I’m sure you can picture the scene clearly. It’s a Saturday morning, bright and early. Maybe you live on Easy Street, and are awakened by the vibrant, percussive sounds of our Goodtime marching band. Maybe your parents are calling you, frantically asking questions about parking that you have no idea how to answer. Or maybe you wake up, check your phone, and smile when you realize that it’s one of those fantastic Saturday mornings when the whole Holy Cross community comes together to support a common cause: a tailgate.
Maybe I’m biased, but tailgates are one of my favorite Holy Cross traditions. As the daughter of two alums, I’ve been making appearances at the alumni weekend tailgate since I was 8 years old. Tailgates, therefore, have always had somewhat of a nostalgic quality for me.
Something about them makes me feel the full spirit of the broader Holy Cross community come together. I love seeing classmates, meeting their families, and socializing with various alumni. I love when fathers bring out their hot dog grills and students play 90s rock from suitcase-sized-speakers. But more than that, I love meeting the tailgaters themselves. Each parent or alumni that parks on either Baseball Field or Freshman Field is another reason why the Holy Cross community is so special. I’ve always wondered what exactly keeps tailgaters coming back time and time again, so I decided to reach out to my roommate (and dear friend) Nora Fortune’s parents: Anne and Tim (‘98), whose tailgate I frequent.
“We love coming back to Fitton Field to tailgate before football games with our daughter and her friends. We are always running into classmates, family, and friends. We often see Tim’s former baseball teammates, and we have, in fact, made a lot of friends on the field. Tailgates are always full of a great feeling of Holy Cross pride – not to mention a whole lot of fun,” Anne explained. The ability for alumni such as Anne and Tim to be able to form quick connections with other tailgaters (who are often also alumni ) is a primary reason as to why tailgating is such a popular activity, specifically for the tailgaters themselves. I also can confirm that the Fortune tailgate is a whole lot of fun.
As a tradition, America’s first tailgates date back to the late 19th century. The first college tailgate was in 1869, but tailgating at Holy Cross has been a tradition since Fitton Field held its first football game in 1928. With changes to the school have come changes to the consistently beloved tradition. For example, the opening of Freshman field in 1981 allowed for tailgating at Holy Cross to grow exponentially. Since the field’s construction, visitors have had the option to park on either Baseball or Freshman fields, allowing for even more fans to get the opportunity to host their own tailgates.
Most recently, changes to the concessions menu, notably the addition of our beloved brick-oven fired Holy Crust pizza, have given visitors even more reason to go into Fitton field to spectate our football games. Holy Cross’ recent collaboration with Harpoon to create a Holy Cross Hazy IPA has also enticed tailgaters to actually go into the games and support our Football team. For the first time in 11 years, our football team is playing 6 games on Fitton Field, so I can’t think of a better time to make good use of Holy Cross’ free student tickets. With only two football games remaining this academic year, I’d be sure to come down to Fitton Field one of these Saturdays to both support our football team and participate in my absolute favorite Holy Cross tradition.
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