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Remembering an original Husky Half Brain, DeLarry (1978-2020)

DerekJohnsonDerekJohnson Administrator, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 63,197 Founders Club
edited May 2020 in Classics



We received word last night that one of our dear friends and an OG Husky Half Brain passed away on Tuesday evening. His real name was Larry. But his name on the Dawgman boards was Angry Alum. And later he posted as Larry on the old HuskyHalfBrains.com boards. In 2013, he came over to Hardcore Husky and posted as DeLarry, DeLarry_DeLaCroix, and finally DongJames.

On Tuesday night of this week, Larry was out for a walk near his California home when he was struck by a car. He later died at the hospital. He was 42 years old.

Larry was a fascinating person. He was equal parts tough, sensitive, rebellious, well-mannered and intelligent. He was an engineer for Boeing and had a brilliant mind. He could play guitar beautifully and loved music of all kinds. He hated Donald Trump but did not fit the mold of a far leftie. He often seemed to root for the little guy in life, but also staunchly believed in people being rewarded based on merit. He loathed the idea of participation trophies for everyone.

Larry's legacy within the annals of the Husky Half Brains (and by extension Hardcore Husky) is twofold. First of all, in the middle of the 0-12 season of 2008, Larry went down to Anthony's Home Port and the Tyrone Willingham Show. On live radio, Larry took the mic and thanked Willingham for his efforts, but then told him that the program was being destroyed and that Tyrone needed to step down ASAP. In the words of Race Bannon, "Larry had more balls than any of us."

The other part Larry will be remembered for was being part of the group that went to Jim Mora's neighborhood in 2007 at 5a.m. to deliver him a birthday cake. Larry was with @CokeGreaterThanPepsi, @CFetters_Nacho_Lover and @Mooser42, among a few others. It never worked out, of course, as Mora went to the Seahawks and we got stuck with Sarkisian. But it goes to show how desperate we were for a competent coach, as we watched Husky Football descend into the abyss. (Mora proved to not be the coach we'd envisioned, but that's a story for another day).

The first time I met Larry in person was in September 2009. I took a girl named Lucy to the Washington-Idaho game. I bought tickets that were on the south side upper deck near the west goal line. Four rows ahead of us were a bunch of guys who kept standing up and being rowdy. A little too rowdy for some, it turned out. Somebody behind us summoned an usher and they came and talked to the group. One of the guys was a big black guy wearing glasses and a striped white shirt. He kept turning around to point and glare at the guy who reported him. The ushers returned and threw the foursome out of the stadium.

The next day on the old Husky Half Brains site, Larry wrote a 50,000 word thesis on what happened to him and how he felt Husky fans had become total pussies. I PM'd and said "I think I might have been sitting behind you. Were you wearing glasses and a white, striped shirt?"

He said "That was me!" We started talking and had dinner the next week. We became fast friends from that point forward.

We texted a ton during football season. During the Sark years, we had agonizing text threads as Sark pissed away games and the opposing QBs and running backs always seemed to have record-setting performances against UW. At one point it became a running joke between Larry and I.

Larry and I made two different excursions into podcasting. The first was back 2010 and our episodes agonized over why we were stuck with Sark. A few years later, when we both had lost much of our passion for Husky Football and the way it was being run, Larry suggested that we select a new team to adopt and then go on a road trip once a year to see them play. I said how about ASU, but Larry said he could never root for another Pac-12 team. Then he strongly pushed for Michigan, but I hate Michigan. No bueno. We agreed that Alabama was off-limits because that would be too easy and bandwagony. As he said, "We need to pick a team that's on the rise and then our fandom will be more pure."

So we agreed on Tennessee. We even started a short-lived podcast called Volunteer Half Brains. As @CokeGreaterThanPepsi said at the time, "This is the weirdest thing I've ever seen on this website, and there have been a lot of weird things happen here."

Larry was also featured in a chapter of my book Bow Down to Willingham. He liked the book a lot and felt it rendered a good service. He liked how it humanized guys like CJ Wallace and Chris Hemphill, and showed how their experiences at UW were negatively impacted by Willingham. Larry's one criticism of my book is that he didn't feel I fully proved the premise of white guilt, as was suggested by the book's subtitle.

I could on and on, but I will wrap things up here. I will miss talking politics, music and football with Larry. My funniest memory of him was the time he got thrown out of Autzen Stadium for getting into a shoving match with an obnoxious Oregon fan in a wheelchair. Larry was a beautiful guy and we all loved him.

In conclusion, I will quote a text exchange that was shared with me last night by @volcanodawg.

Larry: Married?? Congrats!... You guys are a beautiful, happy couple.

Volcano Dawg: Thanks man! Yea we eloped!

Larry: That's the only way to make sure no Half Brains show up. :D
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