NC State
Tailgate Wrap-Up:
“Cat’s like Boxes.”
-John’s Words of Wisdom
My take on the tailgate:
By Bob W.
Overall:
“And They’re Off!!”
As you can see based on the lead picture and the title, I am going to try and talk as little as possible about anything football related. The scars are too deep and the wounds too fresh for any of that non-sense. What does matter is that we finished the 2005 tailgate season on a high note. We had everything, awesome food (I thought for a second I was in Morgantown), decent weather, and a new game to add to our tailgating repertoire. And finally, FINALLY, a game where I had no driving responsibilities at all (even after Temple I still had to drive home from the Park N Ride). It was a perfect ending to great tailgating season. I mean honestly, can anyone think of a year where we had less problems. No forgotten legs or utensils, no cancelled flip cup due to lack of cups, why I think we even had ping pong balls every game, even if we didn’t use them. 2004 took us to another level of tailgating, and 2005 showed us it maybe time for the next step ……whatever that may be. (Hint you can’t spell VeRnon DaVis without it)
Tailgate Highlights:
The horses are on the track! For the NC State game, the Snively clan had a surprise up their sleeve. Brian has always talked about his family’s horse racing game, but not until the State game did I ever see it. It did not disappoint. To add a tailgating touch to the race, all horses, 11 in all, were decked out as ACC schools. Of course Jill played John Swofford for the day and kicked out Ga Tech in favor of Pitt, and Boston College didn’t make the field, but all the others were there. I won’t explain all the rules to everyone, but it did involve gambling, so you know it was fun. You determined which horse you own by the cards you are dealt and that did create the embarrassing situation of someone accidentally yelling “Go Pack” or “Go Duke” which was usually followed by a “I can’t believe what I just said” face and an immediate hand over your mouth. And if gambling wasn’t vice enough, you could also apply drinking rules (drink when your horse’s number is rolled, and social when the Maryland horse’s number is rolled). Ahh gambling and drinking, the real world equivilant of chocolate and peanut butter.
Tailgate Lowlights:
37.5 %. That says it all. Out of 8 tailgaters that is the percentage of those that actually drank. Now some had perfect excuses. Stacy for example had an excellent reason, also Mrs. Snively who was busy trying not to show any favoritism towards anyone, and then Gordon was too busy taking everyone’s money in horse racing, but after that the excuses get a little suspect. Jill “on call”, like the batteries couldn’t have “accidentally” fallen out of your pager. (After all what would Rob Zombie Do (WWRZD)). John, well lets just say you picked a horrible time to go dry on us (though we appreciate the DD’ing). As for me, Gilmore, and Brian, we tried our best to take down the 2 cases but in the end they proved to be too much. Though we did put a heck of a scare into them.
Tailgate MVP:
When we left DC on Friday afternoon I was sure that the Tailgate MVP was John’s to lose, but I was vastly mistaken. Once again the Tailgating MVP decision was an easy one to make, and despite what PC J says, you do have to actually make a decision. Anyway, the NC State tailgate MVP award goes to the Snively family. They provided great Carolina BBQ, brownies to kill for, great shrimp, as well as chips, potato salad and everything else necessary for a great meal. Then, as if they needed to do anything else, they provided the horse racing game which we played from the moment we finished up eating right until kickoff. AND they got us a parking space about 50 yards from the stadium which was super clutch since you can leave Carter Finely at halftime to booze and then return for the second half. So overall a great effort by the Snively's.
Honorable Mention:
John does get honorable mention for driving down and back to Raleigh, and for booking the hotel rooms. By not giving into peer pressure to drink though, he severely damaged any outside chance he had at the MVP award (that will teach you for trying to be an individual!).
Honorable Honorable Mention:
Me, Gilmore, and Brian also get Honorable Honorable Mention for drinking at the last tailgate of the year. I know sometime in this crazy world we lose sight of what’s important, what are roots are, how we got here, our heritage if you will. Well lets be honest people D-7 Tailgate was formed as an excuse to drink (raise your hand if you have ever skipped a game to keep drinking….be honest people….that’s better). So by going back to our roots and drinking, we did our part to keep the dream alive.
There you have it the last recap of the year. Like I mentioned earlier I thought we did great tailgating this year. Let’s hope for a quick winter, spring, and summer so that we can all get together and do it again in 2006. Until then though, I guess Gary Williams and the boys will have to tide us over. See you at the spring game, and as always GO TERPS!!!