Ask any college football fan what makes the game so special and their answer almost always comes back to one thing: the fans.
Yes, there are fans, even extraordinarily passionate ones, in every sport. College football fans are a different breed, though, especially when it comes to expressing their fandom. There’s a level of familiarity, a deeply rooted sense of home and belonging that sets it apart from other parts of sports fandom. It’s irrational, even harmful at times, but it leads to the sport having its own unique following, particularly in the Deep South.
Now, ask any SEC football fan to think of one word that encapsulates that passion, and a good number of them will say the same thing: “PAWL!”
For the uninitiated, this one-word battle cry is a reference to the Paul Finebaum Show, a college football institution since the 1980s. The show, which originated in Birmingham but has since gone national, did not invent the sports call-in show, but it did perfect the form. Every weekday for the last 30-plus years, college football fans have called in and poured out their love, anger, sadness, and every other emotion stirred up by their favorite team and by those who would dare criticize it.
As a lifelong Birmingham resident born in the early 80s, my brain was shaped by listening to Finebaum from an early age (if I ever yell at you online for mildly disagreeing with me about something that doesn’t matter, this might explain why). Like any great soap opera, the Paul Finebaum Show’s regular callers became their own cast of characters over the years, with certain figures and their real-life story arcs elevating them to icon status among longtime listeners eager to hear from Paul’s most notorious callers.
As the years have passed, so too have some of these iconic callers, like Tammy or “Shane from Centerpoint.” Their passing led to the show’s normal pattern of sports hollering giving way to somber memorials. This week, Finebaum announced that Phyllis Chapple-Perkins has passed away.
With a heavy heart, wishing a final farewell to Phyllis Chapple-Perkins. Known to so many as The Bama Avenger…The First Lady of the Finebaum Show…or, simply, Phyllis from Mulga.
An unforgettable force of a woman, she helped define this show as a place where college football… pic.twitter.com/1pgnT2aK8I
— Paul Finebaum (@finebaum) May 11, 2023
Chapple-Perkins was best known to fans as “Phyllis from Mulga,” a reference to her hometown in Alabama which boasts just over 700 residents. A lifelong Crimson Tide fan, Phyllis became known for her passionate, thick-drawled calls into Finebaum’s show defending her beloved team anytime Finebaum or another member of the media criticized them. Phyllis’ calls would often begin without any typical Southern pleasantries and a single word that made it clear she was in no mood to be pleasant.
“Phyllis from Mulga is next,” Finebaum would say.
“PAWL!” would be Phyllis’ answer.
With a signature style that mixed righteous indignation, passion, and fierce defense of her team, Phyllis established herself as not only one of the most iconic callers on Finebaum’s show, but in many ways, the archetypal Southern sports radio caller. And while Phyllis’ screaming matches with Finebaum helped shape the vibe of the show, Finebaum says he never took it personally.
“We are all heartbroken to hear the news,” Finebaum said. “She and Tammy are arguably the best known and most beloved callers in our show’s history. Easily Mount Rushmore. Underneath it all, she was a lovely and dear friend who meant so much to so many.”
This show and the culture surrounding it has been such an integral part of college football for the last three decades that it has become a part of the fan vocabulary. “PAWL!” is shorthand for the burst of intense, irrational emotions fans experience over a game played by teenagers. It’s the sound we make when, despite all our efforts to grow up and focus on the things in our lives that directly impact us, we find ourselves completely captivated by this little world on a field we never even touch, unable to stop thinking about it, even during the week.
Phyllis was, of course, more than just a character on a radio show, as all fans are. My good friend and former colleague Ben Flanagan wrote an extensive profile on Phyllis years ago. Like all of us, she’s a complicated and multifaceted person — someone who fought many battles and endured many hardships. Sports aren’t real life, but I think there may be a very good reason why so many of us invest so much of our emotions, even our identities, into them. Life is complicated, and even when things go well for us, it can be hard to determine if we’re really coming out ahead.
Sometimes you need a win, and sports can be a great place to get it, because even when your team can’t give you that, at least you’re never alone in defeat. You always have a built-in community, a family you are willing to fight for — even if you only know them from a radio show.
