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Darius Rucker has been a staple at Carolina games of all sorts for years. The lifelong Carolinian got together with the rest of Hootie and the Blowfish on campus in the early 90s and since about 1995, their names have been as synonymous with Columbia as anyone to ever put on a Gamecocks jersey.
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Ashley Judd is a Kentucky superfan. She has been to every Kentucky basketball game going back as far as I can remember. She has shown up to most of their marquee football games too. While she hasn’t spent her whole life in Kentucky, she did spend the majority of her childhood there and has a degree from UK (or is it KU? I can never remember which is Kansas and which is Kentucky. And before you comment, you should know I don’t really care).
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Both of these celebs were bigger in the 90s (although Rucker has enjoyed quite the renaissance). Both love their SEC schools with a passion. So which is the better celebrity fan? I put together a hand little tale of the tape to help us determine.
WHO IS MORE LIKELY TO BE IN THE STANDS ON SATURDAY NIGHT?
As stated above, Judd (like most people in Kentucky) tends to be more of a Wildcat basketball fan. She has shown up to some big UK football games, but I don’t know if Saturday’s game will be big enough for her.
Darius Rucker on the other hand is a football fan first. I asked a few friends and when it comes to games outside of Williams-Brice, we can only remember Rucker showing up to bowl games or Charlotte. This is a home game obviously, so Darius showing up is a virtual lock.
VERDICT: Rucker 1 Judd 0.
NUMBER OF GRAMMYS
Rucker - 3 (2 with Hootie and the Blowfish in 1995; 1 as a solo artist in 2013)
Judd - 0 (No known recordings to speak of)
VERDICT: Rucker takes a commanding 2-0 lead
NUMBER OF OSCARS
Rucker - 0
Judd - 0
VERDICT: No change
NUMBER OF OVERALL POST-HIGH SCHOOL DEGREES
Rucker - 1 (There is some dispute over whether or not he actually graduated, but he won a distinguished alumni award in 2010. That’s good enough for me.)
Judd - 2.5 (BA from UK, MPA from Harvard, and is currently pursuing a Ph. D. from Cal)
VERDICT: Judd is on the board!
NUMBER OF DEGREES THEY DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT
Rucker - 0
Judd - 1 (On an episode of Ellen DeGeneres’ talk show, Judd said she thought she left Kentucky before she finished the necessary credit hours to earn her degree and found out 20 years later she actually took 27 more hours than was necessary).
VERDICT: We’re tied at 2, but I don’t know that I would be proud of this one.
NUMBER OF NFL TEAMS THAT MAKE THEM CRY
Rucker - 1 (The Dolphins)
Judd - 0
VERDICT: 3-2. Advantage Darius.
NUMBER OF TOUCHDOWN RECEPTIONS
Rucker - 1
Judd - 0
VERDICT: 4-2. One more and Darius wins.
NUMBER OF STAR TREK EPISODES THEY’VE BEEN ON
Rucker - 0
Judd - 2 (The Next Generation)
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VERDICT: Judd pulls a little closer, but it’s still a 4-3 Hootie lead.
UNDERAPPRECIATED WORK OF ART
Rucker - You can have Cracked Rearview. Hootie and the Blowfish’s best album is Musical Chairs.
Judd - High Crimes, which co-starred a pre-Jesus Jim Caviezel.
VERDICT: Darius wraps this one up, largely because High Crimes was only slightly above average.
So there you have it. You can have your personal feelings on these two all you want, but I am working with objective facts here, and the facts say that Darius Rucker is objectively the better celebrity superfan than Ashley Judd.