By James Coope Contributing Editor
Fall is home to football, food and festivities. Each week, tens of millions of Americans watch football on TV, and millions attend games in person, on campus at colleges and universities around the country and at professional stadiums in major metropolitan areas. The games themselves are usually a four-hour event; however, for most spectators, the games are often preceded by tailgate parties. Tailgate parties range from a handful of people huddling around a car, to elaborate events with RVs, mobile kitchens and DJs. For many, the tailgate is as important to the football experience as the game itself.
While football is generally associated with the United States, tailgating has a more international history. The first “tailgate” events actually date back to ancient Greek and Roman times when residents would gather to celebrate fall harvests. The events included food, drink, music and, of course, community. Contests were incorporated for entertainment, and people started travelling to the events to watch and enjoy. These events provided a time for people to socialize and celebrate in advance of winter, not unlike how we know tailgating today.
When did tailgating reach America? While today we associate tailgating with sports, the first recorded American tailgate took place on July 21, 1861, to watch one of the first battles of the American Civil War – the Battle of Bull Run. The battle was the first major land battle of the Civil War, located just south of Washington in Manassas Junction, Va. Spectators from Washington traveled more than 25 miles in carriages to the battle, and many took more than 7 hours to get there. More than 55,000 troops fought in this battle as spectators watched from a distance, eating sandwiches and pies as they cheered on the troops.
A lot has changed in America during the 1860s, and the evolution of the tailgate started to take shape. In 1866, a rancher from Texas named Charles Goodnight transformed a U.S. Army Studebaker wagon into what is known as the first chuck wagon, a mobile kitchen of sorts. The concept of transporting and preparing food was new and, while there were many applications for the chuck wagon (it was designed to support cattle ranchers moving cattle as well as railroad workers), it played an important role in the evolution of tailgating.
The first known tailgate at a football game took place in 1869 at the Rutgers-Princeton game in New Jersey. Spectators traveled to the game and parked their horse-drawn carriages on the sidelines. The first automobile was designed in 1886 by Carl Benz in Germany, and the first American car was sold in 1896 in Massachusetts. Early cars were rare, expensive and out of reach for most Americans and were typically owned by wealthy families. Not surprisingly, the first cars at football games were centered around the Ivy League schools, whose alumni and supporters were generally wealthy (in the early 1900s, the top college football programs included Princeton, Yale and Harvard). The first recorded automobile tailgate was at the 1906 Harvard-Yale football game.
The evolution of the automobile and mass production helped make owning a car more affordable and mainstream in America. After World War II, car registrations rose at an historic pace, and vehicles became more practical. In the 1950s and 1960s, station wagons and pickup trucks rose in popularity. In the 1970s, the rise of multi-purpose, suburban stadiums also allowed for larger parking lots and bigger and better tailgate parties. Long gone were the sideline tailgates – the emergence of giant stadiums and parking lots ushered in an era of bigger and better pre-game tailgate parties.
While transportation and access to tailgate parties has changed, the food has always been a central part of the tailgate experience. Charles Goonight’s chuck wagon was replaced by portable grills and fancy coolers, which enabled people to safely transport food and cook on-site. Burgers, hot dogs and steaks are all common to see at tailgates, as is the smell of smoke in the crisp, fall air.
Today, tailgate parties are common at almost every college and pro football stadium across the United States. It’s more than just cars – there are beautiful RVs, elaborate food spreads, BBQ trailers, bars, bathrooms, satellite TVs and, of course, music. While the transportation and technology has changed over time, the traditional American tailgate isn’t that much different from the early parties in Greek and Roman times – celebrating with friends with food and festivities during the harvest season every year.
