ATHENS — I started writing this column to show peak SEC behavior.

I wanted to capture all the trolling, property damaging, over-the-top shenanigans that make SEC fans a different breed of human. Having been fortunate to make some trips across the Southeast the past couple of years, I can confirm that for so many people, it does just mean too much.

But there’s also a different side of that passion that I’ve seen. Southern hospitality is alive and well. I saw it a month ago at LSU, where my SDS Podcast co-host Chris Marler and I were fed until our food comas were in full effect. I also saw it a couple of weeks ago in Athens, where again, we had some friends give us the ultimate Georgia gameday experience.

While in Athens at our tailgate, I had the pleasure of meeting a 60-year-old woman named Kathy Adams.

(Don’t tell her that I put her age before the fact that she has not one but two degrees from UGA.)

Rocking Uga earrings and Georgia boots, Adams was literally repping the Dawgs from head to toe. She had a story worth telling that had nothing to do with how much she loved Georgia. Instead, it was about her love for the team all of us were gathered under the tailgate tent to watch — LSU.

In the fall of 1978, Adams was an undergraduate at Georgia. On a Friday morning, she and some friends acquired four tickets to Georgia’s game the next day at LSU. So, as go-with-the-flow students would do, they got $60 for the four of them, packed up the Volkswagen and made the 600-mile drive to Baton Rouge.

Yes, $60 went a longer way in 1978 than it does today, but there was a slight problem.

“We couldn’t use any of our parents’ gas credit cards because they’d know what we were doing,” Adams said.

And believe it or not, the plan was a bit half-baked. By the time Saturday night in Baton Rouge rolled around, Adams and her friends had spent all of their money on beer. They didn’t have food, gas to get home or a place to stay.

“Priorities, man,” Adams said with a laugh.

They found themselves walking through the LSU tailgates looking “forlorn” and smelling all the Louisiana delicacies that were cooking.

That’s when an LSU fan sniffed out the situation that the traveling Georgia undergrads were in. She leaned over to Adams and her friends to offer a helping hand.

“You children hungry?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Y’all spend all ya money on liquor?”

“Yes ma’am.”

“Ya better come over here and get a plate.”

That they did. As they got to talking, they found out that they had put five kids through school at LSU (all of whom are doctors and lawyers now). When Adams and her friends finished eating, the LSU fan offered up another favor.

“Where you gonna sleep?”

“Well, we’re gonna sleep in the Volkswagen.”

“No, come back here after the game. You’re gonna sleep at our house.”

Instead of crashing in the Volkswagen, they were taken back to the LSU fan’s home. They crashed in the basement, where they were given quilts, blankets and pillows. The next morning, they woke up to the LSU fan fixing up what Adams described as “the breakfast from oh my God.”

Well-rested and fed, Adams and her friends made the trip back to Athens … which they were only able to do because the LSU fan loaned them gas money. Adams said that she paid her back immediately after they returned to Athens.

But wait, there’s more!

Adams was so touched by the hospitality that the woman showed her and her friends that every year, she made sure to send her favorite LSU fan a Christmas card. Roughly 15-20 years ago, Adams got the Christmas card sent back to her. She found out from one of the LSU fan’s kids that she died that year.

“Broke my heart,” Adams said.

Adams shared the 40-year-old story as Georgia fans around her were fixated on the first half of the LSU-Alabama game, many of whom were openly rooting for LSU to pull off the upset.

Who knows how she’ll feel about LSU in a couple of weeks when the Tigers and her beloved Dawgs face off in the SEC Championship (assuming LSU doesn’t lose to Arkansas AND Texas A&M).

One thing is for sure — she’ll never forget her half-baked trip to Baton Rouge.

“True story,” Adams said. “And that’s why I like LSU.”