 |
| The debut of the giant halftime fruitcake at Neyland Stadium brought cheers from the crowd. |
According to event organizers, football fans are getting more and more difficult to please during halftime shows. John Hinkle, show organizer for the University of Tennessee, knows first hand what it’s like. “First we tried the guy in the dog costume jumping around, but that only worked for so many years,” he explained. They also tried cheerleaders, but “not everybody has binoculars,” he said. More recently, they put the band to work spelling out various things on the field. “At first, people went for the giant ‘U’ and ‘T’ thing, but now that the marketing department has decided to drop the ‘U,’ it’s kind of pointless, yet it just doesn’t make any sense to only use half the band,†he said. “One game we tried spelling ‘Volunteers’ but we ran out of tuba players,†he added. So this year they decided to debut the giant slices of fruitcake during the last game of November. “We opted for a holiday theme,†he explained. “You know, Thanksgiving, Christmas. What better way to celebrate than with a nice giant slice or three of fruitcake?†According to post-game polling, most fans were excited by the fruitcake, which was airlifted in. Volunteer fan Aubrey Pogosti was among them. “That thing was friggin’ huge, man. What was that all about? And they totally wouldn’t let us eat any without springing for three bucks at the concession stand.†Will the giant fruitcake return next year? “Either that or a giant cheese log,†said Hinkle.