WINNING FOOTBALL BRINGS TU TAILGATERS

I can hear them before I see them. Something that sounds like a jackhammer is running steadily outside my apartment, piquing my curiosity enough to make me look out there.

Tailgaters. The first of the season.

An older couple has parked a Winnebago in the middle of the field, the wife sitting in a lawn chair watching as her husband makes holes for their tent stakes.

TU football? Fans? I'm baffled.

Before long, the man has completed the setup of the tent, and the wife gets up long enough to move her chair to the newly created shade.

The day moves on, and I have little time to observe the setup of more fans throughout the day. The parking around campus is insane, and I'm almost glad that I don't currently have a car. There are more people here today than there likely will be the rest of the year, and all of them are ready for football.

The game comes and goes—we win! Our score is so high that I almost feel sorry for the opposing team. That feeling is incredibly fleeting, though, and I scream and yell with everyone else as the team goes wild.

I'm walking back to my apartment, which is now surrounded by the tailgaters, some of them chanting "45," our team's score.

As proud as I am for our team, I can't help but feel a sense of amusement toward these fans. Where on earth were they? Have they been here before, and I just missed them?

There's a very large chance that many of them didn't give TU a second thought before last year, but there's no point in getting worked up about that. The stadium was full, the people were having fun, and there's no harm in that.

--Caroline Richardson

Caroline Richardson is the business manager for TU's student newspaper, The Collegian, and a member of the TU band, The Sound of the Golden Hurricane.