DIEHARD sports fans often go to great lengths to show their allegiance but some college football supporters took their loyalty to new heights when they agreed to live on a San Jose billboard ahead of Monday’s national championship game. As part of an ESPN contest, four fans representing the semi-final teams took up residence on a 45-foot (13.72-meter) high billboard late Dec. 26 near the site of the championship game for as long as their respective team remained in the playoffs. The quartet, who were each provided with a tent and sleeping bag, has since been reduced to Clemson Tigers fan Nancy Volland of Mount Dora, Florida, and Alabama Crimson Tide supporter Llyas Ross Sr from Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Volland, a 59-year-old married mother of two daughters, said her time on the 40-foot-wide by 8-foot-deep platform had flown by but admitted it came with its share of challenges. “It’s not like camping in the woods,” Volland told Reuters in a telephone interview from the platform. “You have to go down 72 stairs to go to the bathroom. I’ve had to go a couple times in the middle of the night so getting out of a nice warm sleeping bag when it’s in the 30s (Fahrenheit) and going down those 72 stairs and back up is the hardest part.” (SD-Agencies) |