Analyzing sports history through tailgating

Friday, Aug. 26, marks the beginning of football season for Lind/Ritzville-Sprague athletes, coaches, and supporters.

The annual jamboree, starting 6 p.m. at Jimmie Snider Field, symbolizes not only the start of football season, but also the resurrection of accompanying traditions: the shining down of Friday night lights, the bursting out of Washington and Lee Swing, or the gathering of fans to tailgate before the contest.

Tailgating, while more prominent at the college or professional levels, resides for many on the same list of cherished hallmarks of the football season but lacks the well documented history of other traditions.

The theories as to the first true tailgaters are abundant.

Similar celebrations took place long before they were associated with athletics.

Matt Osgood, contributor for the online publication, Vice Sports, explained that while Greek and Roman harvest celebrations shared many characteristics with tailgating, even closer were beheadings during the French Revolution concluding the 18th century: “The guillotine executions took place at prime time <and> programs containing the names of the soon-to-be headless were sold.”

Osgood continued, “People brought their families to dinner at the conveniently named Cabaret de la Guillotine before heading to the scaffolds.”

In America, the first appearance of tailgating was in preparation for a Civil War battle.

Kaitlin Dershaw, a journalist for The Examiner, explains, “Civilians traveled out from Washington, D.C., to witness the First Battle of Bull Run in 1861. Enjoying picnic baskets full of food, they cheered on their ‘team’ from distant areas surrounding the battle sites. This is one of the first documentations in American history of people cheering at an event while sharing food and company.”

“These ‘fans’ (not to mention those who fought) obviously braved a few more dangers than today’s tailgaters,” Dershaw added. “But, they laid the groundwork for future sports fans.”

Modern tailgating, unsurprisingly, required the innovation of vehicles. Five years after the First Battle of the Bull Run, Texans began use of the chuckwagon.

“The horse-drawn wagon was part of the wagon train and carried food and the means to cook it. The chuckwagon was essentially an early version of what many tailgaters set up on their own: a truck with a grill in the back,” Dershaw explained.

The credit for starting tailgating before football games is poorly documented and consequently, highly coveted.

Osgood explained, “Some research points to the Ivy League, particularly Yale University, where parking, it’s said, was scarce. Opposing fans would travel by bus or train, arriving early at the stadium. Thus, they’d bring food and drinks to satisfy themselves while they awaited kickoff.”

To present yet another theory, Osgood adds, “Some say tailgating began the year the Packers joined the NFL, 1921, when fans would back their trucks into the old City Stadium and watch the game with snacks from the beds of their vehicle.”

The annual football rivalry between the Florida Gators and the Georgia Bulldogs may not have been the first instance of tailgating, but their tradition claims the prize for the most extravagant.

The celebration, in which fans arrive on a Wednesday and leave after the game on Saturday, is regarded as “The World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party.”

The scattered origin of tailgating suggests the accuracy of today’s knowledge is limited.

Dr. Mark Damen, professor at Utah State University’s history department explained, “History is not just what-really-happened-in-the-past, but a complex intersection of truths, bias, and hopes… History encompasses at least three different ways of accessing the past: it can be remembered or recovered or even invented.”

Dr. Damen noted, “All are imperfect in some way.”

Regardless of events from the French Revolution or the Civil War, tailgating maintains significance in today’s American culture. As football season begins, it remains important to embrace tradition while contributing to tomorrow’s history.

Likely without any intentions of applying it to the history of tailgating, author John Green wrote, “You don’t remember what happened. What you remember becomes what happened.”