college life!!!
OLE MISS party is rooted in SOUTHERN CHARM
Orlando Sentinel
By: Tim Povtak
OXFORD, Miss. -- They'll arrive in a rush as early as 4 a.m.
today, using flashlights to cut through the early morning darkness because
location is everything in real estate, even if it is for just the next 18
hours.
The choice spots will be gone by dawn. This is no picnic-basket,
trunk-of-the-car pregame party. This is serious business. It's
like staking a claim, carving your plot of land. It's like packing up the
family and relocating to another city.
There will be a tent for shade, a couch for napping, a table for
the buffet line and a real linen tablecloth to make it right as fans
prepare
for today's Florida-Ole Miss football game. There will be folding
chairs for company, a half-dozen coolers for food and drink, a small grill
for cooking, fresh-cut flowers on the table, china to eat on and silverware
to
eat with.
And don't forget the portable Honda generator to provide power
for the satellite dish, big-screen TV and oscillating fans. For special
occasions, like Homecoming, there's a waiter, a bartender and perhaps even
a
candelabra.
This is how you tailgate at "The Grove."
The Ole Miss Rebels haven't won a Southeastern Conference
football title since 1963, but the team provides the backdrop for the most
unique -- and arguably the most pleasant -- Saturday afternoon in college
sports.
They don't do parking-lot tailgate parties at Mississippi.
Instead, folks gather in a 10-acre, well-manicured park right in the heart
of
campus, just a punt away from Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. Every football
Saturday they do a 20,000-member family reunion that looks like a sprawling
church
social. And no rowdy drunks are allowed.
The rich folks pay someone else to do the set-up chores, to gett
up in the middle of the night to reserve their spots. The middle class do
it themselves. The poor just stay home.
If you come late, you set up on the periphery, out on the fringe
and away from the upper crust and Ole Miss socialites. The view isn't as
good from out there, and neither is the party.
Everyone is welcome
Fans come early, and they stay late. Thousands don't even bother
attending the game, instead napping or maybe retelling stories they have
heard and told a hundred times before. Gossip is glorious here. After the
game, everyone who went to the game returns to The Grove, win or lose.
"Everyone's welcome here -- except maybe Mississippi State fans,"
says Jimmy Dyson of Tupelo, Miss., who has been setting up in The Grove
every football Saturday, under the same majestic oak tree, for 15 years.
In The Grove, there are no vehicles on the property --everything
must be hauled in from the surrounding streets -- no bare-chested men or
"wife-beater" T-shirts, and no scantily clad women. This is
strictly a PG-rated event.
There is order and etiquette -- refreshing, old-fashioned
Southern charm at every turn. Chivalry lives here. Many of the women come
in
dresses, and they don't sweat. The men often wear slacks and collared
shirts.
Fraternity men, both past and present, wear ties.
Compared to the rowdiness that often accompanies tailgating at
other schools, The Grove looks like another planet. Spaces are marked
off like stalls at a flea market. There are various emergency lanes that
are kept clear. There are so many trash cans available that there is no
litter in the park when the party finally ends after dark.
It's like a culture all its own here," says Charlie Swayze, an
Oxford attorney and Ole Miss graduate. "People don't really come here
for the football. It's a social gathering more than anything. They've
always said we could pack the stadium every week if they could just get
everyone
in The Grove to go to the game."
The Grove is home to history. Sons who once came with their
fathers now bring their sons to the same spots each football Saturday.
Frank Harrington, a former mayor of Aberdeen, Miss., and a 1965
Ole Miss graduate, started coming as a child in the early '50s with his
father. Now he brings his father, who doesn't hear well anymore but still
talks about the good old days.
Marti Stark started coming as the wife of a former assistant
coach. The Starks made other coaching stops, at schools such as Wake
Forest,
Iowa and Minnesota. But when her husband died, she returned here to be
with friends on football Saturdays.
"The place has a feeling, a charisma, that you just don't find
anywhere else," she says. "It's such a unique place that it just lured me
back. It's like nowhere else I had ever been."
Walk of Champions
The Grove also is home to the SEC's original Walk of Champions, a
12-foot wide brick walkway that dissects the park's 10 acres, running
from the student union to the football stadium. Exactly 2? hours before
kickoff, all football players and coaches walk through The Grove to the
applause of Ole Miss fans who line every step.
The players are presented like gladiators going to battle and are
encouraged to soak up the scene. Headphones must be off, to make sure the
players interact with the crowd that has come to cheer them. They
exchange high fives, listening to the adulation. Although other schools
have
copied the walk, no one has done it with such tradition.
"The first time I went through The Grove before a game, I was in
awe," senior center Ben Claxton says. "With all those fans shaking your
hand, patting you on the back, it gives you tremendous energy. And you
feel like you're in touch with the fans."
Although it's usually an orderly procession, offbeat things can
happen during the walk. Before the first game of this season, fullback
Rick Razzano got so caught up in the moment, he stopped on his walk and
proposed marriage to his girlfriend. (She said "yes.")
During his freshman year, quarterback Eli Manning got so excited,
he wandered off the path slapping hands and got lost in a sea of
fans.
"It's a great tradition, a Southern tradition, an Ole Miss
tradition," Manning says. "It's a neat thing. It really gets you fired up
for
games. You shake hands with people, you high-five them.
"Sometimes, though, you have to be careful."
Coaches have encouraged Manning to carry a playbook in his right
hand so he can go through The Grove working the crowd left-handed, just to
make sure there is no freak accident with his golden right arm.
After a victory over Vanderbilt on Sept. 21, several Rebels
players joined in the postgame celebration. Most everyone who was there for
the
pregame party returned for the postgame festivities. No one seemed in a
hurry to leave. There were places to go, things to do, lives to return to,
but there was no rush to leave The Grove.
Manning, now the Rebels' star quarterback, casually walked under
the tent where his mom, Olivia, a former Ole Miss Homecoming queen, and
his dad, Archie, the Ole Miss quarterback legend, were talking with
friends.
All around Eli, little girls were dressed in Ole Miss cheerleader
outfits and little boys were wearing Eli Manning jerseys. A former mayor
and a district attorney were pouring their beers into plastic cups
under a nearby tent.
"It's just a great tradition," Archie Manning says. "At Ole Miss,
it's a different kind of tradition."
Tim Povtak can be reached at tpovtak@orlandosentinel.com and
407-420-5328.
Copyright ? 2002, Orlando Sentinel
OLE MISS party is rooted in SOUTHERN CHARM
Orlando Sentinel
By: Tim Povtak
OXFORD, Miss. -- They'll arrive in a rush as early as 4 a.m.
today, using flashlights to cut through the early morning darkness because
location is everything in real estate, even if it is for just the next 18
hours.
The choice spots will be gone by dawn. This is no picnic-basket,
trunk-of-the-car pregame party. This is serious business. It's
like staking a claim, carving your plot of land. It's like packing up the
family and relocating to another city.
There will be a tent for shade, a couch for napping, a table for
the buffet line and a real linen tablecloth to make it right as fans
prepare
for today's Florida-Ole Miss football game. There will be folding
chairs for company, a half-dozen coolers for food and drink, a small grill
for cooking, fresh-cut flowers on the table, china to eat on and silverware
to
eat with.
And don't forget the portable Honda generator to provide power
for the satellite dish, big-screen TV and oscillating fans. For special
occasions, like Homecoming, there's a waiter, a bartender and perhaps even
a
candelabra.
This is how you tailgate at "The Grove."
The Ole Miss Rebels haven't won a Southeastern Conference
football title since 1963, but the team provides the backdrop for the most
unique -- and arguably the most pleasant -- Saturday afternoon in college
sports.
They don't do parking-lot tailgate parties at Mississippi.
Instead, folks gather in a 10-acre, well-manicured park right in the heart
of
campus, just a punt away from Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. Every football
Saturday they do a 20,000-member family reunion that looks like a sprawling
church
social. And no rowdy drunks are allowed.
The rich folks pay someone else to do the set-up chores, to gett
up in the middle of the night to reserve their spots. The middle class do
it themselves. The poor just stay home.
If you come late, you set up on the periphery, out on the fringe
and away from the upper crust and Ole Miss socialites. The view isn't as
good from out there, and neither is the party.
Everyone is welcome
Fans come early, and they stay late. Thousands don't even bother
attending the game, instead napping or maybe retelling stories they have
heard and told a hundred times before. Gossip is glorious here. After the
game, everyone who went to the game returns to The Grove, win or lose.
"Everyone's welcome here -- except maybe Mississippi State fans,"
says Jimmy Dyson of Tupelo, Miss., who has been setting up in The Grove
every football Saturday, under the same majestic oak tree, for 15 years.
In The Grove, there are no vehicles on the property --everything
must be hauled in from the surrounding streets -- no bare-chested men or
"wife-beater" T-shirts, and no scantily clad women. This is
strictly a PG-rated event.
There is order and etiquette -- refreshing, old-fashioned
Southern charm at every turn. Chivalry lives here. Many of the women come
in
dresses, and they don't sweat. The men often wear slacks and collared
shirts.
Fraternity men, both past and present, wear ties.
Compared to the rowdiness that often accompanies tailgating at
other schools, The Grove looks like another planet. Spaces are marked
off like stalls at a flea market. There are various emergency lanes that
are kept clear. There are so many trash cans available that there is no
litter in the park when the party finally ends after dark.
It's like a culture all its own here," says Charlie Swayze, an
Oxford attorney and Ole Miss graduate. "People don't really come here
for the football. It's a social gathering more than anything. They've
always said we could pack the stadium every week if they could just get
everyone
in The Grove to go to the game."
The Grove is home to history. Sons who once came with their
fathers now bring their sons to the same spots each football Saturday.
Frank Harrington, a former mayor of Aberdeen, Miss., and a 1965
Ole Miss graduate, started coming as a child in the early '50s with his
father. Now he brings his father, who doesn't hear well anymore but still
talks about the good old days.
Marti Stark started coming as the wife of a former assistant
coach. The Starks made other coaching stops, at schools such as Wake
Forest,
Iowa and Minnesota. But when her husband died, she returned here to be
with friends on football Saturdays.
"The place has a feeling, a charisma, that you just don't find
anywhere else," she says. "It's such a unique place that it just lured me
back. It's like nowhere else I had ever been."
Walk of Champions
The Grove also is home to the SEC's original Walk of Champions, a
12-foot wide brick walkway that dissects the park's 10 acres, running
from the student union to the football stadium. Exactly 2? hours before
kickoff, all football players and coaches walk through The Grove to the
applause of Ole Miss fans who line every step.
The players are presented like gladiators going to battle and are
encouraged to soak up the scene. Headphones must be off, to make sure the
players interact with the crowd that has come to cheer them. They
exchange high fives, listening to the adulation. Although other schools
have
copied the walk, no one has done it with such tradition.
"The first time I went through The Grove before a game, I was in
awe," senior center Ben Claxton says. "With all those fans shaking your
hand, patting you on the back, it gives you tremendous energy. And you
feel like you're in touch with the fans."
Although it's usually an orderly procession, offbeat things can
happen during the walk. Before the first game of this season, fullback
Rick Razzano got so caught up in the moment, he stopped on his walk and
proposed marriage to his girlfriend. (She said "yes.")
During his freshman year, quarterback Eli Manning got so excited,
he wandered off the path slapping hands and got lost in a sea of
fans.
"It's a great tradition, a Southern tradition, an Ole Miss
tradition," Manning says. "It's a neat thing. It really gets you fired up
for
games. You shake hands with people, you high-five them.
"Sometimes, though, you have to be careful."
Coaches have encouraged Manning to carry a playbook in his right
hand so he can go through The Grove working the crowd left-handed, just to
make sure there is no freak accident with his golden right arm.
After a victory over Vanderbilt on Sept. 21, several Rebels
players joined in the postgame celebration. Most everyone who was there for
the
pregame party returned for the postgame festivities. No one seemed in a
hurry to leave. There were places to go, things to do, lives to return to,
but there was no rush to leave The Grove.
Manning, now the Rebels' star quarterback, casually walked under
the tent where his mom, Olivia, a former Ole Miss Homecoming queen, and
his dad, Archie, the Ole Miss quarterback legend, were talking with
friends.
All around Eli, little girls were dressed in Ole Miss cheerleader
outfits and little boys were wearing Eli Manning jerseys. A former mayor
and a district attorney were pouring their beers into plastic cups
under a nearby tent.
"It's just a great tradition," Archie Manning says. "At Ole Miss,
it's a different kind of tradition."
Tim Povtak can be reached at tpovtak@orlandosentinel.com and
407-420-5328.
Copyright ? 2002, Orlando Sentinel
