FSU's Number One Fan?

By Jim Joanos

FSU sports fans come in all shapes and sizes. There are fans who regularly attend numerous FSU events that you see almost every time you attend something FSU. They are devoted to FSU. Some are here for a while, then gone. This story is about one of them.

Sol Carroll

Sometime in the late 1970’s an interesting man started appearing at FSU sports events. His name was Sol Carroll. Word was that he was retired from somewhere up north who had with his motor home stopped at a park near Tallahassee. Word was further that he had attended an FSU sports event and enjoyed it so much that he had decided to stay in Tallahassee to attend more games. In time he became a fixture at FSU games and other events.

He would show up with his tambourine and small hat that stood on the top of his head. He had sweat shirts that had sayings like “Let’s go team”. He even rode at the homecoming parade on one of the floats sponsored by a fraternity. He called himself FSU’s “Number One Fan”. Lots of other folks did too.

He attended lots of away games as well as home ones. I bought an FSU ball cap from him in Orlando where he was selling them for one of the FSU clubs when we were there to play Texas Tech in the 1977 Tangerine Bowl game. His FSU activities spread and he began attending other student events all over campus. He was very useful at fundraising events doing various jobs to be of assistance.

One of the things that he did was to go to a local donut store and be given day old donuts. He would give the donuts to students. Some students came to rely upon them as a breakfast treat.

Once he made a big mistake with the donuts. He took some to one of the baseball games and threw some to students and other fans. Instead of the thanks he expected, a group of fans who were somewhat of a rowdy group threw the donuts back at Sol. He was not happy. He yelled and called the group a bunch of “animals”. As a result, the group, members of which change somewhat every year, has ever since called themselves “The Animals”. The event never dimmed Sol’s fervor for FSU. He continued attending the games and doing his thing for the rest of his life.

An FSU fan, Sol died an FSU fan on a on a very coId day in December of 1983. It was the week end that FSU played North Carolina in Atlanta’s Peach Bowl football game. Sol died on the way to Atlanta. He was on one of the band buses and somewhere near Thomasville apparently had a heart attack.

There have been lots of devoted fans since Sol’s death but I don’t believe there has been anyone like Sol whose life revolved almost totally on FSU sports. I doubt that we ever will see another.

About the author:

Jim Joanos

Memories of Garnet and Gold

Jim Joanos and his wife Betty Lou have deep roots at Florida State University. Avid sports fans, they have literally seen, and done, it all. Fortunately for us, Jim loves telling first-hand accounts dating back to FSU’s first football game, a 1947 clash with the Stetson Hatters on Centennial Field, where Cascades Park is today.

The Osceola will run a series of these colorful stories written by the former Tallahassee lawyer and judge, which we feel our readers will find enlightening and/or nostalgic.

Jim and Betty Lou, who was Associate Director of the FSU Alumni Association (1991-2003), have been married 65 years and are each listed as one of FSU’s 100 Distinguished Graduates. The couple were enshrined in the FSU Hall of Fame in 2015 as Moore-Stone Award Recipients. Ironically, both Deans Moore and Stone were instrumental in the Joanoses career development.

“Both Jim and Betty Lou Joanos have been exemplary fans and supporters of Florida State University, both academically and athletically,” said Andy Miller, retired President and CEO of Seminole Boosters, Inc. “You can’t go to an athletic event of any kind that you don’t see both Jim and Betty Lou Joanos together. They love their university as much as they love each other.”