Many University students consider themselves LSU fans.
They go to football games, attend a few basketball games against some big name teams and maybe show up for a priority point volleyball game.
Most, however, don’t travel nine hours to Athens, Ga., to cheer on the LSU gymnastics team at its regional competition.
Mathematics senior Matthew Clark does.
Clark was accompanied by general studies junior Ryan Soileau and mass communication senior Alex White on the trip.
“When we got there, Matt screams ‘Geaux Tigers,'” Soileau said. “[The gymnasts] looked up at us like, ‘This is awesome. These three guys came all the way here.'”
Clark’s journey to superfandom wasn’t a likely one.
Clark isn’t from a traditional family. He lived in a house with six other children, three of whom were fostered by his mother. He spent time between his mother’s home in North Carolina and his aunt and grandma’s place in Tensas Parish.
Clark went through seven surgeries on his legs as a child and was born with cerebral palsy, said Tracy Turner-Parker, Clark’s mother.
As if those obstacles weren’t enough, he didn’t get tickets to football games his freshman year.
“That kind of bummed me out,” Clark said. “I remember walking to the dining hall and seeing a poster looking for people to work concessions.”
Clark worked every home football game his freshman year — the year LSU won the 2007 BCS National Championship.
“I would always go on break and run out there when they started playing ‘Neck’ or something,” Clark said. “Then I would run back in and start selling stuff.”
LSU fans will remember Clark as the student in the front row of home games wearing a neon yellow wig.
Clark doesn’t pay much attention to students who might say he’s silly or obnoxious.
“I don’t give that any credence,” he said. “I don’t do it for the recognition. It’s ultimately about supporting our teams.”
Though Clark attends almost every home sporting event, he has only been able to attend three away events.
Soileau said he saw Clark at a women’s soccer game that wasn’t heavily attended.
“I saw this guy with gold hair and beads and thought it was awesome,” Soileau said. “He is the epitome of fandom.”
Clark is notable for not only his religious attendance of basketball and football games, but also for his sightings at lesser-known sporting events.
He cited the LSU softball team’s sweep of then-No. 1 Alabama, a series with two walk-off home runs, as an experience he’ll never forget.
“We stayed all night for the first two games and all day for the third game,” he said. “Just to watch them come out on top after 31 innings was crazy.”
Clark fondly remembers the 2008 football game against Troy, a contest that cemented his love for LSU sports. LSU came back from 28 points down to win.
“People were leaving, and I just was not leaving,” he said. “I knew the game was not over. To be there for the comeback re-affirmed my faith. I was like, ‘I am a Tiger for life.'”
Clark backs up his “Tiger for life” talk by planning his career around LSU athletics.
Clark, an LSU Ambassador, wants to continue his education at LSU to earn a master’s degree in education and eventually become a teacher in Baton Rouge.
“Math was everybody in the house’s worst subject, but it was his best,” Turner-Parker said. “He tutored all the other kids.”
Clark plans to incorporate LSU sports into his future career.
“I could write off field trips to the games,” he said. “I’m going to be a math teacher, so I can bring students to games and have them track statistics.”
 
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Contact Albert Burford at [email protected]