For the sake of bringing as many Ohio University enthusiasts together as possible, let's pick a spot to drink/eat uptown before OU football games.

It has been mentioned earlier that some who do not tailgate would be interested in drinking on Court Street before the games. Call it a Bobcat Attack event, an unofficial Bobcat Bash, or whatever you will, but any one interested will enjoy.

First Home Game: New Mexico State, September 8, 7:00 pm

Meeting Location: The Pigskin on Court Street

Time: 3:00 pm

Admission: FREE, no RSVP required, no Bobcat affiliation required (although preferred)

*** Again this is not an event sponsored by the University, the Pigskin, or officially by Bobcat Attack. This is just a place for those who post, or lurk, or just happen to be passing by, to meet and talk about the Bobcats. It's better that the fans meet up in one place to build the enthusiam (doesn't matter where, just picking a spot to get the ball rolling). Much of the fun is lost when "we" (the alumni, students, and fans in general) are spread out all over town. ***

Almost certain you can get in under 21 until they stop serving food. Again I haven't contacted the Pigksin, but it's a restaurant by day and I often see little kids there on Saturdays just having dinner with their families.

Why not just go to Tailgreat Park and enjoy the day outside?  We will be in there around 12:00 that day.  If you are an OBC member, you can park in that lot with your pass and they will have TVs showing the games in their tent all afternoon.

-Business_Cat I'm all in. I'd love to talk about how we can grow the fan base. Meeting somewhere is just the first step.



The tailgate you older guys go to is not as accessible as you may think. I remember two years ago my friend who was a senior at the time wanted to tailgate on that strip of land next to Peden for his last game. We found out you needed to be an OBC member to park over there so we never went.

From a student's perspective, why would I pay for parking to a game that's within walking distance? Then lug my grill (if they have one) over to that field just to set up camp for the day? Why would I go to the student tailgate by Peden if alcohol isn't permitted?

From a non-OBC bobcat fan, why pay for parking in one lot and walk my grill, beer, food, etc. a quarter mile to another? At this point the hasslement outweighs the reward.

Personally I'd love to tailgate in some parking lot or field all day, but as a program and fan base we're not in that position yet. This is still a grassroots movement.

Heck, I'm an OBC member, I don't even know how I'd go about getting to the Tailgate. I'd put in a call to the Athletic Department first I suppose and ask some questions. But good luck getting the casual student/ fan to do that.

This first step is just that, a first step. Let's get people to show up in one easily accessible place and let the ideas flow. The student passing by on Court Street will think, "Hey, is there something big going on tonight?". The feeling is infectious and will spread like wild fire.

It'd be a dream (a realistic, relatively achievable dream) for us to organize a public parking lot or easily accessible field where fans would come early just to claim their spot. We're not in that position yet.

I'm aware of that. But it really isn't fun to tailgate in a sparsely inhabitted parking lot.

Most of my favorite pre-game/tailgate Bobcat experiences have all come outside of Athens (Knoxville, Nashville, Providence, St. Louis, New Orleans, Detroit).

I can break down my enjoyment of those moments to its essence. In each instance I was in a place drinking with new friends (alums, students, and fans) that I had never met before, talking about the Bobcats. Ironically that never really happened to me in Athens during my four years.

This is an issue of management not talent. We need to position our fanbase for success. The probability of interactions increases exponentially when there is a common meeting place. Telling fans to "just go tailgate where you park" is ineffective. We're really missing out on opportunities.

Are we having any "old guys" tailgates?

Hell I'll go to both.

One of our posters used to host tailgates in Tailgreat Park for bobcatattack users and friends as recently as last year. They were really fun. He doesn't post here anymore. I forget why.

That was my inference.  The guy with the huge grill...and the huge appetite (just kiddin G-man) no longer posts here.

The spot for the past few years has been the apple tree grove near Tail Great's entrance.

That's a shame because some of my best memories of OU was tailgating before games.  Back in the mid-to-late 90's tailgating wasn't all that big for our football games, especially for students, but we started getting up early and going, anyway.  I have a great picture of my car being the first and only one in the lot.  I think around our senior year in '98 it officially became know as Tailgreat Park.  Anyway, as we went back in the early 2000's you could see that grassy area get more and more popular, and more difficult to get a spot. 

It's great that it's a fun lot to tailgate in, but the program needs to expand that to all the lots in the area, especailly behind the Convo towards Wren Stadium.  Tailgreat Park can still be a premier lot for the OBC, but the university should put some effort into cultivating other fun areas for general tailgating instead of focusing on one small patch of land.  That being said if you want to tailgate it's worth the effort, and sometimes you have to be one of the first to do something.  It was a pain to get up early (most of our games then were at noon), go to the store, and transport everything down to the stadium (all with a hangover), but in the end it was worth it.  Get some friends together and start making those other lots fun, and more people should follow.