Go to any sporting occasion and also you’ll see one thing which, in another context, could also be bizarre: clients are sporting the identical garments as the workers of the enterprise. Think about strolling round Greatest Purchase sporting a Greatest Purchase shirt and khaki pants (or simply watch this prank video) or one thing like that — it will be ridiculous. However it’s widespread and accepted — and usually appreciated — when sports activities followers placed on a t-shirt or reproduction jersey of their favourite workforce and gamers, and present up on the ballpark.
However often, fan apparel is proscribed to a shirt, perhaps a hat, and maybe team-themed shorts or socks or one thing like that. Sometimes, you don’t are available with sports activities gear (okay, a baseball glove is ok) — like, you wouldn’t put on shoulder pads or a helmet to a soccer recreation, proper?
Proper. Except you’re Shelton Douthett. Right here’s an image of him at a College of Miami recreation, cheering on the hometown Hurricanes.
To be clear, Douthett is only a fan within the stands. He’s not a participant, even when he’s dressed like one and flexing like he simply sacked the quarterback. However in the event you suppose that Douthett is simply an excessive Hurricane supporter who went overboard, you’re mistaken. He’s fulfilling a promise to his brother.
Douthett grew up within the Miami space, raised by a mom who served within the Miami police division. Sooner or later, she was assigned to work at a Miami soccer recreation and was given some free tickets, so her husband took Shelton and his brother Wayne to the sport. The 2 boys turned instantaneous followers and went to video games at any time when they may thereafter. In 2009, they bought themselves a season ticket bundle, as soccer Saturdays had change into a central level of their time collectively as siblings.
They didn’t simply go to dwelling video games, both. The Hurricanes performed an early season street recreation versus in-state rival Florida State in September 2009, and the brothers made the practically 500-mile journey to see that recreation. It was a Miami win, however the Douthett brothers’ celebration was lower brief, as USA At the moment explains:
Not lengthy after the Florida State recreation, Wayne developed a cough. Described by his brother as a “light large,” Wayne wasn’t the kind of particular person to complain about a lot, particularly when he wasn’t feeling properly.
The household figured the cough was a chilly, however one evening, Douthett woke as much as discover his brother sitting up in mattress, coughing and heaving. He knew this was one thing critical, and instructed his mother they need to take his brother to the hospital. There, the household discovered Wayne had strolling pneumonia.
Shelton spent the subsequent few weeks with Wayne within the hospital, watching the soccer video games on TV. At one level, as Shelton instructed the Miami Hurricanes’ official information website, “We had been watching the sport one time and he requested me in his personal manner, ‘When are you going to put on a helmet and pads to a recreation?’ We collected jerseys and all types of stuff. I stated, ‘I’ll put on it to a recreation whenever you’re out of the hospital.“ Wayne was joking, after all, however Shelton used that as a possibility to encourage his brother to get properly.
Sadly, he by no means did. Wayne Douthett handed away one night; the Florida State recreation was the final one he and Shelton attended collectively.
Shelton and his household began a scholarship fund at a neighborhood college to honor Wayne’s reminiscence, however Shelton wished to go one additional. When the Hurricanes had been chosen to play within the Champ Sports activities Bowl in close by Orlando, Shelton determined to not solely attend — but additionally to meet the promise he made to Wayne. Per USA At the moment, “Douthett purchased shoulder pads, cleats and every thing wanted for the bowl recreation to meet his brother’s request,” and went to the sport dressed practically identically to the gamers.
Miami misplaced the sport however Douthett gained some followers of his personal. At first, others had been a bit postpone by how intense his apparel was however, after he shared his story, they not solely inspired him but additionally donated to the scholarship fund. (Even followers of the opposite workforce chipped in.) Douthett’s tribute to his brother gained over so many hearts, he determined he needed to carry on doing it.
Since then, Douthett commonly reveals up in a Hurricanes uniform, doing his greatest to match the workforce on the sector and to honor his brother’s reminiscence. The toughest half? As he instructed USA At the moment, he “plans to at all times put on the uniforms to video games he attends, he simply hopes he can at all times match into them. He says he goes to the gymnasium to take care of his ‘soccer form.’”
Bonus reality: The primary black NFL draftee was Wallace Triplett, who was chosen within the nineteenth spherical of the 1949 draft. Triplett performed faculty soccer at Penn State, however he nearly went to the College of Miami. As his Wikipedia entry notes, “His repute as a gifted highschool soccer participant, mixed along with his upscale handle, prompted the College of Miami to supply him a scholarship sight unseen, underneath the idea Triplett was white. The then-segregated college rescinded the scholarship after they found Triplett was black.” Whereas at Penn State, Triplett was imagined to play an away recreation at Miami in 1946, however Miami refused to play if Penn State introduced Triplett and Dennie Hoggard, the opposite black participant on the Penn State workforce, to Miami for the sport. Penn State determined to cancel the match slightly than give in.
From the Archives: This T-Shirt Will Make You Really feel Good Concerning the World: One other fan with distinctive apparel.
