned Memphis crowd watched glumly as the small but vocal Cardinal cheering section celebrated in the corner of the Liberty Bowl. Louisville slowed down a bit in the second quarter, but still took a 19-12 lead to the locker room at halftime. My dutiful husband went to fetch me a soft drink at halftime, and his buddy Bob tagged along to do the same for his wife..

As he tells the story…

“We were standing in line, waiting to place our orders and getting a lot of flack from a couple of obviously drunk Memphis State fans. It just kept getting louder and cruder, and finally Bob turned around and told them to put an end to it. One of the guys told Bob to make him shut up, and before I knew it, this guy had shoved Bob to the concrete. He turned to me and without hesitation, I fired a right cross to his chin, planting him on the concrete next to Bob. Then, people started restraining me…the police came over and after a long discussion with all of us and a few fans…Bob, me and the two Memphis State fans were escorted to the exit and thrown out of the game.”

“Then, I formulated a plan to get back in the Liberty Bowl. We walked around to the other side of the stadium, and found a “scalper” who was leaving and gave us two tickets for $10 each.”

Word got back to me about the incident from a friend who witnessed the whole thing, and I debated whether I should leave or not…but I decided to stay …there was nothing I could do about it, and Paul had the car keys anyway. The second half had started, the Tigers were scoring and Cardinal fans were nervous.

“After Bob and I were tossed out of the game, we went back to the car and had an “adult beverage”. Then, I formulated a plan to get back in the Liberty Bowl.  We walked around to the other side of the stadium, and found a “scalper” who was leaving and gave us two tickets for $10 each.” Paul continues.

“We decided that we’d need a little disguise, in case we ran into the officers again…so we bought two Memphis jerseys and a couple of Tiger ballcaps, put them on. We walked back around to our seats…in fact we walked right by the group of officers that had thrown us out, and they didn’t even recognize us! We got back to our seats with about 8 minutes left in the game, to the cheers and applause of out friends and other Cardinal fans.”

By then, the Tigers had scored 31 straight points and led 31-19. It looked bad for UofL but Redman rallied the Cards for a long drive and hit Arnold Jackson with a pass to get us back within 5. All the fans started going crazy then, and when we got the ball back and started driving again, the Louisville fans went nuts.

With 11 seconds on the clock, and the Cards at the Memphis 18 yard line, the Cards took a time out and we discussed what they might do in this situation. The consensus was try to get the ball to Jackson in the end zone.  Maybe we would  have time for one more play if the pass failed. Redman took the snap, dropped back and fired the ball to a diving Lavell Boyd, who made a flying catch…wrapped it up and the Cards regained the lead with six seconds left.

Bob and my husband kept their Memphis jerseys and hats as a reminder of that wacky evening in Memphis…Paul got his signed by Lavelle Boyd and it rests this day in a picture frame in our basement, with a placard on it simply saying “the Catch”.

Here’s to another exciting, but less stressful trip to Memphis this Friday…