State-Journal.com - "Oh the sun shines bright...'

WARNING to all opposing fans and teams:
Disrespect our song at your own peril!

"Oh the sun shines bright,
On my Old Kentucky home "

MEMPHIS " As we do each time our Wildcats prepare to take the field at beautiful Commonwealth Stadium, we the faithful stood and sang on a cool Friday evening last week while our 6-6 underdogs waited in the tunnel at ratty Liberty Bowl Stadium here.

Our heads were bared and our hearts filled as the words wafted over the sounds of a train shivering the timbers of the historic old haunts of the Memphis Tigers.

"weep no more my lady, oh weep no more today "

And just about then it happened.

From across the field sounds not harmonious with Stephen Foster's famous song arose from a gaggle of purple-and-gold clad East Carolina University Pirates fans. Whether it was a "boo" or a "jeer" " or maybe it was that disgusting "arrrgh" we heard everywhere " it was hard to tell.

Fact was, as today's athletes are fond of saying when they're aggrieved for one reason or another, they "disrespected" our State National Anthem.

My wife turned to me and said, rather prophetically I might add, "That will be their undoing."

We are a proud lot, we Kentuckians, so we just sang louder to the end then took our seats for a raft of pre-game activities before Rich Brooks' boys teed it up and the 50th Annual AutoZone Liberty Bowl got underway.

"You remember the last time that happened?" Susan asked, still reflecting on the nerve of the Pirate fans. "It was before the LSU game last season (2007)."

My mouth fell open as I was jolted back to that fall afternoon.

"You're right!" I said, and of course she was.

Maybe you remember that afternoon, too.

Les Miles' Tigers came into Commonwealth undefeated and ranked No. 1 in the land, thumping their chests and expecting to breeze back to Baton Rouge with an easy win. Dressed, too, in purple and gold their fans hissed and booed as we sang "My Old Kentucky Home."

I was incredulous as were those around me.

You fans will remember the outcome of that game, too, as Kentucky went on to win 43-37 in a three-overtime thriller. LSU rebounded to win the national championship, however, and in true Kentucky fashion the Cats hit their mid-season slide and won only one more regular-season game (over Vandy, 27-20) before taking out an arguably depleted Florida State team 35-28 in the Dec. 31 Music City Bowl.

But that was in 2007. Fast forward to 2009 " and some other unsuspecting purple and gold team had just done it again: They disrespected our song.

I'm not here to revisit the game, which I'll have to agree with Brooks was a great one in spite of 81.6 percent (or something like that) of those polled in an ESPN survey who picked the Pirates to win. The "intangible" they didn't know " and no one did at that point " was those disrespectful "arrrghs" would doom their then 9-4 C-USA champion team to fall to a mediocre but gutsy 6-6 SEC near-cellar dweller.
You can mess with a lot of things Blue, but one thing I believe the Big Blue Gods frown upon is foolin' around with our song.

Back to the game.

It appeared as if all was in jeopardy as the Pirates were driving down the field with less than 4 minutes to play and the score knotted at 19 apiece. Inside Kentucky territory, approaching the 40, a few more plays and a couple of first downs would put ECU within easy field goal range as the clock ticked toward all zeroes.

But then I must think from somewhere one of the Big Blue Gods remembered what had happened three hours earlier. Patrick Pinkney, ECU's prized quarterback, was hit and the ball popped loose. Ventrell Jenkins, a 6-3, 285-pound senior lineman, scooped it up and lumbered off toward the end zone.

Reminiscent of Myron Pryor's laborious jaunt in the victory over the University of Louisville back on the last Sunday of August as the season began, Jenkins stiff-armed Pickney and rambled unopposed to paydirt to give the Cats a 25-19 lead with about three minutes to play.

The margin would stand.

The Cats finished the year 7-6, grabbing a historic third straight post-season bowl victory.

Jenkins was honored.

Brooks was ecstatic.

Nearly 82 percent of Americans polled were wrong.

The 10.5-hour drive back to Greenville, N.C. was doubtlessly a long one punctuated with very few Pirate "arrrghs!"

"we will sing one song for
the old Kentucky home,
For the old Kentucky home far away."
You don't disrespect our song!