Alabama Basketball Honors Superfan Ahead of Season Opener
The No. 14 Alabama Crimson Tide basketball team will open its 2021-22 season at home Tuesday night at Coleman Coliseum. The Tide will host Louisiana Tech at 8 p.m. and prior to the evening's contest the program will honor the superfan Luke Ratliff.
Ratliff was president of Crimson Chaos and became a recognizable face to Alabama fans as he was always smiling and cheering on the Crimson Tide. He unfortunately passed away due to complications with COVID-19 in the spring of 2021.
"It'll be special to honor him but we're going to really miss him. Hopefully the new student leader can pick up where he left off. It would be great if the students here honored him in a meaningful way and showed up early before the game, they're going to honor him about 15-20 minutes before the game so if we could pack that student section full 30-minutes before the game and just really give him the respect that he deserves." said Alabama head coach Nate Oats. "I think we'd all love to see the video that they're going to show is going to bring a tear to your eye. It'll be nice to recognize him, hopefully we'll get a win for him and kind of keep the spirit of what he was about around this program moving forward."
Ratliff traditionally wore a plaid sports coat while cheering on the Crimson Tide as an homage to Alabama legend Wimp Sanderson. Former Alabama player and current color commentator Bryan Passink in encouraging all fans to break out the plaid tonight to honor "Fluffopotomus".
"I think they should honor him. He was a huge fan who went everywhere with the team and it was certainly a tragic problem with the COVID-19 stuff. It will be a nice deal to honor him," said former Alabama coach Wimp Sanderson.