Faces In The Game

Nobody lives for Kentucky football more avidly than 83-year-old Jim Brown. A Lexington resident and a 1942 Kentucky graduate, Brown has attended every Wildcats home game since the '45 season: 340 consecutive games. His streak would date back to '38, his freshman year at Kentucky, had he not been called to serve in the Navy in '44 during World War II. Six times a year Brown cheers from section 129, row 41, seat 22. The streak nearly came to an end in 2000, when Brown had a retinal occlusion in his right eye that threatened blindness. Brown went to the games anyway, using a monocle to aid his vision in the diseased eye. He has since had surgery to correct his vision. "I've had my sanity questioned sometimes, especially when the team wasn't that good," he says, "but you have to be a little crazy to be a Kentucky fan."
—Gene Menez