A Brief History of Tailgating
Tailgating is a beloved activity for many sports fans across the country, but how did the ritual of cooking out, drinking, and hanging out with family and friends before the big game start? Although the true origin of tailgating is a bit fuzzy, experts have cobbled together interesting explanations of this tradition.
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“While investigating, we discovered that there are actually several theories. At its shortest, this activity goes back at least 100 years — while some suggest that the history is much deeper,” according to Family Tree Magazine writer Ashlee Peck.
Peck points to three main theories. One resembles the modern-day equivalent of tailgating — eating together before an American football game. This one though, was in 1904, at Yale. After a long train ride, the passengers satisfied their hunger with a meal before kickoff. The second one goes way back to the U.S. Civil War era.
“This theory suggests that during the first major battle, the First Battle of Bull Run in 1861, voyeurs actually traveled from D.C. to Manassas, Virginia. There, they gathered with picnic baskets to watch and cheer on their ‘team,” Union or Confederate,” reports Peck.
The first origin theory focuses on fall harvests, where community members would celebrate that season’s bounty. Two anthropologists and professors at the University of Notre Dame Tonya Williams Bradford and John F. Sherry, Jr. published their two-year research project in 2015. After studying tailgates across the country, they concluded that the activity resembled the fall harvest celebrations that ancient Greek and Romans held, according to Food & Wine writer Matt Blitz.
In their report, Sherry and Bradford state, “We theorize one particular sanctuary, a secular ritual we term vestaval — and specifically, its manifestation in the form of tailgating — as a site of popular communion. Such ritual is an American cultural form that resists the uncivil and totalizing forces of spectacle.”
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No matter the true origin of tailgating, it is probably safe to assume that by participating in a tailgate, you are carrying on a tradition that goes back ages.
DeAnn Owens is a Dayton transplant by way of the Windy City, yet considers herself to be a California girl at heart even though she’s only visited there once. To get through the dreaded allergy season unique to the Miami Valley, she reads, writes, complains about the weather, and enjoys spending time with her husband, two sons, and their newest addition, a Boston terrier puppy that is now in charge of all their lives. In the future, she hopes to write a novel and travel through time. See more articles by DeAnn.