Game day Saturdays are one of the most looked-forward-to days of the Fall semester. Getting up for a game has a sense of hope and pride.
Going to a big university has its perks and downsides: downsides obviously include parking (or the lack-thereof) and having to walk a mile to get to class. The perks of going to a big university are Game days and how much love and support you feel from the 50,000+ closest Cowboy family members.
But there’s something besides the game and uniting in Boone Pickens Stadium that makes Game day and the entire weekend memorable.
Tailgating and football go together like PB&J, Mermaids and Starbucks, Kerr and Drummond, and if you’ve never experienced a family-oriented tailgate then you haven’t experienced tailgating.
Some people consider getting drunk and playing drinking games as the brightest part of the day but it’s the family and friends that you see and hang out with. Potlucks are a great way to get to know people and what people like and if you like them. You bond over food and tailgating games such as Cornhole (or the toss game) and sitting around watching other important (but not too important) football games.
You learn a lot from the people you hang out with during football season. Alumni tailgaters have stories about the campus and older dorm buildings (#RIPKerr) and the kinds of shenanigans that went on and how they accomplished pranking people in their buildings or others.
Reuniting with best friends from college is a major plus to tailgating. Being a part of the RV lot gang (I know there’s a lot of strife there but they pay way more to be there for a couple nights a semester than you do for an entire year, give them a break), is a sense of family because you have the same spot (usually for years) and you meet so many people and you grow up with those people and you go to college with those people. You have a different life when you tailgate from out of town. Those that are in town can show you what’s new and how to navigate around the intrusive traffic and construction that doesn’t seem to end.
Oklahoma State University always advertises how much of a family the Cowboys are. In some cases, it could be cheesy and others it’s spot on. There is nothing that unites us more than a ref making a bad call or our Cowboys winning their 9th straight game. The Alma Mater is one of my favorite parts of the game, especially with the players, coaches, cheerleaders and pom squad participating.
Tailgating can be equally as exciting and fulfilling. If you’re ever homesick make friends with a tailgating family and I’m sure you’ll find someone to call your OSU mom and dad. They’ll take care of you, teach you traditions and reminisce the old days when them and their buddies pranked the 6th floor of Kerr.
Family is the ultimate theme to anything Oklahoma State University related. Family drives us to be closer and makes us better people, and family helps us survive another stressful football season.