Bubba Will Root For 'Dogs not Trojans

It is bad enough people around the country already think Fresno is a city of rednecks. The citizens did not have to elect the most popular redneck on TV to be mayor, did they?

In 2000 the biggest redneck of them all, Bubba, from In the Heat of the Night was elected mayor of Fresno, California. Alan Autry is a down home type of guy with roots from right here in the Valley, Riverdale to be exact. He was a star high school athlete and earned a scholarship to play football at the University of Pacific in the early seventies.

His named then was Carlos Brown, and former son of a migrant farmworker befriended a sophisticated frat boy teammate, from the Bay Area, named Pete Carroll. Carroll was a hard-hitting defensive back, and Brown was the big Okie quarterback from the Valley.

Fast forward thirty plus years later and the former quarterback will be rooting against his former college teammate. Since returning to the Valley in the mid 1990's, Autry has become an avid supporter of Pat Hill and Fresno State. Saturday's game is one Autry has been waiting for all year, and I am sure Hill and the Bulldogs will not disappoint.