Where I Come From: Tailgating Traditions

chocolate chip cookies have always been a part of the tailgates we had. And for whatever reason, they taste awesome with beer……….whether it be beer and sausage/eggs (for the morning games) or beer and brauts for the afternoon games.

There you have it: chocolate chip cookies. The secret to a great tail gate.

I’m brand new to this tailgating thing. I’m brand new to following a program with historical perspective. I’m brand new to actually going to football games. So, I’m still learning, but I’m finding my groove…

As I’ve said the past two days, my wife and I both went to a small D3 school. We had a ridiculously good basketball team (whose star player, Aaron Trigg, went to Blue Valley West). We did not have a football team at all.

Needless to say, the only collegiate football team I have ever seen in person is the Kansas Jayhawks. When my wife and I moved here, I was finishing up some post-baccalaureate coursework in preparation for medical school. I did this at KU, so I was able to get season tickets to football for both my wife and myself. This just further entrenched me into Jayhawk nation.

I went to every home game in that 08-09 season, and a few traditions took hold.

First: Parking, or the lack thereof. Coming from Boston, you just took the ‘T’ everywhere to get to games. Sure, it was crowded, but you were guaranteed to get there on time. Trying to find a spot on Illinois, Louisiana, or Mississippi even two hours before the game is nigh impossible. Fortunately, I have two things going for me… we own a Jetta, which fits nicely into small spots, and I grew up in New York, so I can parallel park with the best of them. True story… we were driving down Illinois about a block from Memorial Stadium and saw a small space between two cars. Two police officers on bikes were standing right by the space staring at each car as it slowed to see if it could fit and then drove away in frustration. I somehow found a way to get us in the spot and as we got out of the car, one officer reached in his pocket to hand the other officer a 50 dollar bill. They had made a bet to see if anyone would actually get the spot…

Second: I absolutely agree with Owen about the beauty of the Lawrence in the fall. There is nothing like a leisurely walk along Jayhawk Boulevard, down to Sunnyside Avenue, and back up Naismith. The crisp, cool air of a morning or the twilight, fall breeze of an evening… it reminds me of a good fall in Boston. It gives me goosebumps. The atmosphere just makes it all so much better.

Third: For afternoon or night games, there is nothing like a bowl of chili beforehand. My wife’s family has a recipe that just decimates all. I won’t share it, as there may have been a vow of silence involved when I learned how to make it… but it just completely makes the whole Memorial Stadium experience complete.

Fourth: My wife and I always sit on the far left side of the student section, fourteen rows up. We find it easy to get in and out of the stadium and we are right near the recruits that they bring in for each game. So, we met HCBS in person and Danny Manning, too… it was pretty awesome. We’re right at the 50 yard line, and we’re far up just enough to get some perspective on the passing game and everything. It’s just a perfect spot to watch some football… and not take part in the ‘Rip His F***ing Head Off’ chant.

So, just a few small, non-crazy traditions that have become part of our Jayhawk football experience. With season tickets for this season, we’re quite excited…

One of my best friends lived a stones throw from the Stadium on Illinois Street at the very end of the street (yard faces the stadium). So we would usually chill there with a lot of beer, food, etc.

You bet your balls we played a mean game of beer pong. We also made a game called Beer Flip. It is a combination of Beer Pong and Beer Flip and is the greatest game in the history of mankind. You need two teams of 4 or so, then you set up two pyramids like pong. After someone shoots though, the flip cup starts down the line (whoever makes the cup gets an advantage by going first in flipping while the other teams shooter drinks the cup). Then if the shooting team wins the flip round, you remove the cup (like in pong). If the defending team wins beer flip, the cup stays. Epic game.

I will man the grill and I’m mean with that thang. I have a few specialties: a BBQ Chicken Sandwich which is the best you’ll ever eat (hit me up during the season and I’ll prove it). I put a rub on the chicken, grill it to perfection, put it on a toasted bun with some bbq sauce, lettuce and tomatoe. mmmmmm. Also rock the usuals – burgers, brats and cheesewursts (gdarn wisconson blood), hot dwogs, etc. If its an early game I make my breakfast burritos – eggs, bacon, hashbrowns, sausage rolled up, with some salsa or hot swauce. Boom.

We usually eat and drink then go into the game and STAY THE WHOLE TIME. Then after the game, we have “nap toime” in which everyone goes home, takes a power nap or eats a little more, changes, etc. Then its usually off to someones house for a night of drinking or hitting up them bars (Louise’s is my favorite).

Man…describing it makes me long for the good old days. I need to find a job in Lawrence…

Whenever I go to a game football or basketball i go with my roomate from my freshman year, and we always go to five guys and inhale those wonderful burgers. I am trying to make a tradition of tailgating at the KU Mizzou game at arrowhead I went last year and BBQ’d Ribs and burgers and it was awesome! Unfortunatley all the people i went with last year wont be around this year (my wifes brother is geting deployed to Afghanistan, and my wifes cousins husband moved to Dallas and is about to become a dad) I dont have anyone to go wih and sadly this tradition might die after only one year

I grew up in Lawrence, so I’ve seen firsthand the recent explosion in tailgating and excitement around the program. I remember in the late 90s (don’t remember exactly which year), KU went up and played Notre Dame, and my family grabbed some tickets and made a vacation of it. I remember pulling up to their stadium and seeing a sea of RVs and cars and a cloud of grill smoke hanging over the whole area. This was my first exposure to what tailgating really was. In the past few years, my family and friends have had a tailgate just southwest of the stadium, complete with tents, grills, games, and of course, beer.

There is, however, one moment of the pregame that stands out to me.

I live right around 9th & Emery, and walk through a couple apartment complexes, up by the radio buildings, and down the hill to the stadium. For me, the best feeling is the first view of the stadium at 7 am when the air’s a little crisp and it just immediately feels like gameday. I could take or leave the rest of the tailgate. I don’t like to get hammered because I generally want to enjoy the game and remember it afterward. I don’t think I could ever live somewhere where I couldn’t have Saturday gamedays. I’ve been a KU football fan for life, and it’s so great to see the parking lots packed, grills burning, music blaring, and a ton of blue shirts up on the hill playing washers, ladder golf, or just throwing the pigskin around.

My wife and I each graduated from KU 3 and 2 years ago, respectivelly. Our tradition is to load up a cooler with good beer, some dips and chips and whatever else is tempting us. I drop her and the cooler off on Jayhawk boulevard a couple hours before the game. Once I find a spot to park, we find a nice grassy patch on the hill and park ourselves for the majority of the game. Usually we have a radio to listen to the broadcast while being able to catch abour 40% of the game from a poor angle on the hill. However, we never have to put down our beers to make the way into the game. Generally some friends join us and it turns into a nice little party.

but I think you’re scoring system would cause some really quick games. We play the 1-2-3 point system up to 15.

Not much to contribute on my part here, I’m under 21 and have never been to a KU game. However, I do enjoy those early games, as I get to eat breakfast while watching the Jayhawks.

I drive to lawrence; park my car & start walking towards the stadium. Another thing my friends & I do is "dress’’ up forr holidays like when the Brigade still played in KC I was in a easter bunny costume, and random kids would come up and take pictures with me.

I know it pales in comparison to other Big 12(10) schools as far as sheer numbers of people gathered in one place, but I’ve had so many good memories walking around campus or in the student ghetto celebrating and drinking with friends and strangers. It’s just great. When it’s spread out like that, it seems like more of a community thing than specifically a college football thing. Can’t wait until the season starts.

My only real tradition though, is grilling portobello mushroom “burgers” before the game. Yeah I’m one of those hippie vegetarians, but I guarantee any meat-eater would love these things.

If we’re talking about an early game then for sure you have to get to your tailgate early, I mean real early. We would start at 6am if we had a 11am game. Get there, fire up the grill, and put our pre-made burritos on the grill to warm them up. Now when you have a breakfast burrito you need juice to drink with it. What alcoholic beverage comes in a bottle, tastes just like juice, and is perfect for the morning? Woodchuck! It’s like drinking apple juice! After you’ve had your meal and all the woodchuck you can drink, it’s time to start playing some games. Polish horseshoes is great, so is washers, and even some stupid a$$ games that you make up because you can and most of the people around are drunk and don’t know any better.

After the tailgating we would walk from the south of campus (basically AFH) to Memorial Stadium. Even walking up those hills, the campus is perfect. Everytime I make that walk I thank my lucky stars I decided to go to KU. We usually saw the band practising up by Wescoe Beach and we would stop, listen, and cheer if they were there. Then we’d continue our journey down the hill into Memorial Statium.

Man, I need to get to more games this year! Just talking about it makes me miss is so much!

but hockey tailgates (seriously) got pretty crazy let me tell you. You don’t want to challenge me in beer darts.

usually going to kegs and eggs at one of many local bars and then heading to friends houses close to the stadium. Load up on Apple Pie (learn how to make it, very dangerous drink), walk across campus to the stadium while admiring the fall colors. Halftime- hit some tail-gates and hustle over the footbridge to the PressBox, pound beers and admire the, er, chesty waitresses, go back to the game, stay the entire time and crash once you get home.

because I never get to tailgate. I have a couple of friends that are diehard fans like me, but the rest of them just want to drink all day and leave at halftime. I used to save seats for the my friends who weren’t crazy about football like me, but I stopped when I realized that they would just leave at halftime to tailgate and drink more. Now I just get to the game a couple of hours before kickoff and make sure that I have a good seat near the middle of the student section around the 40 yardline. Not much of a tailgating tradition, but nothing is better to me than getting a little tan while watching my favorite team get hyped for the game while going through warmups.