Something to get some commentary going on here today. My wife and I had our first date at the UGA/Boise tilt in Atlanta back in 2011 (the famed horrible jersey game) and we proceeded to continue dating by attending every home Georgia game that season. We were simple folks, took a cooler full of beer and had Little Italy after the games…but in years since, we’ve had a few opportunities to participate in what has become an event in modern day means for tailgating.
Hamburgers and hotdogs? Hell, some of the tailgates I’ve seen recently have full buffets going under multiple tents with HD TVs going with the early afternoon games from around the nation playing.
So today’s question is this:
A. What’s your go-to tailgating cuisine?
B. Do you go to games and tailgate? If so, what’s your modern setup? If you don’t anymore, why did you stop?
For us, we added four kids along the way, so the astronomical price of six people and also keeping the kiddos happy counters any desire we have to do it regularly. Additionally, it’s just more convenient to stay home and watch the game with friends without the hassle of traffic, ACC cops, and hunting for a space on game days.
The purist in me enjoys the old days of grabbing some chicken and sides from the College Station Kroger in the morning and heading to our regular spot across the street from Butts-Mehre. We didn’t have to get there at 4 in the morning or pay a premium price to tailgate somewhere within the greater Athens area, either, but that’s gone the way of the dodo. We were there every Saturday for the better part of the 90s, were season ticket holders, and didn’t feel like we had to donate an organ just to get tickets that would today put us in a seat that gives us a better look at the craters of the moon than it does the football field. Not trying to be crotchety here, but it was what it was.
How about you?
You started dating in 2011 and have 4 kids? Way to get it done, bro! As for our tailgates, we try to stick to a mascot related theme. Capons for USCe, pork tenderloin for Arkansas, venison for bama since that is where I get it. Stir fry for all the “cat” themed mascots.
Slight correction, she had one daughter already, we’ve had three since. I’m 50 this year so we had to get at it if we wanted kids. Our youngest is named Georgia Love, we arrived at the name as Sony Michel flashed Jazz Hands in Pasadena and I was running laps around the house flapping arms like Baker Mayfield.
50? Had to get at it? You ever heard of Strom Thurmond? Jk, I think.😉
For years we set up in front of the Tennis center when RV’s where there too. Standard tailgate with tent and mixed food assortment for the grill. When satellite tv game along I started bringing a large marine 31 series battery. Powered everything through a converter. First not noisy large tv setup in our area. Then our resident grill expert started getting fancy. Finally lost our spot to a parking deck.
You must be the one that got our spot in the parking deck. We decided not to walk 5 miles to the stadium, so we bought parking through a ticket broker. I’d rather pay the overpriced parking that having to walk that far with 2 bad knees and back.
As far as tailgating, we did it for a long time until we moved to a deck and since been kicked out. The only time we tailgate is the Georgia/Florida game. We precook everything at home. Usually take locally made fresh sausage for breakfast and usually chili for lunch. After the game is just some type of snack.
We lost our spot when the parking deck was built. Never used the deck. Bus rides to the stadium from East campus are good for bad knees.
“I thanked the Lord for three things: fried chicken, potato salad, and the fact he had allowed me the privilege of being a Bulldog”….GO DAWGS!!
and for giving us Kirby Smart.
For a few years, my buddy and I would get to Athens way early, so I could park on Broad close to the Arch, then go eat at The Grill, then commence tailgating by the big magnolia tree at the corner of Broad and Jackson. I’d have 2 or 3 parking tickets by the end of the day, but that $15 was worth the price.
In the 90’s my wife and I had friend with passes in the P-J lot. We’d park downtown, grab a drink at Murphy’s or Taco Stand, and walk down the hill to hang with them. Before they shitcanned the North Campus tailgating (Fuck Mike Adams!) we could always find a few beverages along the way. Whenever my wife would start digging in the console looking for change to feed the meter, I’d tell the dear woman to cease and desist. I’d gladly pay the $5 parking ticket and there was no need to add an additional $2 to the cost.
We used to tailgate on the corner of Baldwin and Jackson (my wife’s sorority crew would take that corner over). One of my best friends’ parents had a parking pass across the street in the Psych lot (when we sucked in the Goff years, he would get his car parked and then we would drive by, get the pass and go through). We tailgated there for a long time. He gave up his tickets (we had them together), and my wife has zero desire to go to a game unless a pass to a suite is involved now.
Once I started driving from NC, I would go with my Dad if they came up to meet us in Atlanta or would take a daughter or 2 or a friend. I became a downtown tailgater at DePalma’s or another restaurant around town.
We tailgate if I find a parking pass (we’ve done the Bulldog Tailgate Club a couple of times – it’s spectacular), but it’s not a part of my football experience any longer.
All said, I can’t wait for us to remember our content creator in perpetuity, the Senator, at some point this season.
it can be said enough…michael adams is the devil and ruined tailgating, ushered in outrageous pay lots and the open container law…burn in hell you fuck.
One big problem is UGA is taking up a lot of parking spaces for buildings and has poor plans for replacing the lots causing a shuffling of the fan base to find parking.
One of the many benefits I enjoyed as a frat douche is always having a place to meet and park before the games. I’ve never actually tailgated in Athens.
Whole hog on the pit, keg of beer, all the sides, “clean” bathrooms and then just waddle down to the stadium.
Never been a huge fan of the tailgate scene, either, although I don’t think it is possible to the Georgia-Florida game without tailgating. Maybe technically you could, but I never knew anyone that just showed up and watched a game.
That said, in the early 70s the railroad tracks were a form of tailgating for me. Or later, after we moved to a fairly close town and became friends with a wealthy Bulldog fan we could show up at his antebellum house about 11:00 AM, partake of a light lunch and social conversation and then go to the game, arriving to our seats about 30 minutes before kickoff.
For me the social part of tailgating is great but the physical and fiscal costs keep me from even thinking about it these days.
I’ve been to many different tailgates over the years on different parts of our lovely campus; fried chicken, pulled pork, ribs, piles and piles of Chik-Fil-A nuggets…one of the best ones was a low country boil in the Mell Hall parking lot. Each had a full bar to get everyone good and lubed up for the game. We have one of the most beautiful places in the nation to tailgate on campus, for which I am forever thankful. Not some temporary tent city rising out of a so-called “loveliest village”; nor a floating hillbilly navy by a rickety mountain goat playground. I’ve never been to Oxford, so I’ll defer to those who have. I will say this: one of the finest meals I ever put in my mouth was at an LSU tailgate when Quincy Carter had his moment. Nice enough campus, but it gets ugly after dark, and especially when the home team loses!
I was at that game and also enjoyed some great food shared by random LSU people before the game. After the game, they were more interested in trying to run over Dawg fans and spitting in our general direction.
The hardest part of tailgating in The Grove as an undergrad was trying to decide whether to hit on the mom or the daughter. The saying was always “we redshirt Ms. Americas at Ole Miss”, & they weren’t lying.
I tailgate downtown (pick a spot-been there at least once), then walk downhill to the stadium. My wife loves football (and betting on the games), but not in the stadium, so she picks me and whichever kids are with me (our kids are grown) up after the game. She watches at whichever sports bar she can get into. No hassle with parking, cleanup, etc., plus we often get invited to other tailgates.
We have tailgated for 30 years. We have always been North Campus folks, parking in the North campus deck for the most part until driven out by high dollar donors who don’t fill the deck anyway. Now we park at the Georgia Center. We have done soups, fajitas, sliders, BBQ,, sandwiches, and of course BoBuckets. We drink Jack Daniels and Creature Comforts. We handed out beers to ND fans. Used to enjoy the scene on the North Campus lawns but certainly understand why things had to be reined in after the Auburn and South Carolina debacles. https://youtu.be/KoZRh83pPks
Michael Adams did more to ruin tailgating than anyone in UGA history. When I was younger(50’s) I had an RV and we parked in the tennis parking lot, as noted above. We could arrive on Friday and stay until Sunday. The rule was you could not get in before 5 o’clock PM on Friday. Well by 5 RV’s were backed up to the perimeter. So most of us would just start parking since the lot was near empty anyway. Well here come the Keystone Cop’s (campus) telling, by this time 40 or more RV’s, we had to leave the lot. We all just laughed at them. They threatened to have us towed, so we laughed harder and asked were the heck they could get enough wreckers to tow that many big RV’s. The UGA Bulldog RV Club had some big money donors and they parked their RV there, so when a lieutenant from the cops got there they told him we aren’t moving. By this time is was well after 5. Long story short the cops said screw it and left.
So Adams starts to build parking decks and the first I can remember was in the tennis parking lot. So they moved the RV further out to where East Campus dorms would end up. It got worst. Now the visiting team RV’s that had always parked with us couldn’t. They stuck them out the Atlanta highway. The straw the finished me off was the final move to the intramural fields. I had, because of my donation, a parking pass to the lots off of Mileage (SP) so we literally drove from the RV across campus and parked in the lot. They ran buses from the intramural fields to the stadium but there was not enough buses to load everyone AFTER the game. I gave up RVing to the games after that and just parked. I detest Adams to this day.
The feds stopped the parking on the curb on Lumpkin because of the Olympics.
I am nostalgic for the old park wherever and tailgate but it has made it much easier to get out of the stadium .
During the college years we would sit on the deck at Classic Subs on Baxter drinking beer and yelling at the opposing fans as they walked down to the stadium. Right after college for the first few years, we moved next door to the Chevron gas station parking lot. Then for many years we would set up right outside of the Federal building. We had a full food spread, grill, tent, satellite TV, etc. We did this for quite a few years until one day without any notice or warning the cops towed all of the cars parked there. After that we had a Georgia Gameday condo and would hang out on the balcony, etc. for the next 7-8 years. After the condo was sold, we started renting the same ARBNB that’s an old converted church for our annual weekend pilgrimage to Athens. We pregame there and cook out on the grill before walking down to the stadium with a stop or three along the way. We’ve been doing that ever since. For road games, we love the Dawg Dayz tailgates whenever they offer it.
We smoke Boston butts for 22 hours, wrap them and take them in a cooler to the tailgate. Old fashions are popular with the ladies. Once a year or so we will have a low country boil.