NORMAN — Bob Upton walked toward the Jimmie Austin Golf Club putting green Thursday, and his pals from Company H1, West Point class of 1980, started hooting. Upton knew the story was coming.
Upton grew up in Alexandria, Louisiana, and decades of living in Pittsburgh hasn't chipped away at his Cajun accent. You can imagine how thick it was in the Catskills in 1976. So when Upton was subjected to the traditional plebe requirement of announcing, whenever commanded by an upperclassmen, the menu for the next three meals, he quickly pronounced the goods. Including “MINE-strone soup.”
Forty years later, a dozen West Point grads still howl at the scene.