Saturdays in the fall are for friends, family and football, but some people’s favorite part of football Saturdays are what occurs before kickoff. Many students, alumni and people all over western North Carolina travel to Boone for the smells of burgers and barbecue on the grill and the sound of a sandbag hitting wood during a game of cornhole. Families embracing, children playing and meat to be eaten is what tailgating is all about.
A tailgate party is a social event held on and around the open tailgate of a vehicle. Tailgating, which primarily takes place in the United States and Canada, often involves consuming alcoholic beverages while barbecuing and grilling food. Tailgate parties usually occur in the parking lots at stadiums and arenas.
“Tailgating means coming together to celebrate and hanging out to bring in something special here at App State,” said first-year transfer student Dylan Miller. “I come and meet new people sometimes and enjoy the experience they’ve had over the years they have been here.”
To tailgate on campus, App State requires a reservation two days prior to the game. Tailgating on Sanford Mall is reserved for student clubs and organizations to tailgate prior to every home game. Tailgating spots are reserved on a first-come, first-served basis.
For those who wish to tailgate for away games, a popular substitution for tailgating is watch parties. Alumni chapters are holding four separate organized watch parties this season at locations all over the country. While the first one had been planned for Sept. 28 against the Liberty Flames, Hurricane Helene caused the event to be canceled. Fans can register through App State’s alumni website.
Tailgating likely has its roots in college football, dating back as early as 1869 with the first college football game between Rutgers and College of New Jersey, according to American Heritage.
In the mid-to-late 1980s, students would park out in the west student parking lot before it was repurposed into the west side studio dorms.
“There wasn’t really the alumni following that there is today so there weren’t many non-students at these games. We went, but it was more of a social event,” said 1993 graduate Grey Shell. “We didn’t watch a whole lot of football, we stood underneath the bleachers and had some beverages.”
While the first three years of Shell’s college career saw some teams above .500, his senior year of 1993 saw the team go 4-7 with a 1-7 start to the season. While the team was not finding much success on the field, students still found pleasure in the tradition of football.
“All the tailgating happened in the student parking lot which basically no longer exists,” Shell said. “From Trivette all the way to the stadium was just one big parking lot, so you can imagine, I don’t know, 1,000 cars or something like that, so just one big tailgate.”
While the parking lot tailgates are a tradition for many, some of Shell’s favorite memories of game days came from more spontaneous experiences outside the stadium.
“My senior year, we went up to the tower on Pilot Mountain,” Shell said. “There’s a tower up there and we just hung out for hours before the game and it was awesome. Easily my favorite moment of college.”
Moving into the new millennium, the culture of App State football changed into three straight National Championships from maybe reaching the second round of the playoffs.
Frank Aycock has worked at App State since 1987, and is a professor in the Department of Communication.
“There were some that tailgated, but they were real small tailgates,” Aycock said.
When Aycock arrived in 1987, the attendance at Conrad Stadium, which was renamed to Kidd Brewer Stadium in 1988, ranged from 11,000 to 24,000, according to articles published in Asheville Citizen Times and Johnson City Press.
“The games started around 1 to 1:30 in the afternoon, so there really was not a whole lot of time to tailgate,” Aycock said. “So people would frequent the different restaurants and things like that.”
While Boone was a dry town from 1949-86, Blowing Rock was not.
“I don’t think there’s ever been any problem with people having liquor,” Aycock said. “Even if you weren’t shopping for it at Food Lion or Lowe’s for wine and beer, they’d simply bring in their six-pack.”
Aycock said the mid 2000s is when stadium expansion, Student Yosef Club activity and tailgating started to take off.
“Once the game started being at 3:30 p.m. where people could tailgate all day, we began to see more and more tailgating,” Aycock said.
App State defeated the Michigan team, who was ranked No. 5 in the nation, by a score of 34-32 on Sept. 1, 2007. App State’s fan base showed up with more frequency following the manic upset victory. Home game attendance hit an average of 27,080 per game in 2007, rising from the average of 22,589 in 2006. Kidd Brewer Stadium set the Sun Belt Conference and program attendance record for the third consecutive year last season with an average home attendance of 34,734.
App State hit an all-time high this year with 21,570 students enrolled in the fall. As App State’s population grows alongside home game attendance, spots at some popular tailgating areas have become competitive and crowded.
Campus locations such as Sanford Mall and the under-construction Peacock Lot have been known to bring in many people for tailgating, where student organizations such as fraternities host parties. With Peacock Hall under construction, this has led many people to flock toward Sanford Mall.
“I think Sanford is a great place to tailgate, but when fraternities take majority over the tailgates there, it takes away from the other students,” said senior digital journalism major Sam Wilson. “I think developing a real frat row might fix this problem but that’s many years down the line. For the time being, there’s not much that you could do because of the lack of space.”
Near the stadium, many student dorms have been renovated or constructed, including Thunder Hill and Raven Rocks, which have become tailgating hotspots of their own.
The bars in Boone, many of which are near Kidd Brewer Stadium, have a huge presence on game days as well, even for non-football games.
“Basketball is actually way bigger for us here than football is, a lot of that is our proximity to the stadium,” said Trevor Moody, owner of Lily’s Snack Bar.
Lily’s is located directly across the street from the Holmes Convocation Center, where App State’s men’s and women’s basketball teams play home games.
“No matter what time the game is happening or who is playing, we got good basketball business,” Moody said.
With the Holmes Convocation Center setting the record for average and total attendance last season, Lily’s had plenty of opportunities for pre and postgame customers.
“There’s definitely a lot of people that go to the Rivers Street Ale House,” Moody said.
Ale House, Lily’s and other bars such as the Boone Saloon and Elevation 3333 are popular game-day locations for fans who choose not to tailgate to hang out before and after football games.
As football and admissions continue to expand at App State, the sports culture that goes along with it will as well. But the true meaning of tailgating will never leave the hearts of Mountaineers for years to come.
“I think tailgating is about being around a group of people where I enjoy their company — eating food, shooting the stuff and having a good time,” Wilson said. “Whether it’s on a Thursday, Friday or a Saturday, just enjoying that free time with your loved ones.”
