Not Clemson

“It was not Clemson, by the way, the Blazers were playing; it was Vanderbilt University. I would have never even considered this if it was Clemson. I don’t particularly care for Clemson University.”

On the Tuesday afternoon following the streak, Mike was sitting in class when a deputy showed up at the door and asked the teacher if Mike were in the class. She told the deputy that he was, but he would have to wait until the class was over.

“That is all right; I will go with him now,” Mike told her.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, ma’m."

Mike said the teacher was “a tough lady and I didn’t want her to get into an argument with the officer. He told me what the charges were and I could not believe it. He laughed and said they probably would drop them because everyone had been doing this. I told him that I had watched several hundred do this the past Thursday with a police escort through the campus. That is when he told me about the warning that had been issued on the radio.”

Needless to say, Mike hadn’t heard the warning. He was fingerprinted and put in a cell with about 10 more guys who were playing cards right by the door on a blanket.

“I had to step on their blanket to get in. They turned and all looked at me and asked what I was in for. I stared back at them as mean as I could look and said, ‘Streaking!’ They all rolled over laughing, high fiving, and then high fiving me. Then my mother’s voice really started coming in loud and clear. ‘Now you know I didn’t raise you to end up in here.’ A few hours later, my tennis coach came and bailed me out. He was trying to act upset, but if you know John Hansen, that just wasn’t happening. He was really laughing too, but he had a job to do.”

But the worst wasn’t over

“I go to my apartment and a few of us are sitting around. It was myself, Steve Whitley, John Bradley and Bobby Tripp. There were maybe some others there also, but I can’t remember exactly, but this I remember well: I was saying that I don’t know if I should tell my parents or not because they might find out. Five minutes later, the news came on, and the very first thing that came on the news was a picture of the arch out in front of Valdosta State College at that time. Then came the headline news: ‘A 23-year-old sophomore, Mike Hamner, was arrested for streaking today.’ It wasn’t bad enough that they opened with this headline, but they also demoted me to a sophomore on the news.”

The phone rang two minutes later and it was his parents.

“My mother was crying and I told her that everything was going to be all right. Dad got on the phone and wanted to know what was wrong with me. Then he started laughing and I heard my mother yelling for him to stop because it wasn’t funny. Finally, Mother calmed down when I convinced her I wasn’t going to prison. Then came those words: ‘You know I raised you better than that.’”

Mike had to plead “no lo,” pay a small fine, be on probation for three months, and do community service during that time.

“If I had any money at that time I could have gotten the charges thrown out, but I was just thankful to get it over with. When someone openly admits that they are using you as a scapegoat and uses someone’s name on a warrant and that person did not know about (the incident) ... They listed that person as a witness and that person wasn’t even present. I had a great lawyer representing me. I don’t hold any grudges, but I do hope he has changed his ways and represents people to the best of his ability. I didn’t have anyone to pay for my college, my fine, or my lawyer fee.”