Sept. 2, 2016
Matt Winkeljohn | The Good Word –
Marshall Hunter and his wife, Vickie, are Georgia Tech fans and they have so much company in Dublin, Ireland, that it feels a little like homecoming.
Tech fans have traveled in abundance to watch the Yellow Jackets open the season against Boston College in Aviva Stadium, where Hunter and about a dozen of his former Kappa Sigma fraternity brothers will be in full throat Saturday.
They won’t be alone. Of the 15,000-plus fans traveling from the United States for the game, 9,500 are Georgia Tech faithful. Hunter, whose group made the nearly 4,000-mile journey from Atlanta, said he’s seen, “lots and lots,” of Tech fans since arriving Tuesday.
“Way more than BC fans,” he said.
Hunter graduated from Georgia Tech in 1992 with a degree in electrical engineering and attends nearly every home game with his family. The Hunters also usually make at least one road trip each season to follow the Jackets. In recent years, they went to games at Virginia Tech, Duke, North Carolina and Clemson.
Only once has Georgia Tech played a football game further from home, that being when they traveled 4,490 miles in 1991 to beat Stanford, 18-17, in the Aloha Bowl in Honolulu, Hawai’i.
There was never a doubt, though, that the Hunters would make it to the Aer Lingus Classic. Hunter said, “The instant they announced [the game], I told my wife that we’re going.”
The Kappa Sig roll call is long in Ireland, where Hunter’s group includes Vince Fettiner, Chris Finke, Cliff Wang, Dan Martin, Tim Sullivan, Darryl Sykes, Jim Turner, Ted Turner, Paul Freet, Mike Hickman, Adam Goldstein, Charlie McPhail, Dan McFall and Ian Lehn plus David Holt, a Tech fan who played for former Tech coach Bobby Ross at The Citadel.
They’ve been busy, touring the Wicklow Mountain area and visiting a wide variety of local attractions, including the Guinness Storehouse.
In addition to attending events Thursday at Trinity College, where the Tech cheerleaders and band members are staying, the Hunters went to Friday’s pep rally there.
Even before the game, which will go off at 12:30 p.m. local time on Saturday (7:30 a.m. in Atlanta), Hunter had a one-word summary of the trip. He said it has been “awesome.”
