I have a Coach Perkins story, so bear with me. When I was in school, our fraternity had an annual thing in the fall where we did a food drive (sorta like BABH) and give it to a food bank.

We would “kidnap” other fraternity and sorority presidents, and the ransom was some amount of canned goods. We also would kidnap some campus celebrity, basically for a photo op to publicize it in the Crimson White.

One year (circa 1983 or 1984), someone had the bright idea to call the athletic department and ask if Coach Perkins would be the celebrity that we kidnapped IN THE MIDDLE OF FOOTBALL SEASON.

If someone had the audacity to make that request these days, they’d probably end up on a watch list after the receptionist quit laughing.

But much to everyone’s surprise, Coach Perkins agreed! I don’t even think it was a bye week, but he came by the fraternity house late one afternoon early in the week, and diligently posed for photos for about 30 minutes. Says a lot about who he was.

Somewhere in this mess of a house, in a box of unscanned college photos, I’ve got a really awkward looking photo of me posing with Coach Perkins at the event. Will post it if I can find it.