‘Alabama, goodnight’: The story of Luke Ratliff, a college hoops superfan gone too soon

The coed superfan knew the way to stand out in a crowd. To grow to be “Fluff,” the Alabama basketball zealot beloved by the Crimson Tide devoted for his colourful antics, every sport day Luke Ratliff dutifully slipped on his armor — a custom-fit darkish plaid sport coat, an Alabama pin on the precise lapel and a pair of white Nikes. Often, a few Budweisers helped him step totally into character.

A yr in the past, when the NCAA welcomed 68 groups to Indianapolis for a March Insanity in contrast to another, with all 67 video games staged in a “bubble” to reduce journey and publicity to COVID-19, Fluff was not going to overlook it. Heck, he had attended each highway sport all season because the pandemic performed on unchecked all through the Southeast.

“I’ll do something for my head ball coach,” Fluff preferred to say of Alabama’s Nate Oats.

The Crimson Tide coaches and gamers had come to depend on Fluff’s presence. The sight of the heavyset 23-year-old within the black-rim Oakley frames, taking over the persona of a fire-and-brimstone preacher, was a supply of consolation. And apparently the staff wasn’t alone in its appreciation.

After Alabama’s first sport of the match, a win over Iona at historic Hinkle Fieldhouse, a line stretched alongside one of many concourses full of followers who needed their image taken with Fluff. Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne would later inform Ratliff’s dad and mom that he needed to ask for safety to handle the state of affairs.

Fluff by no means understood all the eye. He as soon as instructed a radio host who requested him what it was prefer to be well-known, “I’m only a child from slightly small city in North Carolina that loves Alabama basketball. That’s it.”

His mom, Pam, had observed that there was “slightly little bit of Fluff in Luke and slightly little bit of Luke in Fluff.” Luke shone by means of when Fluff would all the time take the time to cease for an image along with his admirers. All through the pandemic, she took solace that the one time he would take down his masks was for these seconds when he was smiling for another person’s digital camera.

Luke had truly taken COVID critically. At his measurement, he knew he ought to concern it, and he did. He usually acquired examined to verify he was defending these round him, significantly the Alabama basketball staff. In Indianapolis, his associates noticed him washing his fingers vigorously and, in lots of pictures taken that week, he was among the many few who had a masks round his neck.

However Fluff nonetheless saved the temper gentle. How may he not? Alabama was the Southeastern Convention common season and match champions. The No. 2 seed Tide dealt with Iona after which Maryland to advance to the Candy 16.

“He instructed everybody, ‘That is the very best day of my life,’” says Alabama assistant coach Bryan Hodgson.

Ratliff hightailed it again to Tuscaloosa, Ala., for a couple of days of courses earlier than returning to the Indianapolis bubble for the Tide’s subsequent sport towards UCLA, placing one other thousand miles on his black Honda Civic.

At lunch the day of the sport, his pal Hunter Johnson was shocked that Ratliff turned down a beer. He mentioned he wasn’t feeling his greatest.

His day would solely worsen from there. The Bruins beat Alabama 88-78 in extra time, ending Fluff’s dream of a Remaining 4 to cap his senior season.

“Thanks for the journey of a lifetime,” Ratliff tweeted from his Twitter account @Fluffopotamus88. “Alabama, goodnight.”

Early the following morning, he arrived again in Tuscaloosa and tweeted a pin emoji. His mom replied, “Glad to know you made it again protected.”

4 days later, she would maintain her boy’s hand as he took his final breaths.

::

Hailing from Wadesboro, N.C., Luke Ratliff understood the significance of faculty basketball. His dad, Bryan, was a North Carolina fan, however Luke was launched to Alabama by some proud Bama alums who lived down the road. By some means, that connection was sufficient for the Crimson Tide to earn his devotion from a younger age.

In fact, there was little doubt the place he would go to varsity. That first fall, he joined the Crimson Chaos basketball scholar fan group, and by January 2018, he was prepared to say his spirit and creativity.

Earlier than the Auburn sport, Ratliff scoured all sources searching for a kind of darkish blue FBI jackets with the yellow lettering. The rival Tigers have been caught up within the federal investigation into bribery within the faculty basketball recruiting world, and Luke needed to allow them to have it after they got here to Alabama’s Coleman Coliseum. Certain sufficient, he procured the jacket.

Luke Ratliff at his final house sport at Coleman Coliseum.

(Courtesy Pam Ratliff)

That evening, he was stationed behind the Auburn bench, reminding the nation of the alleged transgressions of Bruce Pearl and his employees.

“I’m like, ‘OK, I need to be associates with this child,’ ” says Hunter Johnson, a famous Alabama basketball diehard.

At halftime, an Alabama athletics worker picked Luke to take the halftime shot to win a prize, which introduced him additional into the highlight.

“From then on,” Pam Ratliff says, “he was that child who wore the FBI jacket.”

Luke Ratliff created such a stir that, earlier than the Louisiana State sport the following yr, he acquired a name from Byrne, the athletic director. LSU had additionally been focused within the FBI stuff, and Byrne hoped to keep away from an encore. By then, the sophomore had staged “a coup” to take over the Crimson Chaos, so he had a direct line to the athletic director’s workplace.

“I simply need to be sure to don’t have something deliberate for tonight like final time,” Byrne mentioned.

“Oh no, we’re not doing something,” Ratliff fibbed.

“Little did he know,” Pam Ratliff says, laughing, “Luke had all the scholars bringing faux warrants. He known as me and mentioned, ‘I acquired caught. Now I’ve acquired 1,200 folks to name.’ ”

Luke, from left, Bryan, Pam and Brandon Ratliff collect for a household picture.

(Courtesy of the Ratliff household)

Luke Ratliff was in a position to quiet that individual prank, however he stayed undaunted going ahead. No SEC coach was protected after they got here into Coleman. Rumor had it that South Carolina’s Frank Martin put up an image of Fluff within the locker room. Arkansas’ Eric Musselman blocked him on Twitter.

Given his efficiency as Fluff, few may have imagined that Ratliff was in the course of an intense battle with social nervousness.

Hodgson, the Alabama assistant, knew Fluff very effectively as president of the Crimson Chaos. However he didn’t meet Ratliff till one evening after a sport throughout the 2019-20 season.

“I walked out about two hours after the sport had ended, and he was the one individual left sitting within the constructing,” Hodgson says. “I may inform he was uneasy. He was shaking. I walked over there, and he opened as much as me.

“His story type of struck me. He mentioned, ‘Coach, I can rise up on a chair in entrance of 15,000 folks and make a idiot out of myself and put on all these goofy outfits, however easy issues like getting up proper now and strolling out of the world carry me the most important quantity of tension. I simply don’t perceive it.’ ”

Luke had been maintaining his inside wrestle from Pam — he didn’t need her to fret — however throughout one go to she observed him shaking in line at Sam’s Membership and compelled it out of him.

“When it was dangerous, he had only a few locations the place he felt comfy,” Pam says. “Basketball was a refuge, and I feel going into the persona of Fluff, it helped.”

His senior yr, Fluff was not going to be stopped — even by a worldwide pandemic. Each week it appeared, he was sending his father a contemporary image of some new state’s welcome signal on the freeway.

At Mississippi State in late February, the Crimson Tide clinched the SEC regular-season crown. Fluff didn’t understand it, however the staff made positive to clip a chunk of the web for him.

On the Ratliff household house, a shrine to Luke now hangs on the wall.

(J. Brady McCollough / Los Angeles Instances)

Days later at his last sport as a scholar at Coleman Coliseum, the coaches introduced it to him, together with a ball commemorating his galvanizing run as president. He cried.

“Mama cried, too,” says Pam, who was there to cheer him on. “He was humbled.”

Forward, there was the SEC match in Nashville, and the specter of the unprecedented NCAA match bubble in Indy. However there was one factor Pam needed Luke to deal with earlier than all that.

She and Bryan had simply gotten their first shot of the COVID-19 vaccine. They have been in a position to get it in North Carolina as a result of they’re caretakers of their autistic 19-year-old son, Noah. Luke would be capable to get one, too, if he’d simply make a fast journey house. The vaccine was not but accessible for Luke’s age group in Alabama.

“He needed a vaccination greater than anyone I do know,” Pam says. “However he was such a fan, and I feel he had simply set that aim that he was going to go to all of the video games. It was his final alternative. I attempted to speak him into coming house and getting a shot, however I feel he felt prefer it was his duty. Nearly as good because the staff was doing, he didn’t need to jinx it.”

In mid-March, with the bracket set and Insanity prepared to start, Luke fired up his automobile and floored it to Indy.

::

Everyone handles grief in their very own means. Visiting Pam and Bryan Ratliff at their house in Wadesboro, it’s clear they haven’t any intention of making an attempt to depart behind the particular time when their household was nonetheless complete.

In the lounge, they created a shrine to Luke on the wall, that includes 4 giant canvas footage grouped collectively round a framed “Fluff” No. 88 jersey the varsity gave them. On the TV, there are dozens of Alabama basketball video games saved on the DVR in the event that they ever need to simply see him at his happiest. To the precise of the TV, a tall cupboard shows the mementos and possessions that greatest outline him:

That FBI jacket, folded neatly. An Atlanta Braves cap. His eyeglasses. His bulging pockets, the objects left untouched. A bottle of good bourbon. An image of him and Pam at his final house sport. Two tickets from after they took a mom-and-son journey to Graceland. A level from the College of Alabama in public relations and a senior class ring he by no means acquired to see.

Practically a yr has handed, the numerous firsts with out their Luke slowly turning month by month into mournful reflections of their lasts with him because the calendar trudges on.

March, effectively, March has been tough.

“Yesterday was the final hug,” Pam says.

On the Ratliff household house, a cupboard shows vital mementos from Luke’s life and time at Alabama.

(J. Brady McCollough / Los Angeles Instances)

She didn’t get to hug him on April 2, 2021, the day he died. The final hug got here March 6, as she was leaving Tuscaloosa for North Carolina.

On March 30, Pam acquired a name from Luke. He mentioned he had a dry cough and a scratchy throat. The physician examined him for COVID-19, it got here again damaging, and Luke was handled for bronchitis at first. On April 1, Luke barely slept, feeling like his lungs have been crammed with water. He went again to the physician, and the X-ray confirmed indicators of COVID pneumonia. Luke went to the hospital, and the Ratliffs headed for Tuscaloosa.

As soon as Pam acquired to his room, she was in a position to assist calm him. His nervousness had taken management. She had by no means seen him so panicked.

“The extra upset he acquired, the more severe his respiratory acquired,” Pam says. “It was this vicious cycle.”

The pulmonologist instructed her that if they may simply hold him on the identical oxygen degree for a couple of extra days, he would doubtless be OK.

Unthinkably quickly, Luke was gone.

“I travel between disappointment and anger,” Pam says, returning to the right here and now, “as a result of I feel he ought to have been in a position to get a shot by then. They performed political ping-pong with the entire COVID pandemic for a yr earlier than my youngster died as an alternative of leaping on it and taking good care of it.”

“Like America ought to do,” Bryan interjects.

“My youngster would nonetheless be right here,” Pam says.

Since that second, the Ratliffs have been lifted up by seemingly neverending assist from the Alabama athletics household. Hodgson began a GoFundMe to assist with their bills, which raised about $60,000. Oats and his employees got here to Wadesboro for the memorial service, the place Alabama star ahead Herb Jones served as a pallbearer.

They buried Luke totally Fluff, carrying his trademark sport coat and holding his piece of that championship internet.

At house, the letters of condolence poured in. Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill and his spouse, Cindy — that they had grow to be associates with Luke — despatched a number of, together with an official state decision mourning his passing.

A lady from Indiana — with a reputation they’d by no means seen earlier than — despatched a letter telling Pam and Bryan about her likelihood encounter with Fluff simply weeks earlier than in Indianapolis.

“I had the pleasure of assembly Luke in Indianapolis on the finish of March,” Bryan reads. “Even in a brief time frame, he made such an impression. He was so extremely variety and really humorous …”

Bryan has to cease studying as he will get choked up.

Luke Ratliff and pal Christian Sykes pose at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, the place Alabama performed within the 2021 NCAA match second spherical.

(Courtesy of Christian Sykes)

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“We’re simply nation folks,” Bryan says. “We’re overwhelmed with the sympathy for us.”

Colleges and fan bases throughout the SEC despatched their like to the Ratliffs, making it clear that their sparring with Fluff was all in good enjoyable. The Ratliffs prefer to joke that even Arkansas acquired them flowers.

Finally, in November, one other season of Alabama basketball needed to tip off with out the staff’s No. 1 supporter.

“I knew going into that first sport at Coleman it was going to be powerful,” mentioned Johnson, Luke’s pal, “however yeah, I cried, man. It acquired to the place he was so synonymous that you simply don’t take into consideration Alabama basketball with out him.”

Alabama held a ceremony to honor Fluff with a plaque on the again of his seat, which can now be the place the Crimson Chaos president sits every year.

“Fluff did extra for us than we may ever do for him,” Hodgson says. “I miss him like loopy. We grew to become so shut. It was bizarre. In my complete teaching profession, I by no means had a bond with a scholar fan, however once I frolicked with him, it felt as if he was older than me. It was like hanging out along with your uncle.”

In early March, the Ratliffs attended Alabama’s house finale. It simply occurred to be on the anniversary of Luke’s final sport there.

“I can actually say that I really feel nearer to my youngster once I’m sitting in Coleman Coliseum than I do anyplace, than I do right here at house,” Pam says. “Tuscaloosa is soothing to me. It truly is.”

Pam’s portal to Tuscaloosa and people recollections opens anytime Alabama basketball is on the TV. They attempt to make it festive, inviting different Tide followers they’ve met within the space. Not too long ago, a leftover keg from a watch occasion sat empty in the lounge.

Pam has additionally taken over a few of Luke’s traditions. She’s grow to be very energetic on Twitter utilizing the account @irbransmom, and each sport day she sends the identical GIF of a sweaty minister preaching from his Sunday pulpit, identical to Luke would.

“When he’d stand on these seats and lead these youngsters, he’d appear like an outdated Southern Baptist preacher standing there,” Pam says, laughing. “He may have instructed these youngsters to strip bare and run round Coleman Coliseum, and I actually suppose they might have carried out it.”

Friday afternoon at 1:15, Alabama will play its NCAA match first-round sport in San Diego. It’s a certainty that Fluff would have been there.

For the Bama fan base, there isn’t a changing him. However Pam will get up Friday morning in Wadesboro, load up her preacher tweet and hit ship another time, merely doing all she will.