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No game too far for Tigers football fan on 193rd consecutive game

By , Daily Memphian Updated: August 26, 2026 4:24 PM CT | Published: August 26, 2026 4:18 PM CT

John Stacy pulled up to the Tiger Bookstore on Walker Avenue in his Honda CRV to buy the final few items he needed for the 2026 Memphis football season.

Stacy lives in Atoka, Tennessee, which is about a 40-minute drive for the 67-year-old veteran. That pales in comparison to the three-day trip he’ll take to attend his 193rd consecutive Memphis football game when the Tigers open the season in Las Vegas against UNLV on Saturday (9 p.m., FOX).

Stacy hasn’t missed a Tigers home game since 1998. A group of his friends decided to start traveling to road games in 2003, and the first Memphis away game that season was against Southern Miss, where new Memphis coach Charles Huff coached last year. Stacy said he has only missed seven games since then.

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Memphis Tigers Football Subscriber Only John Stacy

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Frank Bonner II

Frank Bonner II

Frank Bonner II covers the Memphis Tigers. He is a top-10 APSE winner who covered Oklahoma State for the Tulsa World before joining The Daily Memphian in 2021. Bonner is a native of Indiana, where he started his career covering high school sports.


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