Tusk to Tail: 100 consecutive games for ‘The Godfather’

With much fanfare, the awe of his peers, many slaps on the back, and an entire segment of sports talk radio dedicated to him this week, Craig May, Tusk to Tail’s founding member, will once again lead his tireless (thus far anyway) group of tailgaters on our second of four road trips this season.

Two weeks ago we landed in New Jersey for what will probably end up as the closest thing to a bowl game that the Hogs will see this year. This time we get to stay in SEC country. And this time the stakes are higher.

Let’s put the significance of this weekend in perspective, shall we?

Cal Ripken Jr. played in 2,632 consecutive baseball games.

Lance Armstrong won 7 consecutive Tour de France races.

Bret Favre started in 297 consecutive NFL games.

Craig “The Godfather” May will attend his 100th consecutive Razorback game this Saturday.

Now all of you may kneel and kiss his ring.

To be fair, the other members of T2T and I have been to our share of games as well. As a matter of fact, the group’s consecutive game streak began more than 15 years ago.

We’ve been to every SEC stadium, every bowl game the Hogs have played in the last 20 years, and I can’t remember a missed red-white game for that matter. We’ve been cursed at in Baton Rouge, laughed at in Tuscaloosa and scared for our lives in New Jersey and Los Angeles.

We’ve had speeding tickets, missed flights and long train rides.

We’ve sat in lightning storms, arctic temperatures and bat guano.

We’ve stayed in 5 star hotels in Columbia, historic landmark hotels in Philly, and once in a motel room that I swear had been a recent murder scene.

The common denominator for all of us during these adventures has been the Godfather.

What has separated Craig from just your run of the mill insane fan goes way beyond this streak though. Remember some of those ugly losses on the road over the years? The 52-10 loss at Texas in 2008? The 70-17 loss at USC in 2005? The 35-7 loss to Alabama in 2009? Well, the Godfather knew he was spending hundreds of dollars to go watch a beat down for each of those games. It would have been easy to simply stay at home one week and catch the game on TV. But he went anyway. That takes dedication.

Congratulations Craig on this milestone! Tusk to Tail anxiously awaits celebrating with you this weekend, hopefully after a Hog win over the Gators.

Now the rest of you can stand up.