Hogs’ fans flock to tailgate party
Posted on Sunday, September 7, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/236601/
There was no mud for Hogs ’ fans to play in at the park and golf course around War Memorial Stadium on Saturday, and that was just fine with the hundreds of tailgaters.
Many said they had expected their tailgating sites for the University of Arkansas’ game against the University of Louisiana at Monroe to look like mud wallows after several days of rain from Hurricane Gustav.
“I’d heard that we’d need to wear rain boots,” 25-year-old Melody Jolly said. “I’m wearing my flip-flops, and I’m just fine.”
Despite rumors of muddy ground, Jolly and about 40 of her friends still arrived prepared to set up a top-notch outdoor party area.
Brad Kremers, 26, had in the back of his SUV, a 37-inch flatscreen plasma television with surround sound and satellite to watch the game on pay-perview.
The Razorbacks-Warhawks game is the first of two Hogs’ games to be played in Little Rock this season.
Partying well before the 6 p. m. kickoff, Kremers and his friends kept an eye on scores of other games while music blared from the speakers in the four corners of their Razorback-themed canopy. Next to the canopy was Boss Hog, their 10-foot-tall inflatable Razorback.
Tim Baxter, 32, said the tailgate party is the next best thing to actually being at the game.
“It’s a pretty close call,” Baxter said.
Dustin Bailey, 25, another friend in the group, said he hasn’t missed a Razorback tailgating event since he was 18.
“My family has had season tickets for 30 years,” he said. “I went to UA. It’s nice to get out and hang out with a bunch of people who are interested in the same thing you are.”
Some of the Hogs’ fans were partying with purpose.
Members of the Conway Supper Club used the opportunity to remember a friend who was murdered in Michigan about four years ago.
Serving up fried turkey, pulled pork, brisket, chicken fried catfish and other fare to hungry passers-by, any donations they get are placed in a college fund for the man’s young sons, said Ken Compton, a Supper Club member.
The lure of the tailgate party is so strong that even fans of Razorback rivals such as the LSU Tigers, were drawn to the park and golf course.
“I’m from New Orleans, a huge LSU fan, and I’m sitting here at an Arkansas Razorbacks ’ tailgate party. It’s that fun,” said Frezzell McGee, 24, who was tailgating with his Arkansas National Guard unit. “Now you won’t see me when they play LSU. I’ll be incognito.”
Arkansas and LSU will meet at War Memorial Stadium on Nov. 28.
McGee and his friends declined to identify their unit, but he said a retired noncommissioned officer who identified himself as the cook is the one who started the tradition a few years ago.
“Now, this is a year-long planning event for us,” Mc-Gee said. “We have meetings to discuss the food and see who’s going to do what.”
Jeff Coyle, 25, a Baton Rouge native, and his girlfriend, 24-year-old Elizabeth Daters — who he met at a tailgating party two years ago — attended Saturday’s game with friends.
As they walked from two of the friends’ home a few blocks from the stadium, the women stood between Coyle, who was wearing his Lousiana State Uiversity shirt, and Clint Mitchell, who was in his Razorbacks shirt.
“He’s from Baton Rouge so we let him wear that shirt for now,” Daters said of her boyfriend.
Coyle noted that he won’t be giving up his LSU shirts anytime soon.
A die-hard Razorback fan, Mitchell chimed in: “It’s not going to happen,” he said. “That’d be like me and him switching shirts. It’s just not going to happen.”