Stone Cold Tailgating....: August 2013

Big changes in Lafayette this coming season on the field, in the pregame traditions, and in the tailgating lots! (Hint, we’re moving the tailgate so read below for details!)

After yet another season filled with “almost” and “woulda, coulda, shoulda” Danny Hope's maddeningly inconsistent run with the Boilermakers has mercifully ended. He of the misused time out will be roaming the sidelines someplace else and we have Darrell Hazell at the helm. I will try to keep an open mind but I seem to recall that we hired another former OSU assistant that was going to bring a “Big Ten running downhill” approach to Lafayette. (Let’s just say we have a membership level named for him because he was only good to win one game a year.)

Off the field the band will be moving from Slater to Mackey Arena for the pregame concert. This was a decision driven by Coach Hazel, so please spare Jay and the Purdue Bands staff as they didn’t have any say in this decision. The pregame pep concert in the basketball arena is a tradition practiced at several other Big Ten schools, Wisconsin and OSU most notably, and in true Purdue Athletics fashion the idea seems to be that "our own traditions aren’t good enough so we’re going to try and copy somebody else’s."

The final major change is that we will be moving the Stone Cold Tailgate to the D Lot for the 2013 season. Our last two seasons in the W lot were less than stellar due to the changes in the lot. More specifically the removal of the flat grassy area at the base of the hill and the addition of a gravel RV lot has left us no choice but to seek greener pastures.

The D Lot is also known as the south golf course. Greg and I tailgated up on the D Lot our first few seasons post college and found it to be very nice. This will place us north of the stadium, and theoretically closer to the stadium.

I know that this will cause some difficulties on later arrivals as there is not easy access parking near the D lot (ie the IM lots) as we had before. However, just think of the walk to the tailgate from your parking space as getting the stadium walk out of the way early! Please see the diagram below for a base idea of the new tailgate location in the D Lot.

We will still have some great tailgates planned to ensure that your game day experience is great regardless of what happens on the field.

We will be featuring the return of some of our tried and true favorites including State Fair Food for Indiana State, Mexican Delights for the 8 p.m. start against Notre Dame, and the ever popular Oktoberfest tailgate for Homecoming!

We will also be doing our charity events this year. I really do appreciate everyone that has supported our Charity endeavors over the last four years, I think it is great that our tailgating “family” is giving back. The events will be as follows:

9/28 Homecoming – Almost Home Pet Rescue

10/12 Nebraska – Coats for Kids

11/2 Ohio State – St. Lawrence Food Pantry

11/23 Illinois – Toys for Tots

The Stone Cold Tailgating Club is in effect again this year; pay one price and it covers you for the season! The membership levels and costs are listed in the table below. There have been no changes to the pricing from last year.

In addition to the Stone Cold Tailgating Package there is also a lodging package available. With two locations I am going to leave it up to everyone to arrange their lodging each weekend by contacting Brendan and Dawn (goboilerz@yahoo.com) or Susan Franklin (susanfranklin_1814@comcast.net).

The revenues from the Stone Cold Lodging package will be put towards house upkeep, utilities, and improvement work. Each location has a “bucket” for you to make your donations.

I look forward to seeing everyone this fall!