Legends of the Fall Tailgate

It’s human nature to love a spectacle. In our earlier, more brute times, the Roman coliseum and even the guillotine of the French Revolution were made into opportunities for revelry. The First Battle of Bull Run, opening salvo of the Civil War in 1861, was famously watched by sightseers who brought their own food and refreshments. Thankfully we have outgrown this thirst for violence, but in terms of spectacle, our hunger has only increased.

While college football is no life or death matter these days, the preparation for the accompanying festivities is no less serious. As the 2024 football season arrives, the Plains’ population will once again more than double as generations of fans begin the most celebrated and universal of all pregame rituals—the tailgate.

In Search of the Right Tailgate Spot

Like most lifelong Auburn tailgaters, Gilley has weathered decades of changes to campus, putting the site of the tailgate itself into constant question. Roads close, buildings are torn down or built, and traffic-blocking bollards appear where previously there were none.

As Gilley and his tailgate wandered the Plains, shifting from one campus location to another, more individuals joined. By the time they reached the promised land—their current location on Auburn’s southwest side, within walking distance of Jordan-Hare Stadium—it had accumulated many new faces.

“The passion that everybody had was amazing and it was so great tailgating everywhere,” said Baubles, a manager and account executive with the Greentree Group. “Everybody pitched in. We didn’t have any money, but everybody did what they could. We ran a 36-inch tube television off the car battery of my Toyota 4Runner, so it wasn’t the smartest of things to do when I kept going through batteries during the fall season. But it was always a good time.”

A Family Reunion with Auburn Football

Like the wagon trains of the Old West, tailgate communities become fortified through shared experiences. Sometimes the only constant beyond the sport itself is the friends you tailgate with, and in the end, they become more important than the outcome of the games.

Melissa Woody ’15 was devastated by the unexpected death of her brother, Joey Elliott III ’09, but her “tailgate family” was there to celebrate his life alongside her.

“The people we tailgate with—our ‘tailgate family’—were such a huge part of [overcoming] this loss, and our ceremony to celebrate his life, and our healing journey,” said Woody, a licensed professional counselor. “If it weren’t for Auburn, we would not have had those incredibly important people in our lives during that incredibly important time.”

For Rhonda Mitchum and her husband Frankie Mitchum ’76, Auburn tailgates have been an integral part of their family’s history. Married in 1974, they set up among the RVs outside the old Coliseum for nearly 25 years with their three children every season. Now settled on Samford Lawn, they’ve witnessed—and even participated in—dozens of wedding proposals, taking pictures and occasionally hiding family members ahead of time.

“This became a habit for a long time for almost every home game,” said Mitchum, a retired real estate paralegal. “Guess we were just at the right spot.”

Her three children, Benji Mitchum ’00, Lauren Mitchum ’09 and Blake Mitchum, are now married with children of their own, but still tailgate together every year. “We have definitely come full circle. The grandchildren, ranging from 3 years old to 20 years old, are now playing games on Samford Lawn and the tradition just continues.”

Leading Up to Kickoff

For many, though, a proper tailgate still requires a little elbow grease. For Baubles, Gilley and the rest of the affectionately titled Behind the Head Tailgate (for its proximity to bathrooms), the Auburn football season begins before the first home game when they check their equipment, take stock of resources, and perhaps clean items that haven’t seen the light of day since last season’s Iron Bowl.

As they gather to wash their Auburn-themed vans and check the trailer that serves as camp kitchen, the excitement of another season is palpable. Auburn’s football schedule is discussed—in particular the absence of home games in October, which will necessitate away-game tailgates. The mystery of how Auburn’s landscape team makes campus spotless only hours after the game is pondered.

But more than anything, they are glad to be among their Auburn Family again. Even if Auburn continues to grow, and the location of next year’s tailgate is uncertain, they will meet that challenge together.

“There are people in our tailgate, that’s all they want to talk about—what are we going to do? Where are we going to go? And I’m kind of like, don’t not enjoy the tailgate today for fear of what happens in the future,” said Gilley. “We’re going to drive by our spot one day and it’ll be a new building, or a parking deck, and we will have to evolve. It just changes. But we’ll keep going in some form or fashion, even if we have to tailgate in a field somewhere outside of town and charter a bus to drive everybody in.”