An epic, 22-mile road trip from UConn’s campus to its football stadium

STORRS, Conn. — When we think of college football, we think of a college campus in full fall splendor. But that’s not the reality for every fan base. Some have journeys to get to their cathedrals of sport from their home bases of higher learning.

UConn students and fans have the second-longest commute of any FBS school on a fall Saturday, at 22.5 miles from the main campus to Rentschler Field. With UMass moving all of its home games onto campus, only UCLA’s journey to the Rose Bowl (26.4 miles) is longer than UConn’s (Miami comes in second place on the East Coast, with a 20-mile trek to Hard Rock stadium). That’s about six times the distance between Rice’s campus and Houston’s campus stadium. Huskies fans have never been all that happy about it.

Our trip starts where all New England journeys do: a Dunkin’ Donuts.

This one is on the edge of UConn’s campus. To say Dunkin’ is synonymous with this region is to say the Pope is Catholic. There are 20-plus locations in a five-mile radius of my eventual destination.

While other places are experiencing spring, we’re still getting there in Connecticut. What snow is left from a recent blizzard is piled in parking lots among the bleak death of the winter past, all under a gray Northeastern sky.

I bid adieu to campus. A sign welcomes visitors.

The universe is begging me to choose my own adventure. I don’t tempt fate, and Siri guides my path left.

I pass a white building. The university sign outside of it reads: “White Building.” The aptly named building is the mailing address for the Connecticut Transportation Institute.

I don’t consider myself a full-on city boy, being from a college town in Northern Florida (it’s pretty much Georgia, trust me). But, I have to say, the rural humor of this store was lost on me.

Also lost on me was this bottle of Kinky Red liqueur near a sopping-wet, Craigslist-curb-alert couch.

The drink is branded as “a tantalizing fusion of super premium vodka distilled 5 times with fresh watermelon and strawberry flavors.” I had never heard of it, but a colleague who wished to remain nameless has had experience with it.

What I do know is — after your 19-year-old body has downed eight to 12 beers before 10 o’clock after a college event and have plans to get illegally into a bar — it is an excellent beverage.

Depending on your establishment (the girl who gave me this said it was $8 for a 200ML bottle), this is a good beverage for cost-benefit analysis. The cost: obvious. The benefit: to get me hammered after I’ve already been hammered.

I have, fwiw, never seen anyone but white women and super intoxicated white men drink this drink, so on the corner of Main Street in Wilkes Barre, Pa., while campus police stared me down, I’d like to say I was the Jackie Robinson of Kinky Liqueur.

This is the only video on their long-dormant YouTube channel.

I don’t want to think about whether someone had sex on one of those couches after drinking the liqueur, as is promised by the commercial ...

... but now you are, as our travels continue.

... to this.

I passed some lawn art, too. I do believe this is a large doughnut. I didn’t get to ask the owner of the thrift store it sits outside, because the store was closed.

The general store a little further down the road has truly everything you’re looking for, with NASCAR pillows ...

... and vodka candles.

At the time, the Huskies played on a field local to campus. In 1953, they upgraded to a 16,000-seat stadium in Storrs, but when they moved up to FBS in 2002, they needed a bigger facility to meet the NCAA’s minimum attendance requirements. So the state built one in East Hartford.

In this yearbook, I found a description of the 1949 team. They shared the Yankee Conference championship and finished 4-4-1, but on the way, they beat the living hell out of one poor opponent.

The twice defeated Connecticut juggernaut scuttled Newport Naval Training Station, 125-0 (that’s right, 125-0) before 3,500 rain-soaked fans at Gardner Dow Field. The unbelieving UConn boosters watched as the heavier and much faster White Knights battered the outclassed sailors from stem to stern.

The score broke every existing record in the Connecticut books, and perhaps a few national marks as well., Tackle Matt Johnson scored 14 points, all on extra points. Carmen Abate kicked off 17 times for the blue and White. In all, Connecticut gains 469 yards on the ground and 100 through the air. A total of 18 touchdowns and one safety were scored. Frankie Alu was the outstanding back of the afternoon as he scored three touchdown, one on a 51-yard dash and another good for 42. Thirteen players took part in the scoring.

From here, the way loses its charm as you get on a soulless interstate and urban Hartford gets closer and closer.

Eventually, I arrived at my final destination, built in 2003 for UConn’s transition to what is now FBS. I can see it now, lit up on a Saturday night, half full with fans ready for some hot AAC football.

I’ve arrived at Rentschler Field, the home away from home of the UConn Huskies.