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America's Greatest College Football Fan


FirefightnRick

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Can't believe I just got off the phone with Tony Malano of the AGCFF project. Here's our chance to get a little positive nortoriety for the Mean Green Nation.

http://americasgreatestfan.com/

He's on the east coast right now, headed to Memphis and then is coming to Texas to see interview TCU's Gary Patterson, me and then hopes to get to see Carrol play in the state title next weekend. He stated that if it goes as planned with the interview with Patterson that he wants to come and hang out at my station on Tuesday. I'm trying to get my department's ok to get him a ride out and invited him to stay the night with us as well. He's logged 17,000 miles this football season visiting with the country's best fans and football programs. He went to the Army/Navy game this past week?. I sent him a video of myself and of the Mean Green last spring and the guys at my station helped me put it together. But since the deadline was in June and hadn't heard back I figured my video ended up in the trash. He didn't forget it and is just now getting around to coming back this way to Texas. It would be pretty cool if anyone that lives in the FW area could come by and meet him. He wants to hear peoples stories and hear why you love the Mean Green.

Check out his website. He's got a lot of great pictures on there. Hopefully after next week we can get some Mean Green love on it as well.

If anyone is interested in meeting the guy send me a P.M. and we'll go from there. Not sure what actually will be the schedule as of now, but I'll post an update.

Rick

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I just spoke to Tony again. He will be in Fort Worth Tuesday afternoon and said for me to expect him at the station after 12 p.m. He's wanting to shoot some footage of us on the truck. I'm trying to get him written permission so he can do just that. He will be staying the night with us and hopeing to make the calls with us during the night. We are going to barbecue some ribs for the evening meal as well. Amazingly, in the 17,000 miles and throughout his travels on this project he's only had to stay in a hotel for 2 nights because the fans have put him up, so I'm glad we can help him out on that too.

If anyone wants to come and share some Mean Green memories and show off some memorabilia with the guy please come on. Just P.M. for directions.

Rick

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I just spoke to Tony again.  He will be in Fort Worth Tuesday afternoon and said for me to expect him at the station after 12 p.m.  He's wanting to shoot some footage of us on the truck.  I'm trying to get him written permission so he can do just that.  He will be staying the night with us and hopeing to make the calls with us during the night.  We are going to barbecue some ribs for the evening meal as well.  Amazingly, in the 17,000 miles and throughout his travels on this project he's only had to stay in a hotel for 2 nights because the fans have put him up, so I'm glad we can help him out on that too.

If anyone wants to come and share some Mean Green memories and show off some memorabilia with the guy please come on.  Just P.M. for directions.

Rick

Rick,

Have you contacted any Media, DRC, Channel 4, 5, 8, 11, 21. Or any radio stations. This would be a good piece on NTTV, if they still have it.

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Here's a few photos of Tony's visit to Station 14.

http://incipientstage.20megsfree.com/images/rickntony1.jpg

Tony's great "MEAN" green face.

Tony shows his map of his travels to the four corners of the U.S.

We had a great visit with Tony Milano of Americasgreatestfan.com. What he is filming is a 3 year project doing a documentary of college football. He's completely funding it himself and has over $24,000 invested in it so far including 18,000 miles traveled since August of this year. After the film is finished he will be competing in all of the film festivals and go from there.

He had supper with us and spent the night with us at the station. The next day he got his paperwork finished to comeback and do a full ride out with us on the truck on friday if his schedule works out.

He was scheduled to get an interview with TCU's Gary Patterson but the schedule didn't work out. However Texas Tech's Mike Leach has already invited him to attend their practice next Sunday after he finishes up here in the Metroplex. He had a good interview with Dave Campbell's Texas Football in Dallas yesterday afternoon before he drove down to Austin. He had been in contact with Mack Brown's SID for a while and got an interesting response back from him through email Tuesday night that said basically, "We like what your doing, everything looks great on your site and all, but we will have to decline an interview with Mack Brown due to the fact that if we give you an interview, we would have to give our other 22 Million fans an interview as well".

I told him that kind of pompous response didn't surprise me given the source, even if some of the biggest programs in the nation, including Tennessee, Georgia, Florida St. etc not only gave him access to on camera interviews but allowed him on the sidelines for their games.

Since football is so huge in Texas he is taking the time to also cover Texas High School football. He is going to attempt to attend SLC's championship pep rally on friday and then he and I are going to attend the game on Saturday. He visited the Texas Sports Hall of Fame yesterday in Waco and said it was something special to see.

I'm glad Tony has taken the time to cover football here in Texas. He is a great guy and truly loves the game of football and more importantly, it's fans. I filled in everything I could about the Mean Green. On his truck, Tony has stickers of all the schools he has visited, but the biggest one he has on his rightside door say's MEAN GREEN with the Son of Worm logo above it, so we will be represented well once he gets back to California.

Rick

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Very cool.

As to Texas, that is the attitude at most big name schools. Very few schools "get it" when it comes to the internet.

All you have to do is look at their web sites. They know they need of them web site things but don't have a clue as to what they should do with it when they get it.

To be fair, eventhough he got access at other big time programs, none of those programs were preparing for the national championship game at the time. The media requests at this time of year for both Mack Brown and Pete Carrol have to be insane. Or maybe not... Just looking at the other side of things.

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Here is Tony's Journal entry about the time he spent with Rick!

DECEMBER 15

Where do I begin........................How about that I'm in Austin, Texas. In the last week I've been in Philadelphia to Charlotte, NC to Florence, Alabama to Memphis, TN to Ft. Worth, Texas to Austin. A lot of road has been eaten up by Hidalgo and me (Hidalgo is my Jeep Cherokee...I'm hoping Jeep will sponsor the project!).....In Memphis I stayed with a legendary fan and contraversial booster Roy Adams of Memphis, Tennessee. I must say I've yet to meet a fan that has the Photo collection that Mr. Adams has...a fascinating man and a man that loves College Football...I thank Mr. Adams for sharing his story with me and his Hospitality...we had some great talks over Egg Nog and Roy has a dog that weigh's 154 pounds...a big bruiser with a right hook that would make Joe Frazier proud. I love boxing too bad it sucks must of the time...I miss Sugar Ray Leonard. I stayed at Firestation 14 in Ft. Worth, Texas with a great fan named Ricky McKinney...what an experience to stay inside a Firestation...the firemen work 24 hour shift's and they're constantly on call and they do everything really fast and efficient...Rick who lives and breathes North Texas Football! BBQ Pork Rib's with Mesquite and Pecan wood and right before we where to eat...they got a call for a fire and half the Station had to leave because they needed that certain group of the team to leave and do there job...I stayed and ate the best Ribs that I've had on my entire trip...they where savory and they melted of the bone and they where huge. I would like to thank the Firestation for they're team atmosphere and for making me feel a part of the team and Rick McKinney your a great guy and a great Fan...I look forward to watching the State Championship between Carroll South Lake (The Number #1 team in the country) vs. Katy....the last team to beat Carroll. Yesterday, I went to the offices of Dave Campbell's Texas Football and Adam and Jake gave me the lowdown on Texas Football...great guy's and very insightful on passion and love that Texas has for they're Football....and lastly because I've got to go and film on Campus (Texas) and then eat at a place called Opie's (Brisket)...I want to thank Jay at the Texas Sports Hall of Fame in Waco....what a great Museum if you get chance I recommend everyone that is a sports fan to go and check out the great exhibits they have ....The exhibit on High School Football is very impressive and gives you a look at the passion and history that Texas has with High School Football....I'm looking forward to seeing this game at Texas Stadium there expected 40,000 fans for a High School game...Wow!

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I thought Celina moved up to 3a... politics bring them back down?  laugh.gif

No they bumped the 3A cutoff to 390 in 03. While they were 3A, they were playing schools with 3x their enrollment(and still winning) but it wasn't fair, they might still be 2A, because the cutoff will most likely be raised again anywhere from 410-450 because theyre creating a DIV 2 playoff format for 1A.

Anyhow, the Chaps return some odd 18 starters next season.

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Tony is on his way back from Austin right now to ride out with us the remainder of our shift tonight.    Should be interesting to see if he can keep getting up out of bed as the calls come in?

Rick

Rick, did Tony make it back? When is his project complete? Is it a video project or a book, or a little of both I can't really tell from his website or is he just trying to experience American football from all angles.

Whatever it is. it really sounds cool.

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