Marshall, Marshall, Marshall!

Welcome back Boilermaker fans after a week off let’s hope the boys are ready to get after it against a good Marshall squad.  Marshall is coming off an OT win against our nemesis from last year: Rice.  Marshall has two losses, but they are to #9 West Virginia (I believe that they play for the “Redneck Cup”) and the Ohio University (#29) team that beat Penn State in (not so) Happy Valley.  In other words this will be a good test for us heading into Big Ten play.

In honor of this being Family Day at Purdue we will be doing a meal of hamburgers and fries since without those staples of the American teenage diet my parents would not have met.  (I’ll probably break out the mason jars to drink from as well to “honor” our guests from West Virginia.) 

We will plan on meeting in the W lot on Saturday morning, though it is hard telling where in the lot.  We have had significant issues thus far with the parking situation and I don’t expect it to be much better for the rest of the year.  I have spoken with the John Purdue Club and it looks like it will be difficult (though not impossible) for us to move to the D lot this year.

We have the large flagpole that extends to 20 feet and an ambulance so hopefully you will be able to locate us easily.  We will be sporting our custom flag this year which sports our “Old School Boilermakers” motif similar to our cups.

Saturday Septmeber 29, 2012

10:30 a.m.     Depart for W Lot

11:00 a.m.     Arrive W, Tailgate begins

2:15 p.m.       Tailgate Breakdown, depart from the stadium.

3:15 p.m.         Kick Off

Eric and his parents will be departing from the house at 10:30 to ensure that we have two adjacent spots.  If anyone else would like to meet at the house they are welcome to but it is not necessary.  We have room to transport up to 7 people from the house in the ambulance and Element.

A New Hope

A good effort last weekend in ND, the offense wasn’t as impressive as you would like but I thought that Marve did a great job of moving them up and down the field. Unfortunately it looks like we have seen the end of Robert Marve in a Purdue football uniform as he appears to have torn his ACL…..again. The 2 QB system was destined to fail in my opinion but I really assumed that Marve would be the one to win out.

Our “new hope” though is on the defensive side of the ball, where the boys looked good at ND in shutting down an offense that put up 50 points against Navy the week before. They were one blown delay of game call from getting off the field with under 2:00 to go. I think that the defense will make us competitive and will keep us in games the rest of the year. In honor of this “new hope” we will be having Star Wars themed pancakes at our kegs ‘n eggs breakfast tailgate this weekend. (All right, it’s a stretch but Paula got me these AWESOME Star Wars pancake molds and I have to find a way to use them at a tailgate.)

The opponent this week should present little challenge as they dropped their home opener to Brock Spack’s I-AA Illinois State team. What is it with Michigan teams losing to I-AA teams at home? (NEVER miss a chance to rib Michigan about losing to Appalachian State.) I suspect that we will see a lot of Rob Henry by the second half on Saturday.

As mentioned above we are doing Kegs ‘n Eggs breakfast tailgate this weekend. We will have eggs, sausage, and pancakes along with a Bloody Mary bar and mimosas. I expect the tailgate to be a low key affair as attendance is going to be sparse for this titanic struggle.

We will plan on meeting in the W lot on Saturday morning, hopefully towards the front of the lot just like last year. The W lot is across from the Slater Hill and the Stone Cold Tailgating Club spot is marked by the gold square. We will be sporting our custom flag this year which sports our “Old School Boilermakers” motif similar to our cups.

Saturday September 15, 2012
8:00 a.m. Depart for the W Lot
8:15 a.m. Arrive W lot/Set up Tailgate
11:15 p.m. Depart for Stadium
12:00 p.m. Kick Off

Eric and his parents will be departing from the house at 8:00 to ensure that we have two adjacent spots. If anyone else would like to meet at the house they are welcome to but it is not necessary. We have room to transport up to 7 people from the house in the ambulance and Element.

Family Reunion

We kick off the 2012 season with FCS school and former Danny Hope coaching stop Eastern Kentucky. I would like to say that I’m highly confident in us getting a win this year against the I-AA (yes I know it’s not called that anymore but I don’t care) team, but this EKU team took Kansas State to the wire last year and we have a tendency to let teams like this hang around. In my mind this will be a true test of whether or not this team has finally grown up (as well as the coaching staff) in Danny Hope's 4th season in West Lafayette.

Please note below that the game time for this game is 3:30 p.m.  I’m not sure why they did that, but I’m not complainingas our seats in Section 120 should be in the shade by kickoff! That will obviously be helpful if the temperature is in its customary 90’s for the first game of the year.

This game will be a family reunion of sorts as Danny Hope’s son plays for the Colonels. Given that fact and the fact that the first game is a chance to renew acquaintances with our own tailgating family we will be going with a “family reunion” themed menu for the first game. We will be serving up fresh fried chicken with all the fixings and drinking our lemonade from mason jars.

We will plan on meeting in the W lot on Saturday morning, hopefully towards the front of the lot just like last year. The W lot is across from the Slater Hill and the Stone Cold Tailgating Club spot is marked by the gold square.

For those of you parking in the IM Gold Lot it is only a 5 minute walk to the W lot, just think of us being on the way to the stadium. We have the large flagpole that extends to 20 feet and an ambulance so hopefully you will be able to locate us easily. We will be sporting our custom flag this year which sports our “Old School Boilermakers” motif similar to our cups.

Saturday September 1, 2012
11:00 a.m. Depart for the W Lot
11:15 a.m. Arrive W lot/Set up Tailgate
2:45 p.m. Depart for Stadium
3:30 p.m. Kick Off

Eric and his parents will be departing from the house at 8:00 to ensure that we have two adjacent spots. If anyone else would like to meet at the house they are welcome to but it is not necessary. We have room to transport up to 7 people from the house in the ambulance and Element.

Purdue Football 2012

Football season 2012 is upon us and this Boilermaker squad looks like they could build on the 7 wins that they brought home last year. We have 19 returning starters and for the first time in several years it looks like all of our QBs are healthy! If Ralph Bolden is back and healthy off of his ACL injury suffered in last year’s bucket game we could have an offense to reckon with.

Ticket sales are down mostly on the complaint that we “don’t play anyone good” at home this year. The home slate features no less than five teams that appeared in the post season in 2011/12 (EKU (FCS), Marshall, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Penn State) so the competition will be good this year. The Boilers look like they will be up to the challenge and hope to improve on the 5-2 mark at home in 2011.

I currently still have 4 seats for each of the following games priced at $12.50 per person so please contact me if you’re interested?

Eastern Kentucky
Eastern Michigan
Marshall

While I expect improved performance from the team we will still have some fun tailgates planned to ensure that your game day experience is good regardless of what happens on the field. We will be having a great time before and after each game in our normal spot in the W lot across from Slayter Center.

We will be featuring the return of some of our tried and true favorites including Make Your Own Pizza for Penn State, Kegs and Eggs for Eastern Michigan, and Oktoberfest which returns for the 4 p.m. kickoff against Michigan on 10/6/12.

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

10/6 Michigan – Almost Home Pet Rescue
10/13 Wisconsin – Coats for Kids
11/3 Penn State – St. Lawrence Food Pantry
11/24 Bucket – 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 you can see that 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!

Indy in The Month of May!

As an Indianapolis native the 500 has always held a special place in my heart and I enjoy my opportunity to experience the race and all of the pre-race pageantry once every few years. (Thanks for the floater ticket Andy!)

This year will be an extra special experience as for the first time I’m going to try camping across from the track the night before the race. I know what you’re thinking: “Franklin camping?” I’m just looking at it as an overnight tailgate otherwise I would never attempt this. Let’s face it, at this point in my life “roughing it” means Standard Def TV in the room and a domestic only beer and wine list.

Below you will have a general timeline for each day and some very base information on what the thinking behind the plan is. I look forward to seeing everyone this weekend.

Saturday May 26, 2012
12:00 p.m. Eric Arrives at Bacon’s from Chicago
12:30 p.m. Depart for Lot 1A
2:30 p.m. Return to Bacon’s
9:00 p.m. Camp Set Up?

I will attempt to be there before noon, but it will be noon at the latest. We will have to be heading south on Georgetown to make the turn into the lot so I propose we head up Lynhurst to 30th, then over to Georgetown Road. I was planning on just running the cars up to secure spaces then head back to Bacon’s to enjoy his fabulous pre-race day hospitality.

After a few hours at Bacon’s I am planning to hoof it back up to the lot to get things set up and to enjoy a little bit of the “night before the race” atmosphere. I have some friends that are going to be camping over in the 1C lot and I plan to head over to see them at some point in the evening. Beyond that I hope to call it a relatively early night as the next day will be quite long.

Once we have established our campsite location I will mark it using the GPS technology on my iPhone and will blast that out to everyone. If you are using a smartphone you should be able to use the mapping function to come right to us.

Sunday May 27, 2012
5:33 a.m. Cannon sounding at the track will be the first wakeup call
7:00 a.m. Tailgate open for business
10:00 a.m. Depart for Track
12:00 p.m. Green Flag
4:00 p.m. Approximate return to the Tailgate for post-race meal

I am planning to bring along our 20 foot flagpole to help mark our campsite so that those coming in to tailgate can find us. I will have an American Flag and likely a Purdue flag on the flagpole. This will serve as a secondary marker for those of you not using smartphone guidance.

We will be serving breakfast burritos before the race. I know this is a break with the traditional biscuits and gravy but what can I say, I’ve always been a Josele Garza fan. We will have an assortment of beers and alcohols for imbibing should you choose and should have enough beer to throw in a carry in cooler.

Jim will be hosting a “during the race” tailgate while those of us with tickets disappear into the sea of humanity pouring through the gates at 16th and Georgetown. After the checkered flag drops we will plan to return to the tailgate for a bite to eat while traffic clears. Andy will be roasting a pork loin and we can rehash all of the race goings on. I believe that we need to be out of the lot by 7:00 p.m. though, so keep that in mind.

Basketball Homecoming 2012ish

I’m very happy that all of you have decided to join us for the Seventh Annual Purdue Basketball Homecoming brought to you by The Stone Cold Tailgating Club. This is a great chance for us to get together and see each other after the long layoff after the end of football. This will be our first New Years Eve extravaganza in Lafayette as well.

The Boilers will be facing a tough test with the Illini coming to Mackey on Sunday. We have eight seats together ($34 each by the way) and then my two regular season tickets. (Brendan will be playing with the Boiler Brass.)

Saturday January 31, 2011
9:00 a.m. SCTC Lodge 1814 open for business
11:30 a.m. Lunch at Chipotle/5 Guys/Jake’s (they allow kids before 6 p.m.)
12:30 p.m. Harry’s
3:00 p.m. Depart for Mackey
4:00 p.m. Tip-Off
7:00 p.m. Dinner at 1814

Brendan and Dawn will be bringing Amelia and thanks to Indiana’s archaic Liquor Laws they can’t bring her in Harry’s. (I guess they are afraid that a 1 year old is going to trot off and order a beer?) So we will plan on meeting them for lunch before we head over to Harry’s. Final lunch destination will depend on the crowd and what we’re feeling.

After the game we will plan to head back to the house at 1814 for dinner. We will be letting the crock pots do most of the cooking while we’re at the game so dinner should be just about ready when we get home! We plan on serving a ham from Lange’s in Michigan City, Pineapple and Cornbread Stuffing, Vegetables, and of course homemade desserts!

We plan to spend the evening at the house playing games and catching up before we pop the corks at midnight to ring in 2012!

1814 Lodging Information

Joel and Julie - Saturday Night

Alan Ward - Saturday Night

Greg Medlock - Saturday Night

Iowa

We got to see a great win by the Boilermakers over the $uckeyes last weekend and we can’t wait to see them do the same to the Hawkeyes! We had a great time in the stands and at the tailgate last weekend and I hope we have a repeat of that this weekend. Hard to believe it but Purdue can close out the home slate with a 6-1 record if they win on Saturday. As much as it pains me to say it we can hardly argue against Hope's results at home this year.

We originally were going to fry up a turkey in honor of Thanksgiving but changed our mind when we realized this would be the last Stone Cold Tailgating Club event for the year. (Greg and I are skipping The Bucket Game this year.) We will follow our tradition by making the season closing meal a big pot of chili with grilled ham and cheese sandwiches. Since it projects to be a little cool on Saturday morning I will also be whipping up a batch of mulled cider that can be “doctored” to your liking.

Last week we had four first time Stone Cold tailgaters and we will have another “first timer” at the tailgate this weekend; none other that the “Hipster Slayer” himself Jeremy Golden will be joining us! This will not only be Jeremy’s first Purdue game but also his first Big Ten game. He’ll finally get to experience real football weather instead of that soft weather they have down in the SEC. Unfortunately we don’t pay our players as well as they do in the SEC so the level of talent will likely be a notch below what he’s used to seeing.

We will plan on meeting in the W lot on Saturday morning, hopefully towards the front of the lot just like last year. The W lot is across from the Slater Hill and the Stone Cold Tailgating Club spot is marked by the gold square.

For those of you parking in the IM Gold Lot it is only a 5 minute walk to the W lot, just think of us being on the way to the stadium. We have the large flagpole that extends to 20 feet and an ambulance so hopefully you will be able to locate us easily. We will be sporting our custom flag this year which sports our “Old School Boilermakers” motif similar to our cups.

Friday November 18, 2011
7:30 p.m. Dinner and Drinks at Harry’s

Since this is Jeremy’s only night on campus we figured we would show him the mecca of our drinking years: Harry’s. The kitchen at Harry’s is open until 11 so we will plan to just have dinner on campus. If we can get there earlier than 7:30 we will. We will need to call it a relatively early night as we have an 8:00 call the next day which means rolling out of bed by 7:30.

Saturday November 12, 2011
8:00 a.m. Depart for the W Lot
8:15 a.m. Arrive W lot/Set up Tailgate
11:15 a.m. Depart for Stadium
12:00 p.m. Kick Off

Eric and his parents will be departing from the house at 8:00 to ensure that we have two adjacent spots. If anyone else would like to meet at the house they are welcome to but it is not necessary. We have room to transport up to 7 people from the house in the ambulance and Element.