Ole Miss Tailgating Gets National Exposure on Cover of Parade, in Weather Channel Special
October 14, 2011 By
Mitchell Diggs
OXFORD, Miss. – Already touted as No. 1 in collegiate tailgating by Tailgater Monthly magazine and featured on Fox News as the “Holy Grail of Tailgating,” the University of Mississippi picks up another acknowledgement for its game day experience this weekend, when tailgating in the Grove is featured on the cover of Parade magazine.
And next week, Ole Miss is among five universities featured in “Top Tailgaters,” a 30-minute special airing on The Weather Channel. The UM segments were taped Sept. 3, before the Ole Miss-BYU game.
The cover story of this weekend’s Parade examines college football traditions, particularly tailgating, across America. The editors decided to focus on Ole Miss tailgating because the reputation of the Grove has spread nationwide, said Claudia Grimaldi, photo editor for the magazine.
“We wanted to do a story about the whole culture that has developed around the Grove – how people dress up and maintain these relationships around their tents out there,” she said.
The traditions that fans maintain in their tailgating routines were important to the editors, said Lois Gregory, a 1973 Ole Miss alumna who is featured in the story. Gregory, with her husband, Steve, and close friends Carl and Nanette Comer, all of Fulton, were interviewed for the story.
“They were particularly interested in the friendships that we maintain out there and the generations that have come to that same spot,” said Gregory, who said she has tailgated in the same spot for more than 30 years. Her family’s tailgates generally include 40 or more people, including children, grandchildren and many friends, she said.
Parade sent a team to campus in early August to capture the cover image. The group included a head photographer, assistants, a food stylist and a prop manager to re-create the Comers’ and Gregorys’ game day setup. The crew was impressed with the Oxford community, Grimaldi said.
“It’s a beautiful campus, and it was a super-fun experience,” she said. “It was interesting to learn about how the families have a dedication to the traditions and going to the games. It’s a semi-religious kind of thing down there.”
Gregory said her family enjoyed the experience.
“We had a wonderful time, but I’m not sure if they really captured how special it is,” she said. “They did it a lot more simply than we usually do for a real game.”
A more realistic take on Ole Miss tailgating is featured in “Top Tailgaters,” which is set to premiere at 8 p.m. Tuesday (Oct. 18) on The Weather Channel. It is slated to repeat at 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, 8:30 p.m. Oct. 21 and 5 and 7:30 p.m. Oct. 22.
Besides Ole Miss, institutions featured in the special include the universities of Michigan, Tennessee and Washington, and the U.S. Military Academy. At UM, a film crew from the network spent several hours interviewing fans and taping footage in the Grove and the Circle.
Parade magazine is included in more than 600 Sunday newspapers across the country. The most widely read magazine in America, it has a circulation of 32.2 million and a readership of nearly 70 million weekly. Parade will have video of the Ole Miss cover shoot available on its website, http://www.parade.com.
