Fielder’s Choice

I took a special, one-day, pre-Thanksgiving road trip this year.

I carried my 16-year-old daughter Erin to her first Alabama football game.

As a junior in high school, she’s considering different colleges, and she may go back later to check out the University of Alabama campus a little more, but this was her welcome to Crimson Tide football in person.

The game itself did not look great, on paper, versus The Citadel.

But as expected, that option offense of The Citadel gave an uninspired Alabama team fits, and it was 10-10 at the half. The final was a 50-17 win.

I never turn down an Alabama football game, but this trip was all about sharing the experience with Erin.

We left Holly Springs very early, for an 11 a.m. kickoff in Tuscaloosa.

We arrived in plenty of time to find a good parking spot and make the short walk to Bryant-Denny Stadium. With a seating capacity of 101,821, it is the fourth-largest stadium in the Southeastern Conference, the seventh largest stadium in the United States and the eighth largest stadium in the world.

I always like to get to any game, college or professional, in time to see a lot of the pregame activities – the teams going through warm-ups and the band. The university’s Million Dollar Band never disappoints.

Born in Selma, Ala., and raised in Hamilton, Ala., I attended my first Alabama game at Legion Field in Birmingham. Alabama once played games there every season, and when I was growing up, the Alabama versus Auburn game was played there every year.

In 1989, Auburn moved its “home” games in the series to its own stadium. Alabama did the same in 2000. In 2004, Alabama announced it would not be playing any more home games at Legion Field.

As a teenager, thanks to my connections with my hometown newspaper and my aspirations to be a journalist, I was actually on the sideline covering a game at Legion Field with Bear Bryant as the coach. And when I wasn’t on the sideline, I was in the pressbox.

I know the Alabama Crimson Tide football team is pretty much hated in these parts. I’ve experienced that dislike since I moved to Mississippi in 1986 - in Fulton, Aberdeen, Laurel and Holly Springs.

But as for me, it’s just always been a part of my life, and an important part of my life.

I did not get to attend the University of Alabama myself, largely due to financial reasons. I proudly graduated from the University of North Alabama in Florence.

And I plan to take Erin for a visit to UNA, too.

But the odds are she will follow in the footsteps of her older two siblings and attend the University of Southern Mississippi, another institution we have grown to love from our years in Laurel.

During the recent Bama game in Tuscaloosa, Erin and I enjoyed cheering for the Tide. We enjoyed the halftime show. We enjoyed taking “selfies” after the game with the statues of Bear Bryant and Nick Saban.

But most of all, we just enjoyed being together – father and daughter time. In the blink of an eye, she will be going away to college.