Where I Come From: Tailgating Traditions

My Dad’s family’s had Chicago Bears season tickets since the 40’s, and my mom’s family has owned a butcher shop for 60+ years – so I definitely have the right pedigree for tailgating. The key? EXCESS.
Neccessitles:

Lots of beer on ice. Coozies. A Secret Weapon: (Jack, Crown, Jameson… maybe even Rumpleminze or Goldschlager… depends on the temp).

Music: This is a must, throw together an Ipod playlist with snipits of great moments in Tech Football, Fight Songs, and other inspirational moments (include movie themes from films like Gladiator, Braveheart, Mohicans… etc)

Football: Gotta have a football, and all passing routes must flirt with disaster.

Flag Pole: Show your colors, your clubs, etc… just remember, USA on top!

FOOD: Splurge. Because we’re Polish, we ALWAYS have quality Brats. Slower the better, and when you bite into them, you must burn your mouth/face with scolding hot, delicious meat juice. It’s a right of passage. Other things to include, Grilled onions and fine brown mustards. NO KETCHUP!

But it’s not just Brats… You should have a vast array of fine meats, as well as finger foods like chips, dips, shrimp, veggies, etc. During the entire experience, people should always be eating/drinking something…

Tailgating should be an epic experience, and should never seem routine… so always shake it up and bring something new… the key is to get yourself, and all the other people around you fired up for the game… So there you go – GUNS UP!

(Best Red Raider Tailgating Experience? Tech vs A&M 2003 with a few of the Texas Tech Rugby Old Boys——we should all be in jail).

My favorite memory of tailgating comes from the Oklahoma State game my sophmore year. My dad had given me his old smoker and I kept it on the balcony of my apartment (safety first!). My buddy and I decided to smoke a hog he had shot and grill some doves from our recent bird hunting trip. We started the smoker in the back of his truck at 5 am and headed to Raider Gate around 8 or 9. When we arrived it quickly became obvious that our plan to move the smoker from his truck to the ground was not going to happen so we just cooked from the bed of his truck. It just so happened that the SGA was having a cooking competiion that day for free Raider Gate passes for the next home game. We ended up winning the “exotic” category although I doubt we had much competition. Overall, it was a great day with lots of good food and fellowship. Plus Tech beat the tar out of OSU, 49-24.

I think I tailgated with my dad once or twice while a student. Normally we’d just bbq at somebody’s house near campus and then walk from there.

Now after I graduated I started tailgating for nearly every game with my dad and some other folks who are hit and miss.

The only REAL tailgate I attended, and because of the frigid weather, we left early. But while there, GREAT FOOD and commaraderie. We even got to shake Tubs’ hand when he dropped by for a few moments. Definitely want to do it again, hopefully this year. This time I hope to be there before AND after the game, and I’ll bring along some Elgin sausage.

I hung out at a few TexasTechFans.com tailgates before going into the student line (great brisket), but I’ve never really been much of a tailgater. I’m awful at organizing. Was good times hanging out with Seth before the Cotton bowl a few years back, even if that Cotton bowl was awful enough that I’ve put it out of my mind. Then again, which Cotton bowl isn’t awful?

You know, we didn’t do a lot of tailgating at the stadium when I was in school. I think we did once when an uncle invited me and my roommate. Typically, we lived within walking distance of campus (or had a friend who did) and we’d drink ourselves silly at a house party before the game. Then stumble over to the campus for the game.

It was a very low-brow affair at these parties. A keg of cheap beer; most often Milwaukee’s Best or some such and bad hamburgers and hot dogs. If that. Food was usually fairly optional and more often than not, five bags of chips and bean dip was what we would offer up. It wasn’t about the food : )

As an adult, I’ve been to a few tailgates hosted by others. Mr. Fuller (who the track is named after) offers up a great tailgate with his huge TTU bus and pop-out TVs, beer and decent barbeque.

The most important thing is to get started, make a run at it. You wont know what you need until you do it a few times. Its a great excuse to go early and stay late, add that much Red Raiderness to your life.

Nebrasaka ’08 we started the tailgate out of necessisity (was also Tex OU) buddys wife UT alum a great gal she compromised and went to Lubbock to a dirt lot beside Cains to watch her game. We started early (around 7AM) before the lot attendants or any other fans showed on that side of the stadium. Before it was over we were pulling the batteires out of rent cars!

Alamo Bowl ’10 – invested in a pawn show dewalt generator and HD dish / box. So we learned that the generator will run for ever on a tank of gas and that we are getting better everytime. BTW: what we would have spent on tickets for the bowl game we invested in our gear. Arrived at 9-10am, split at halftime a full 12hrs on the lot.

I will say a good oragne jobsite style watercooler will save your soul should you get too excited about the beer too early. As always I highly recommend burning some good dry West Texas Mesquite for good measure, if you can and some south texas dove to the mix your even more authentic!

Around the Jones when you can see “Cornelius: the LBK Drifter.”

I didn’t tailgate much when I was at Tech as student but as an alum I live for it. Every season I try and add more equipment and food to the mix. It’s become an important part of our pregame venue. Typically, we BBQ a ton and drink beer all day long. I like passing the football so I can guage my consumption of beer intake. Tailgating is becoming a more serious part of the Texas Tech traditions which I’m very happy to see.

and maybe the perception has changed, but students tailgate more. I know I would tailgate for about half the home games (the big games, unless I was really really “tired” from the night before). The parking lot by the Jones is good as is the parking lot by Hastings. The best time is when Bubba came out, cooked probably close to $1000 in meat, and was giving it all away to the students. I still have the shirt he was giving out as well.

Once for the Texas game in 2004. Had a pretty good time. Next was for Aggie in 2005. Lot’s of food and beer.

Now, I’m fantastic at throwing house parties for away games or just at the house. You will not leave dissapointed, or at all for that matter. Guaranteed to be deeerunkered when it is all said and done. I will also NOT guarantee your safety upon leaving, I live amongst many UT fans that are still upset about 2008.

We setup the Texas Tech gazebo in the backyard on the waters edge. I get on the roof & run the cable from the satellite dish & the one from the antenna into the backyard & run them under the tent walls. We bring out two TV’s, one HD and one SD. The HD one carries the over the air game and the tube TV gets the Direct TV feed for the ESPN game or any other game playing on the dish. The usual foodstuffs are dragged out & setup on a couple of portable banquet tables. Then we spend the afternoon sitting next to the water eating junk food and watching college football. At 6:00 or 7:00 PM we break it all down & go inside to watch the Tech game on the big screen TV inside. Almost as good as being there.

At games in Lubbock our group has been tailgating for 15 years in the East lot by the stadium. Last year we got booted due to the East side construction. We moved to a grassy area behind the east side of the Engineering quad. We like it & plan to stay there from now on. All we miss is going out at halftime to reload like we did when we were 15 steps from the stadium gate. This year they want a $5000 RRC donation for each parking spot in the East lot. It was $1500 two years ago. So we moved on.

Our cooker started with a couple of axles my best friend found on his ranch and it just grew from there. We begged, borrowed and stole every scrap of metal we could find and 18 months later we had cooker that had every electronic gadget and temperature control two engineers could think of.We then outfitted it in red and black and plenty of double Ts. I have some older photos of the cooker on our group facebook page at Red Raider Tailgate Association. Recently, we’ve added more flag poles, a kegerator and a 32" LCD TV (in addition to the existing two 19" LCDs)

We start early and stay late. Our favorite breakfast recipe is chorizo, egg and potato burritos with a spicy bloody mary to wash it down. A bunch of us pool our money together and we always eat good whether it’s pork tenderlion or prime rib or dr. pepper glazed pork chops, there is never ever a complaint or leftovers. I found a great recipe for green chile hominy out of a Perini’s steakhouse cookbook and it so easy to make at a tailgate and always gets rave reviews. I welcome my DTN family to stop by during season, have an adult beverage and watch some college football on the DirectTV package.

I can hardly wait til SMU game.

every time you make it. It is an excellent base recipe that can easily be elaborated upon.

Only available by email request……………….No Aggies need to respond.

At lots of schools, tailgating is a huge part of the history, but for those that have been around for a while, fill us in.

but I do want to comment on convenient small smokers, the kind made by Brinkman’s that use a water tray…the go for about $60 currently, I think.

Easy to use, just follow the come with instructions, and amazingly good results always…it does take some effort to tend in order to produce a properly cooked smoked 25 lbs brisket, but the meat will have a great smoke ring, it will be tender, tasty, and moist…no rubs in my kitchen, meat, salt, pepper, charcoal / wood. I smoke a brisket 3 or 4 times from Fall to Spring for local drive way parties…we likey !!

Tailgating at Auburn was HUGE in the 80’s. Had to walk 1.5 miles to the Stadium through a forest of RV’s. Gauranteed to be full AND drunk by the time you got there. SO many Alumni who cooked all morning and had plenty of alcohol.

Been to a few tailgates at Tech with Tech grad friends from Shallowater. Good stuff goin’ on. Has one of those big smokers that fits in your truck’s receiver hitch on an extender arm! extra coax to run the TV feed anywhere!

Sadly I battle a little MS problem so going to games is not always the best option for me. So the garage parties are my most common tailgating experience. Still cook on a red and black smoker with TT logos. Big flat screen, kegerator, pool table for half time…and out in the country for post game fireworks!!!