When in Little Rock ...
A guide to tailgating at the Hogs’ home away from home
By Kyle Brazzel (Contact)
LITTLE ROCK — Maybe it’s because it takes place on an actual college campus, but football tailgating in Fayetteville feels a touch more ... reverent, as if a librarian might stalk away from her stacks at Mullins and shush you at any moment. Hard-core lot lizards know the Hogs’ true “barbarians at the ’gate” moment happens pregame in Little Rock, that sloppy, boozy, buoyant bacchanalia where there’s no one around to hear you scream except zoo animals and fast-food workers.
As new Razorbacks head coach Bobby Petrino prepares for his introduction to capital city coozie culture (Arkansas-Louisiana/Monroe kickoff: 6 p.m. Saturday), we offer a guide to hitting War Memorial Stadium in style. With apologies to the long-running slogan of the Razorbacks marching band, consider these tips for being the best in sight and sound.
TAILGATING STYLE
What to bring to the tailgate party if you’re a ... Neo-hippie Razorback hacky sack, $4.99, Academy Sports Positive affirmationist Feel-good Hog buttons, $1.50 each,
Hogman’s Hog Pen, 1819 S. University Ave.
Hedonist Razorback Mardi Gras beads, $2.99, Academy Sports Purist Flesh-colored hog snout, $4.99, Hogman’s Hog Pen
Exhibitionist Temporary thigh tattoos, $2-$3, Hogman’s Hog enTAILGATING TALE Eric Benning, 32-year-old manager of Little Rock’s Images copy shop, on why he tailgates until the Hogs go home, never seeing the inside of War Memorial: “First of all, we have a primo location. A few friends and I have three spots in a row on the 18th fairway along Markham so we can really spread out. We’re right next to the creek, which has its advan
tages. The spots stop about 20 yards from the edge of the creek so
we get an extra bit of room. Being right on Markham, we can cheer for the Hogs when their buses drive by and watch all the fans walking to the stadium.
“As far as our setup, we have the obligatory TV with a satellite dish,
we put up a couple tents for shade, and we usually end up with about 20-30 camp chairs spread all over the site. We usually end up with an array of appetizers, sides, desserts and casseroles that puts Franke’s Cafeteria to shame. My girlfriend, Jennifer, just bought me a portable grill that hooks onto my trailer hitch. I’m really looking forward to Sept. 6th to try it out.
“The season before they instituted the reserved spots, we got pushed out of our spot by some pleasant fellows in golf carts because we had a tent set up before they opened the gates. We went to a guy’s house who lived about four blocks north of Markham and set up in his front yard. It just wasn’t the same. We didn’t have people we know stopping by as they walked around the course, we didn’t get to watch the sorority girl fashion show gradually become the sorority girl fall-down show - seriously, high heels on a golf course? - and we just didn’t feel like a part of the scene. It was like going to New Orleans for Mardi Gras but spending the whole time in a bar four blocks off Bourbon Street. I do hear the roar and wish I was in there sometimes.”TAILGATING DREGS Hit that line, heave that toilet War Memorial Stadium has a capacity of nearly 54,000,but, according to the American Tailgating Association, 30 percent of tailgaters never set foot inside their arenas. The longer people, um, marinate under their Pop-A-Tents, the more apt they are to unintentionally leave a little something behind. Cleanup crews coming after tailgaters typically fill their lost-and-founds with expected flotsam like wallets and purses. But the bigger the party, the more puzzling the sweep-up.
“One time somebody left a toilet,” recallsMatt Gardner, who helped manage tailgating for the city of Little Rock’s parks and recreation department for years before oversight of the festivities was assumed by the state. “Maybe he was protesting not enough portable toilets - I don’t know,” Gardner muses before adding that the toilet-dumper had most likely been killing two birds with one stone after the city refused to pick up the abandoned devicefrom his curb.
And the frat-style rager for which War Memorial festivities have earned a reputation since picking up steam in the early 1990s originate from Sunday morning findings like a charred sofa found after one game. Unlike the toilet, the case of the crispy couch didn’t seem to be a Waste Management end-run. “The fire occurred at some point before or after the game,” Gardner says. “They didn’t actually bring a burned-up sofa out.”TAILGATING TAKE TWO
Not all tailgate parties revolve around Razorbacks: On Sept. 12 at Clear Channel Metroplex (10800 Colonel Glenn Road, Little Rock) Power 92’s James Cain will host Arkansas Football Jam ’08, part of the lead-up to the Claw Paw Classic Sept. 13 at War Memorial Stadium, which pits the University of Central Arkansas Bears against the Lions of the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff.
Headliners include DJ Khaled of “I’m So Hood” fame and T.I. protege Big Kuntry. Tickets are $10 in advance (via Ugly Mike’s Records and Style 4 U barber shop in Little Rock, Uniform Plus in North Little Rock and Dimeone Lifestyles in Pine Bluff) and $15 day of the show; information: (501) 613-2935.
TAILGATING TOASTS
Sure, a barrel of beer is essential, if only so your father can make an Animal House-era joke about pledging Tap-a Tap-a Keg.
But for the more refined tailgate party palate, there’s the cocktail known as the Arkansas Razorback: 1/2 shot vodka 1/2 shot Amaretto 1/2 shot coffee liqueur 1/2 shot rum
Mix with ice, shake to a froth, then strain off ice into a glass.
TAILGATING TUNES
A Razorback mix tape, because you can only play the fight song so many times.
1.“Arkansas Sound,” Arkansas Bo
Both halves of rap duo Suga
City are south-Arkansas-steeped, but
Stuttgart’s Arkansas Bo is the defiantly
claim-staking A-State name-checker,
in ways literal (“Wooo, pig! Sooey!” makes a couple of appearances), menacingly metaphorical (underestimating Arkansas - “that’s like steppin’ inside a hog pen with blood on your legs”) and stick-inyour-head catchy (“If you thinkin’ otherwise you crazy, Jack/Y’all just hatin’ cuz I’m a Razorback”).
2.“Sweet Southern Comfort,” Buddy JewellThe Osceola native and Nashville Star champ offers a veritableValentine to the SEC. Can we forgive him for warbling “roll, Tide, roll,” since it’s the lyric “‘Wooo, pig! Sooey!’ still gets to me” that he really means ... isn’t it?
3.“I’m Me,” Lil’ Wayne
If it’s good enough for MichaelPhelps’ earbuds, it’s good enough for gameday warm-ups.
4.“I’m Not Going Out Like That,” Run D.M.C.
What’s a college game without alittle old-school nostalgia? Let Darren Mc-Fadden’s nickname-sakes make you long for the recent good old days.
5.“Viva La Vida,” Coldplay
How better to fill the stadium air thanwith the operatic strains of the ultimate anthem of the underdog-ascendant?
Originally published 05:16 a.m., September 5, 2008
Updated 05:40 a.m., September 5, 2008
Weekend, Pages 62 on 09/05/2008
