Tailgate Season at Texas State

By Allison Johnson
Blog Content Contributor

While we wait for football season to grace us with its presence again, you can checkout the 2017 Texas State football schedule here. It is still a while away, but it will be here before we know it. Go ahead and get yourself a new pair of boots, plenty of cute outfits, and Bobcat gear before tailgate season is back.

Tailgate culture at Texas State University is unlike most schools. During football season, most students are excited for tailgating rather than a football game. We acknowledge that there is a difference between school spirit and tailgating. Although, tailgating is a contributing factor to having school spirit, but we might fall short in the “school spirit” part at the same time. Most students are at Bobcat Stadium on Saturdays for the tailgates. Oh your school has football season? We have “Tailgate Season”.

I am not sure when Texas State tailgates became infamous for our tailgates, but thank you to the person or organization who made the Bobcat Stadium parking spaces a lot more than just somewhere to park on a random Saturday afternoon. 

So what is a Saturday like during Tailgate season? Well, if a game started around 5 or 6, there is a good chance people are waking up around 10 and 11 to get ready to pregame for tailgate. Pre-gaming consists of being with a group of friends and drinking with each other before you head out to tailgate. While students are doing this, some members of organizations are setting up tents.

Everyone usually shows up to tailgate with a group of friends and hops around from tent to tent. Tailgate is everything. Of course, there is going to be a lot of alcohol there, but there is also food and live music. I have left the house starving before a tailgate and wasn’t even worried about it. I knew someone would be cooking up hotdogs or BBQ at one of the tents I would visit. 

Tailgating is also a wonderful way to meet people from other organizations. Like I mentioned, there’s an ample number of tents in the parking lot. No one stays in the same spot the whole time. Groups of friends like to move around and talk to everyone from time to time. Us Bobcats are friendly people and just want to have a good time. So don’t go being shy! Have a drink if you’d like, talk it up and even dance. 

Texas State tailgates hard. Texas State students deserve to be able to brag about this. Our team doesn’t have the best record, but our impressive tailgate routine makes up for it. Don’t get it wrong though, we love our Bobcats no matter what. We are still going to yell “Eat Em Up, Eat Em Up. Go Cats Go” obnoxiously loud when we see a fan from the opposing team at our tailgate. We are even going to scream it louder walking into the stadium after tailgate is over.

Featured image by Megan Bandstra.