re: LSU Tailgating in the 60's 70's and 80's

The Notre Dame game we had end zone seats and plenty of empty seats all around.

--and we kicked their butts!

The 80’s were the best and it’s not close of those three decades. Tuts and arse everywhere.

Tailgating really took off the late 90s due to several things including:

- Gerry D, then Saban, LSU being good at football again
- availability of cheaper, more quiet, small portable generators (yall remember how loud generators use to be even, small ones)
- availability of cheaper, easier to use pop-up tents and folding tables
- HD tv's hitting the market, then in the early 2000s lighter flat screen tvs

And most importantly, DirectTV starting in the mid 90s. Yes, some folks had access to satellite TV, but those small antennas changed the game. Now you could watch football all day on a regular-sized TV while sitting in the middle of campus, game changing!

Don't recall such in 1962 - my first game in Tiger Stadium. I vividly remember the aroma of whiskey and the stadium lights engulfed in tobacco smoke

Mom and Dad had 3 seats, West Upper, season tickets, 30 yard lineish. They all knew one another. Dressed to the nines. Same three seats are in the family to this day

Sorry if TLDR:

I started at LSU in the early 1980s. There was no 'tailgating', the most we did was hang out for awhile outside and drink a lot.

The following years I had a girlfriend; I'd bring her up from New Orleans, we'd wander around campus and go eat on Saturday afternoon at Round the Corner on Highland just north of Chimes-- there was a phone at every table and you would call your order in. Pizza burger for the win!

But the last year (1985) we actually DID do a pretty fun 'tailgate' style cookout with actual cooking for the last game of the season, a rare December matchup against East Carolina AFTER the Tulane game. I was living in Pentagon that year, and on their open quad there was a built-in barbeque pit (sort of like you see in picnic grounds) and some concrete picnic tables and benches. With about 5 other guys and their gals, we got together and I grilled burgers and such and we ate and drank, threw the football around and had an absolute blast on a beautiful cool day.

I went away to grad school but moved back in the early 1990s. Tailgating by then was starting, but for us it was usually on a small scale, usually just a group of anywhere from 2 to 6 people. I'd always grill something on a teeny little Weber grill, and we'd have beers or cocktails; sometimes a pre-made dessert. We started bringing chairs (the old fold-flat kind; this was before the ones in bags were even a thing). One time a friend brought a REALLY small black and white battery powered TV and we watched some of the day games, which we thought was really the shite. Back in the 90s we usually tailgated on the edge of the parade grounds, or behind the law school. It wasn't crowded at all.

In the early 2000s, things started to pick up-- the gameday crowds were larger, it was harder to find a spot, and technology started to catch up. We started bringing the new types of chairs and tables, and as I now had kids I had switched to an SUV which had an actual tailgate. We had some kind of device which turned a laptop into an OTA TV screen and would set that up to catch the day games. Our group got bigger as well, more often than not a dozen or more (including the kids), though some lesser games it might just be 4 or 5 of us. I also started getting into my routine of tailoring my cuisine to the other team-- grilling chicken for any bird team, hot dogs for bulldogs and huskies, redfish and shrimp for the Crimson Tide, etc. and also making desserts in the other team's colors (see Grilling Up the Competition)

Flash forward to the latter half of the 20-teens and into the 2020s. We have a whole shebang, much more complicated with a dedicated tailgate TV with mi-fi and antenna, multiple tables and chairs often two full size grills, 2 or more pop-up canopies, etc. All but one of the kids are now LSU grads so we have a whole new generation (more people) coming by for the tailgate and the game. We have our PERFECT spot under the shady trees and near nice bathrooms for the women, but have to get there EARLY to get it. And the traffic leaving is a pain, but we still do it because it is a BLAST. I love it!

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There was no 'tailgating', the most we did was hang out for awhile outside and drink a lot.

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Um, what?

Early mid 90s we used to get there at 6:00 am or so park close to the clock tower and set up under trees to the right. For two straight seasons 01-02 we backed into a few spots close to Parade grounds Drive and Veterans Dr. and dropped a grill and chairs in the grass.

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Um, what?

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I mean, of course we still hang around outside and drink a lot NOW, but back then there was:

NO food at all
NO grill/cooking
NO chairs
NO table
NO pop-up canopy
NO sound system
NO TV turned on to the day games, and most importantly,
NO backed up truck or SUV, so no literal tailgate.

Just a few students sitting around outside on the grass and drinking beer or wine all afternoon.

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LSU Tailgating in the 60's 70's and 80's

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Honestly, it was not that big a deal in the decades you mentioned, because the Stsdium wasn’t thst large and frankly the football team sucked. Yes, there was a festive atmosphere on game days, but it didn’t become a megs-event until Saban became coach. Before thst, we just partied/grilled back at our apartments and came to campus for game time.