Where Are They Now?: Bobble Billy

Bobble Billy came into my life serendipitously--Nancy's sister acquired him at a basketball game (before I even started attending them), but she wasn't very hardcore in her Aggie basketball fandom, so she asked Nancy if she wanted him. Nancy did not, but lived with someone who did (me).

Bobble Billy quickly became one of my most treasured possessions, what with my fanaticism and all. He sat on top of Nancy's TV in our apartment in College Station. He came with me to Wisconsin, and I brought him with me to serve as good luck when I watched the Aggies on TV. Sometimes the luck worked, like when I took him to Chanda's house to watch the Ags' first ever win over KU (he wasn't entirely welcome, either, since Chanda and Mr. Chanda are hardcore Jayhawks fans). Sometimes his luck wasn't enough, like when he came with me to my least favorite bar in Madison to watch the Ags lose (as they too often do) to Texas Tech. (Seriously, what's with the Aggies losing so much to Texas Tech, especially when Tech is a significantly worse team? It's like they're kryptonite!)

Me and Bobble Billy in happier times

But then, of course, the unpleasantness happened. Flesh-and-blood Billy walked out on A&M for bluer pastures in Kentucky, and one of my first concerns was what that would mean for his bobbleheaded counterpart.

I couldn't bear to take out my frustrations with Human Billy on Bobblehead Billy (some people did--I didn't save a picture I often saw in those days of a bobble Billy in a urinal), but I couldn't have him around like I used too, either.

I toyed with the idea of finding some Kentucky fan (since Neal is related to several) who might take Bobble Billy in and give him the good and loving home that I could no longer provide. Unfortunately (read: hilariously), Billy has done poorly enough at Kentucky that nobody there likes him, and his firing may be imminent. Poor guy (again, read: hilarious).

OK, I'm being unfair to Much Larger (But Still Rather Small in Grown-Up Man Terms) Billy. Honestly, my most noticeable feeling about his failure (failure in, of course, University of Kentucky terms) is befuddlement. I know I keep telling people this, but: it is impossible to overstate the change he wrought in Texas A&M's basketball program. It was just terrible, and then he came along, and now it's one of fewer than 10 programs in the country that has made the tournament and gotten to the secound round four years in a row. Yeah, it's not Duke, but it's more than respectable, which is amazing if you compare it to how much less than respectable it used to be. (Example: when I was a freshman at A&M, I didn't know much about college basketball, but I knew that we were terrible. One day on Rudder Plaza, some people were handing out men's basketball schedules, and I wouldn't even take one until they added that it was a magnet. Since my roommate and I loved plastering our mini-fridge with magnets, I then accepted it.)

What was I saying? Oh right, it's amazing how much Billy accomplished with so little to work with. He made it to the Sweet Sixteen starting Chris Walker and Marlon Pompey. Now, I love those guys, but Billy made it to the Sweet Sixteen STARTING Chris Walker and MARLON POMPEY. For those of you unfamiliar with those lads, let me just say--neither would ever, ever come close to riding the bench at a place like Kentucky. So how is Billy not succeeding, given his proven abilities and the recruiting and resources of Kentucky? I will never figure this out.

But back to Bobble Billy. He ended up in the back of my closet in my old apartment, but he got shuffled around when I moved in with the 'sband. Our closets are pretty full here, but we do have copious cabinet space (especially way up high, where we can't put anything we use regularly because I can't reach up there without clambering up onto the counter, and that is not becoming for a Grown Up Married Lady [read: I totally still do it sometimes]).

So Bobble Billy is behind the bag of surplus sugar that doesn't fit in the canister.

It's quite a demotion from the old days, but it's where he shall stay indefinitely.