FSU super fans

Jim and Betty Lou Joanos have a longtime garnet and gold obsession

By Natilie Pierre-Maliqi

Betty Lou and Jim Joanos are super fans who both attended FSU and have continued to support the university. The couple have a condo near Doak Campbell football stadium that is covered wall-to-wall with FSU memorabilia. Jim shows off a guest room.

Above the kitchen table there’s an autographed, framed poster from 2006 when Charlie Ward and Bobby Bowden were inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. A blue box of Honey Frosted Wheaties with Deion Sanders in a Dallas Cowboys' uniform sits on a shelf in the living room. In the guest bathroom, a collection of Dick Howser trading cards is framed beside the toilet. And booster tags line the kitchen walls — every tag since 1954 is accounted for. Actually, it was just a couple weeks ago that Jim Joanos found a spot on the wall for the 2012 tag.

Right across the street from Doak Campbell Stadium, the Joanoses are gearing up for another football season. As two of the biggest Seminole fans — Joanos and his wife Betty Lou — actually live across town, but spend much of their time on the Florida State University campus.

So in 2005 when friends that Betty Lou grew up with in Quincy called trying to sell their apartment — which has a perfect view of Doak Campbell Stadium from the backyard patio — it didn’t take long for the couple to turn the two-story apartment into their Florida State get-away spot.

Betty Lou and Jim Joanos are super fans who both attended FSU. The couple has a condo near Doak Campbell football stadium that is covered wall-to-wall with FSU memorabilia.

Seven years later, the condo is full of garnet and gold memorabilia that dates back to the days before the married couple of 55 years attended the university.

“It’s just been a part of our life, so we got kind of carried away,” Joanos, 78, chuckled. “I’ve always enjoyed collecting things. It just seemed to be natural to hold on to things and put them in boxes, instead of pitching stuff. Consequently, we accumulated a lot of stuff.”

Almost every inch of each wall in the three-bedroom apartment is covered with an FSU memory. A spear, the length of the stairs, hangs on the wall as you go from one floor of memories to another.

Joanos — a Tallahassee judge for 29 years and a practicing lawyer — majored in government and public administration at Florida State from 1952-56. Betty Lou — a former teacher at Leon, Lincoln and Lively Technical Center — majored in home economics education from 1953-57. The couple was married the same day Betty Lou turned in her last FSU paper.

But Joanos’ passion for Florida State athletics began in 1947 when the Seminoles fielded their first modern era football team. At the time, none of the players were on scholarship.

“To see them go from a seedling to the big powerhouse, in the ’90s when we were the best team in the country over a span of time, and now we’re one of the best,” Joanos, who's a Tallahassee native, explained. “You just feel like you’ve been a part of that because you’ve been here all that time and you’ve supported the group, and you’ve seen that happen. It’s been a lot of fun.”

Betty Lou, 76, a four-year member of the FSU Circus, added: “There were some schools that wouldn’t play us in football unless the contract said the FSU Circus would perform at halftime.”

Despite the constant reminders, the couple still clearly remembers some of the biggest moments in FSU history. Joanos remembers what he describes as a “heart-stopping” national championship game in 1993 when Charlie Ward and the Seminoles defeated Nebraska 18-16 after a missed field goal in the final seconds.

“When it was over it was more like relief than it was exhilaration,” Joanos said. “It was a good feeling. But I was sort of worn out.”

He also remembers a very different feeling sitting in the then-Louisiana Dome watching Chris Weinke and Peter Warrick lead the Seminoles to a second national championship, capping off the team’s wire-to-wire season in 1999. But if he ever forgets the joy he felt after that season, or the celebration in New Orleans, there are reminders in a case — with the game tickets — on the bathroom wall.

“I can remember the days when we went into games and weren’t expected to do much, and didn’t,” Joanos said. “Then, it was just a big thrill just to play the big boys. Then we got used to beating the big boys. It’s fun to be back, hopefully back, to that status.”

While most of the memories that fill the walls of the condo are from personal experiences with the FSU football, basketball, and baseball programs, some of the garnet and gold decorations have been acquired by friends who come over before football games or hang out during rain-delayed baseball games.

Joanos has also taken to eBay to fill the few holes on the walls himself. His collection of FSU’s different football helmets from over the years are among the memories he’s purchased after the fact, but still remembers witnessing in person.

With three children and a grandchild who graduated from FSU, and a granddaughter who is currently a sophomore at FSU, the condo across from campus continues to serve as a place to hang out, and work, for three generations of the Joanos family.

Coming off the two months where the condo gets the least amount of use with school out, and all FSU sports in the offseason, the Joanoses are looking forward to the return of football and being around campus more often.

“We’re in our seventies now. Memories are very special to us. We’ve had a lot of happy memories with FSU athletics,” Joanos said. “It’s just sort of fun to come out here and reminisce, and at the same time, enjoy present-day athletics.”

Even with more than a half century of memories on the walls, the Joanoses agree that the best memory they took away from FSU began with a homecoming football game in 1955. Jim was a senior in the library looking for a homecoming date. He approached Betty Lou as she was studying and asked her to homecoming.

“We’ve been very close since then. It was a great homecoming,” Joanos said with a laugh.