We Asked For Your “Fluffhead” College Gameday Sign Stories and You Answered
For almost 25 years now, College Gameday has been synonymous with Saturdays in the fall. There’s something refreshing about waking up a little early on a Saturday morning, turning on ESPN and watching Lee Corso, Kirk Herbstreit and the gang kick around the latest hot takes in college football in front of a throng of fans from that particular school.
What grew out of the Gameday phenomenon was, among other things (like Corso’s now-iconic headgear pick), the signs displayed for the entire country to see. It doesn’t take an internet genius to find a whole collection of them and hell, USA Today does a recap on the signs alone just about every Saturday afternoon. They range from dumb to funny to downright crudely hilarious. Nothing is off limits and no one is safe from the posterboard jokesters. Gameday signs have famously earned a kid thousands of dollars in beer money and outed Nick Saban’s dating habits but the one sign that I always looked out for over the years was, of course, the Fluffhead sign.
There was nothing funnier than listening to an intense conversation about who should be in the BCS Championship game or how Urban Meyer will gameplan against the Michigan offense with a giant neon FLUFFHEAD dangling in the background. The word alone is destined to grab your attention, but slapped on a 10-foot sign makes it unnervingly noticeable.
The “Fluffhead” tale can be traced back to 2005 when it appeared at a college basketball game and would then return in 2007 but things really heated up following Phish’s reunion in 2009 and you can practically bet on a “Fluffhead” sign living next to Kirk Herbstreit’s head just about every Saturday. The oral history of the “Fluffhead” sign is better off told by those who decided to wait long hours in the sun to get on television. Enjoy the below stories of Phish and college football fandom intersecting in a beautiful way.
University of Florida | November 12, 2016
We come from the Land of Lizards. (Go Gators!). Besides Phish shows, our other passion is the University of Florida. My beau, Arnie Harrison, and I, Carol Strauss, are University of Florida alumni and love to spend fall weekends cheering on the orange and blue. During that 300 mile trip from our home in South Florida to The Swamp, we get our game-faces on with the MEGA JAMS! The Hampton ’13 “Carini,” the Orange Beach ’14 “Boogielope” and the Dicks ’15 “Harpua” encore are some of our favorite pre-game rituals. When we heard SEC Nation was going to be broadcasting live from Gainesville on November 12th, we knew it was our time to shine a light on the University of Florida Phish community. We’re so appreciative of Phish 3.0 and try to go to as many shows each tour as possible. We created our “Fluffhead” sign to share our pulsating love and light with our fellow college football Phish phans across the country. We love you Phish! The Jam Band National Champions since 1987! Boy. Man. God. Gators.
Forever Grateful,
University of Michigan | September 7, 2013
My wife is originally from Ann Arbor and graduated from U of M. I proposed to her on campus in ’05 and we also got married there as well. Her parents still there there for half of the year and then spend the other half in Austin, where we live. We always go back to A2 in the fall to tailgate and see a game.
University of South Carolina | October 6, 2012
Well we, Solomon and I, did it.
We talked about it for weeks and came up with the idea of getting three large poster boards, combining them together for a massive Fluffhead sign.
The boys had been back for a few years and things were starting to flow. So in honor of Our Boys, we set out to display a massive GameDay sign.
We closed the bar at 2am and went straight home, bringing eight more hands to help is fill in the gaps. Two hours later and a quick stop at the Waffle House we ventured onward to the campus of USC, home of the Gamecocks – 2001, you can’t beat it.
Anyway, after fighting a bunch of Young Life moons trying to ride the rail (you know what I’m talking about), we took a step back and focused on the cameras flying overhead. We saw that one flew over the crowd and hung out towards the back of the venue. Our eyes locked, no talk needed, we knew that was out spot. So we squirming coiled our way off the rail and towards the back.
10 AM.
We are live and the camera flys towards us. We unroll the sign and proudly display it with confused looks galore.
Five minutes go by and the cell phone blows up–we’ve been spotted all around the nation. Job well done, it’s in the history books.
We are everywhere.
Randy Hope
Solomon Hay
Temple University | October 31, 2015
I heard Phish before I knew the band existed when the chorus from “Reba” blared from the windows of the oldest bunk at my sleep-away camp around 1995-1996. Bag it, tag it, had no idea what it was, but liked it. I was 12. I am 33 now. But I really started to get into Phish when I heard “Character Zero” from Billy Breathes and started showing my friends this bad-ass music.
I knew I got on TV when my cell was getting blown up by texts so I checked social media to confirm and saw I made it. Victory! Had a blast.
Jacob Rosner
And here are some more miscellaneous photos submitted. Have a story of your own? Shoot us an email: rob(at)relix(dot)com.
James Madison University | October 24, 2015
Josh Weaver
Arizona State University | November 21, 2015
Warren Molden
University of Arkansas | October 11, 2014
David Rice