Tailgating brings peo­ple together before the game

Tailgating goes back for over a hun­dred years with no sign of stop­ping soon.

According to tail​gat​ing​.com, tail­gat­ing was first started in 1869 when the first col­lege foot­ball game between the Rutgers and Princeton.

Tailgating often thought of as a way to sup­port a team and and social­ize with other fans has pro­gressed since the 19^th cen­tury into a ver­i­ta­ble tradition.

FSU stu­dent, Jen Likowski, said “Tailgating is fun because you can relax, hang out with friends all day, enjoy great food and bev­er­ages of any choice, and then of course, there is the football.”

Tailgating is the cel­e­bra­tion in the park­ing lot, and the com­mis­sioner of tail­gat­ing knows it, because he cre­ated it.

Joe Cahn, not your aver­age Joe, is the com­mis­sioner of tail­gat­ing. He sold his house and his New Orleans cook­ing school, bought a motor home and “hit the road to explore what he calls ‘the new American community—tailgate par­ties,’ accord­ing to tail​gat​ing​.com.

“It’s the last great American neighborhood—the tail­gat­ing neighborhood—where no one locks their doors, every­one is happy to see you and all are together shar­ing fun, food and foot­ball. It’s the fam­i­lies.  It’s the fans.  It’s a com­mu­nity social.  It’s pre-game, half­time, post-game and more.  It’s the total game day expe­ri­ence,” said Cahn on tail​gat​ing​.com

Cahn is cred­ited as the world’s only pro­fes­sional tailgater.

“During his Tailgating America Tours he has used 83, 397 gal­lons of gas to travel to all 31 NFL sta­di­ums, over 123 col­lege sta­di­ums, and nine NASCAR tracks, tail­gated with hun­dreds of thou­sands of peo­ple and served more than 326 pots of Jambalaya.”

Food being one of the most impor­tant aspects of tail­gat­ing, par­ties have a vari­ety of rang­ing from hot dogs to burg­ers and ribs.

Food is con­trib­u­tory to the atmos­phere, in addi­ton to games like lad­der ball and bean bag toss. There are some rules regard­ing mod­er­a­tion and the amount of space one is allowed to uti­lize. For that list per­tain­ing to Ferris, con­sult the stu­dent pol­icy hand­book, or just look at the copy below.

Football Tailgate Policy

1. Tailgating (with and with­out alco­hol) is per­mit­ted three hours prior to the game and at half time only. Game atten­dees are expected to behave in a respon­si­ble and civil man­ner at all times.
2. Tailgating (with alco­hol) is per­mit­ted in the fol­low­ing park­ing lots only: Lots 35, 36 and 37 (lots imme­di­ately west of the stadium).
3. Glass con­tain­ers, kegs and com­mon alco­hol con­tain­ers are prohibited.
4. Consumption of alco­hol is pro­hib­ited when use or pos­ses­sion cre­ates a dan­ger to self or others.
5. Drinking games and devices that pro­mote binge drink­ing are pro­hib­ited. All such items will be con­fis­cated and destroyed.
6. Underage drink­ing is not per­mit­ted; all local and state laws must be obeyed.
7. Parking Lots 3, 35, 36 and 37 will be uti­lized for game park­ing; a fee for park­ing will be charged. Lots 27, 41, and 33 will be uti­lized for over­flow traf­fic and a fee for park­ing will be charged, for those attend­ing the foot­ball game. Lot 17 is reserved for indi­vid­u­als uti­liz­ing the Student Recreation Center.
8. Entrance to park­ing lots will be allowed three hours prior to the game start time.
9. Parking spaces will not be allowed to be reserved; vehi­cles will be parked as they arrive on a first-come, first serve basis. Vehicles may not be parked in a fash­ion that obstructs the free flow of vehic­u­lar and pedes­trian traffic.
10. A vehi­cle must occupy a park­ing space; grills, tables, fur­ni­ture and other items are per­mit­ted as long as they are of size to occupy the same space.
11. Oversized vehi­cles that require more then one space will be charged accordingly.
12. Only tents autho­rized by the Athletic Director will be allowed.
13. REMINDER: It is risky to serve alco­holic bev­er­ages to any­one other than your­self and your imme­di­ate party. Michigan law requires a license before a per­son can sell, trade or give away alco­holic bev­er­ages. A vio­la­tion of this law is a felony. A social host does not need a license to serve his/her invited guests who fall within the usual under­stand­ing of friends and per­sonal vis­i­tors. A social host may be legally and civilly liable to guests and oth­ers for injuries result­ing from serv­ing alco­hol, espe­cially to a minor.

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