Springsteen & I: "Fake singer fools students"

Tomorrow, July 30, the documentary "Springsteen & I" will be shown at the Hollywood 18 theaters in Huntsville. It was shown July 22 but is being re-released.
In honor of that occasion, I am putting in writing - for the first time - my own "Springsteen & I" experience.

Years ago, I was told I bore a resemblance to The Boss. You can judge for yourself, that's me in 1976 at the TKE house, front row, third from the left. Next to me is Cindy Burland, who was my date at the Springsteen concert.
So, when it was announced that Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band would be playing at Auburn in May, a couple of my TKE fraternity brothers and I came up with the idea of Springsteen visiting the campus before the show.
We figured the perfect place to make the "announcement" was an upcoming "battle of the bands." It also helped that one of my fraternity brothers, Greg Dowdy, was in a band playing that night. Between songs, he told the crowd there was a rumor Springsteen was going to be on campus a couple days before his show to check out the venue.
Now, there was not much of a reaction because his popularity was nowhere near what it is now, particularly in 1976 Auburn, Ala., but there was a little murmur in the crowd.
Next, it was time to plan the visit.
Dexter "Doc" Dunnavant and Don Conner were going to act as my - er, uh, Springsteen's - escorts on campus for the visit on a Friday. Since not a whole lot of Auburn students had heard of Springsteen, let alone know what he looked like, several Tekes and little sisters would be on the Haley Center concourse announce the arrival ("There he is!" "Is it really Springsteen?" "Wow! I can't believe he's here!).

Springsteen on "Born to Run"

Doc, Don and I parked at Toomer's Corner and walked across campus to Haley Center. They were wearing shirts, ties and a vest while I was in jeans, denim shirt and floppy cap. To add to the ensemble, I was wearing an earring borrowed from Jody Hart, a Teke little sister.
As we reached the concourse, the brothers and little sisters went into high gear; a couple of them even brought cameras. Their "excitement" spread among the other Auburn students. Surprisingly, there were actually Springsteen fans and, fortunately, didn't recognize the "fake singer."
Autographs were signed; hands were shook; pictures were taken. I was even invited to a "High-centennial Party" (it was the Bicentennial, remember) by a group of girls. I didn't take them up because I figured the hoax would be exposed by then and didn't want to face a group of angry students.

Not Bruce Springsteen at the beach

The original plan was to walk along the concourse, do the autograph/picture thing and get out of there. But the plan nearly backfired when a student/fan tagged along with us. The four of us ended up walking to the Coliseum, looking it over and then we three planned to head back to the car. Well, by coincidence, the fan was parked by the Coliseum and offered to give us a ride back to Toomer's.
We obligingly accepted and, after the ride and many thanks, we got out of his car, got into ours and headed back to the TKE house.
After a couple of hours, the adrenalin rush subsided and we went about our business - it was, after all, Friday and the weekend was beckoning. We celebrated the successful mission which turned out to be truly memorable and couldn't have been accomplished without everyone's help.
However, little did I know, the best was yet to come.

Tomorrow: Springsteen & I: "Even the noses ..."