As the days slowly dwindle to zero come kickoff and with tidal wave of traffic surging toward the site it seems many are eager more than ever to share their Hokie related thoughts and experiences. Piggy-backing off Joe's "When did you realize you were a Hokie", I thought it may be fun for anyone to tell us any of their favorite tailgating experiences, traditions, or recollections herein.
I'll try to keep mine brief as I can get wordy at times but some of my favorite include:
Games:
'03 Texas A&M: Otherwise known as the Huricane game. There were high winds, a ton of rain, and cold as hell but I was a Freshman and didn't matter how drenched I got. I was in it for the long haul and washed down soggy hot dogs with Beast.
'06 Northwestern: This game was an absolute snoozer and mimicked the 38-0 shalacking of UVA last year which was also an awesome tailgate in C'ville. However, I turned 21 the day before and woke that morning in an ungodly haze. By 8:15 am I was shoveling brownies and bourbon down my gullet for breakfast screaming Lets Go!!!
Traditions:
Even though personally and through my fraternity there were few traditions outside the usual drinking games, rally cries, and debauchery I have tried at every tailgate to befriend at least one fan from every opposing team. I love when other fanbases applaud us on how welcoming and compassionate we are. Whether it sharing a beer or conversation, I believe a little goes a long way.
Feel free to post stories, pictures, ideas and what not below!
Comments
Not to be nitpicky...
But it was Northeastern in '06. I remember that game vividly because it was my first as an attending grad student, the weather was beautiful, and I went to El Rods afterwards for some top shelf Marg's
mistake
I knew it was Northeastern and even double checked before posting yesterday. Nonetheless, dummy me just couldnt type EAST instead of WEST. El Rods is my absolute favorite btw. "mas tequila por favor" was my go to when i arrived.
I always head to the Clubhouse Tailgate
in the airport lot to participate in communion prior to game time. Everyone does a shot of Wild Turkey 101 and then heads to the stadium.
Other (hazy) memories: Joe and I went to Slicktrip's tailgate and everyone chanted our ages as we did keg stands. I suck at keg stands and am old. Another time, Joe and I went to Barbarek's tailgate and I did the worst dizzy bat in the history of dizzy bats. Joe unfortunately has video and has threatened to release it if I ever do something to piss him off. Then there was the night at this year's Sugar Bowl where I got invisible and was told by Joe the next day that I shadow boxed everyone until they all wanted to kill me.
In summation, Mark Richt has lost control of my drinking.
I might just have to bring the dizzy bat back for labor day....
Love love love
Cannot overstate how much I love dizzy bat.
I really want to post that video. That was a really fun tailgate.
Was that the Clemson game? Or the UNC game? I think we had dizzy bat at both, but I honestly can't remember.... probably because of said dizzy bat.
The Clemson Tailgate
It was the only game F4H came down for, and I remember it because after the tailgate we lost to Clemson and everyone had the sads.
was it gt 2010?
i know gt was the game where we were walking to the stadium from the general direction of barek's tailgate and you decided we needed more beer, so you sweet talked some gt fans into giving us some.
or was it unc 09?
they all run together.
GT 2010
Was when you came to ours and we ran out of cups so I made you do the keg stands.
Georgia Tech 2010 was when I sweet talked that family into giving me some expensive beers, and we did the keg stands. Clemson '11 was the dizzy bat.
I love the stories from the less notable games
Mine is the 2007 game against Miami (OH). I had met a girl the week before and since I lived in an apartment near the stadium I convinced her and a friend to tailgate with me and my buddies. We had a blast playing flip cup and beer pong. When it was time to head into the stadium I went with my friends in the east stands and she went over to meet her's in the north endzone. Around halftime I got a text from her asking if I wanted to sit with her and meet her friends. We watched the game together and then went to Souvlaki's after.
I married her last November.
Miami Rain Game
I dont remember very much from the game other than the blocked punt and the long TD pass both early in the game... I dont remember much from the tailgate either. We had about 30 people under 3 canopy's. Some how grilling hotdogs, playing beer pong and flip cup at the same time. One of our friends (drunk at the time, obviously) decided to bring his pet beta fish to the tailgate so the fish could get the full experience of VT tailgating. We would take turns keeping the fish bowl between our legs to keep the water warm. We were in the commuter lot which is now covered with parking decks. It was my senior year and it was the last time that it worked out that me and ALL of my friends were together for a tailgate. I may not have appreciated it at the time. But now that I have graduated and not all of my friends have season tickets I really miss those days of just knowing that everyone would be there for every tailgate.
The game was fun. Beating Miami always is. After the game we all went downtown soaking wet. The next day none of us had functioning cell phones. Our wallets were ruined. A set of keys was forever lost. I feel like only Hokies would really appreciate an experience like this...
The two best home tailgates were Miami in '03 and Miami in '05. Well, that and every Thursday night tailgate.
But the best tailgate ever was at LSU in 07.... they know how to do it. Clemson in 07 was sweet too.... we tailgated from 9am until 2am Sunday morning. Oh, and we beat their ass.
LSU
Dear sweet baby Jesus that was a tailgate. All 72 hours of it.
I'll never forget the morning of the game. We went and ate at the Waffle House next to our motel before heading to the tailgate. When we were paying up front after our meal, my friend asked the waitress "Excuse me ma'am, do you know where the closest liquor store is?" She looked at us, decked out in our VT gear, and said, in a classic Louisiana accent, "Honey, you ain't in Virginia no more! See that gas station across the street? You'll find everything you need right in there." At that point, I knew we were in trouble...
I've never had so much fun at a football game in which we absolutely got destroyed.
oh dear god
the game at LSU was the most amazing thing I have ever been to in my life. we started drinking before we left New Orleans, couldn't find a bag of ice anywhere in Baton Rouge, walked 6 miles across LSU's campus in 110 degree heat with a 700lb cooler, rode a mechanical bull, got tiger bated left and right, ate some amazing food, and had the best time of my life
My two best
Best Tailgating Experiences:
My two best tailgating games happened to be in 2005 for both GT and Miami games when college game day came. I remember partying the night before till 3am then waking up at 7am to go get a front row seat for college gameday under torgeson bridge for both of them. The GT game luckaly was an afternoon game, so we went straight to stadium lot and kept it going. The UM game was at freakn night so that was a loooooong day....
Best Tailgating tradition:
Well dont really have one, but with Bdozers power hour video i think im about to!
When I was a student, my group of friends didn't tailgate all that much. We did a bunch of dorm drankin', then a walk over to Lane. When we lived off campus, we were big proponents of kegs and eggs (most times, kegs were replaced by bourbon and 24 packs of cheap beer).
So, my most fond tailgate would probably be either Boise State or Miami (versus Stanford in the Orange Bowl). Both were crushing losses, but epic parties beforehand. Boise was my first dizzy bat experience, and I failed, but not as much as F4H did because I actually hit the ball.
Best tailgate tradition I've taken part of is communion at Clubhouse Tailgate. Seriously, those guys are older, but they know how to throw down.
Also, macaroni salad, mayonaise based + pickle juice, it stands the test of the sun and is delicious.
That Orange Bowl tailgate was pretty f'in sick. Good times.
Best Tailgate was prob Alabama
Had tons of great ones at Tech, including GT 2011. Skipped out of class at like 2, went to El Rods for a jumbo Texas, then tailgated until gametime. Apparently it was cold but I couldn't tell.
But Alabama in Atlanta was awesome. Went to the Varsity, had so many cases of the BL fan cans, we were hanging with Alabama guys, we found fried chicken right before kickoff, great weather, couldn't have been better.
So many to choose from
The hurricane game vs. aTm - we actually bought a tent for the first time ever for this tailgate, it did not survive.
@LSU - for reasons mentioned in another comment
some Big East game vs. Miami - my friends got my mom to do a shot of jager
Many of the all day parties we had setting up shop in the Litton Reaves grass with no parking pass
Hell, I really can't list just these. Every Saturday (or Thursday) in Blacksburg is special and ties as my favorite tailgate ever.
1996...
The entire year! We lived in the apartments that are 50 yards from the practice field and 150 from the student gate. We had 7, count them SEVEN, home games that year. That was the days of the athletic card, where you gathered everyone's card in your fraternity and their friends and got seats for that many cards. Needless to say, not everyone used their allotted tickets.
We would pick up the first keg at 6, second at 8, third at 10. That's just before the Weaver Noon kickoff. Since there were tix left, and there was ample everything only 150 yards away, we would head back "home." Hit the keg and wild turkey, grab a new ticket, and resume the second half. Again, this was the case for SEVEN home games.
The best was the Friday game against UVA. We all came back Wednesday, hit downtown like it owed us money, cooked a turkey Thursday with 14 of us eating off a ping pong table, then tailgating for UVA with several randoms at our apartment. Same routine for the first 6 that year. And, we had 2 days to "recover", or "maintain", depending on how you look at it...
and there was one time...
we ended up drinking with Joe Klecko of Jets fame at the old Vet in Philly when we played Temple. We had a case of Fosters oil cans between two of us, and Klecko fed us for free since he was so impressed. Pretty sweet day!!!!!!
(Also the same day the first guy to win a million on Millionare won...we were in some pub in Philly drinking Lager with no sound. Didn't exactly know at the time, but watched it and the PSU game.)
Favorite Tailgate experience (thus far...)
ACC Championship game last year against Clemson (before we actually played them). I have a brother that lives in Charlotte so a couple of my buddies and I were able to spend the weekend down in Charlotte. Fortunately, my brother is also a Hokie and has a bunch of buddies down there as well. We were able to show up at a tailgate that had 3 kegs and countless cases of beer in addition to all sorts of food and even a couch. (There were over 50 people at this tailgate so we still managed to drain the kegs and were forced to raid beer form other tailgates)
My roomate and I, being undergrads were a bit more skilled on the BP table than most of the folks around us (we were actually somthing like 13-0) and my brother challeneged us to a final game. It came down to the wire where we made the last cup and he could hit the last cup for redemption, but I thought it would be cool to start yelling to "pump up the crowd" before he took his shot. As my roomate and I started yelling, so did a good 20-30 other people at the tailgate putting the pressure on him to hit the last shot. It was awesome. He couldn't handle the pressure and missed the shot.
Shortly thereafter, the whole Panthers band (not really sure, they had panther logos on all the instruments) walked up to our tailgate and started playing right in front of us and that was really enjoyable.
Where do I start?
I didn't start tailgating until last season. I would go to the games like 30 minutes before kick-off in the previous years. But last year I started tailgating with Matt Bolling and Hokie Thunder Tailgating. WTH was I thinking by missing these festivities!?! From my first tailgate down in ECU to GT where I met Ralph (@EnglishHokie) and Nick who came from England. I can narrow it down to like 3, UNC, Mia and ACCCG.
UNC, we bummed rushed the commuter lot at 10, were drunk by 12 and dancing on trucks beds by 3. We met so many wonderful people and #Team7 grew larger than we ever thought.
Mia, was so hot, but was so much fun. I chest pumped with Leonidas, danced with Tech Tron, murdered Mia fans in Flip Cup, led a round of cha cha slide waiting to use the porta potties. Sobered up real quick, like the Sailor that I am, before The Walk. And then commenced to finish drinking with the "rich" people in lot 1.
But Charlotte was by far the best. Met HokiESQ there. (She even has me at my finest hour). Was introduced to boxed Sangria, even shot gunned a beer with Bud's daughter. Led the cheers as the team drove past the parking lot where we were tailgating.
So this year I plan to go all out, celebrating with the friends who I call family as I ride this train to the end of the college level line. I hope to see you all in the commuter/public lot and Lot 15 this year. As I drunkenly make my way to The Walk, make sure to give me a loud #Team7 yell!
The Nebraska Home Game of '09. At the Chicken Hill lot, our tailgate was approached by a camera crew. Three of my fraternity brothers were smoking pipes, and for a soundbite they said "We're going to smoke the Huskers!" Well, the game was exciting to say the least. If you don't remember how it ended, then you don't know your Hokie History!
The Nebraska fans were a class act, through-and-through.