Tailgating at the GW game

cookout
Originally uploaded by squidpants.

so I went to the GW-Richmond men's game this Saturday, it was great, GW won 80-68. I also tailgated with some friends before the game, something I'd never done before, and that was a lot of fun too. We met up about two hours before tipoff accross the street from the Smith Center, GW's home court. (We were on the steps of Funger Hall, if anybody knows GW). Unfortunately, I forgot the nozzle that attaches the gas canister to the grill, so we had to get charcoal and do it that way instead. And it was tough getting the charcoal going, so every 20 minutes or so I'd squirt on lighter fluid and light it, so there'd be a big burst of flames on the steps of this classroom building. No one noticed though, and we proceeded to cook up some tasty brats and burgers. We were tailgating across the street from where the students line up to get in, and being a sell-out, the lines stretched around the corner, which was pretty cool and was something I'd never seen before. And since the game was on ESPN, the cameras would come by occassionally to show the crowd and they'd all yell. While cooking and eating, we made a bunch of ridiculous signs, like "Good Sportsmanship," "Wolf Blitzer, be my Valentine," (Wolf Blitzer comes to a lot of GW games), "nWo" (the wrestling thing), "GWAR," which is just stupid, "GW 3:16," also stupid, and one that spells out "Richmond" and makes no sense:

Roy
Is
Constantly
Hoarding
My
Ornamental
Notthingham
Dioramas.

It means nothing, but still makes me laugh. We sat opposite the Richmond section and I'd hold the sign up every now and then, they must have been confused. One of the guys cooking out with us said he went to a hockey game once with a bunch of signs like "Both teams are evenly matched" and "We appreciate your athletic ability," which I thought was pretty funny. Needless to say, we also brought Coke bottles with lots of Jim Bean added. Anyway, the game was a good one. GW played pretty good defense and there were lots of awesome dunks and nice plays, mostly by GW. Towards the end of the game, I grabbed the "Wolf Blitzer, be my Valentine" sign and got Big George, one of the mascots, and went over to where Wolf was sitting and held up the sign. I thought it was pretty funny, and Wolf and the folks sitting around him all laughed, but unfortunately I didn't get on ESPN or even the Jumbotron. Oh well. But I was on ESPN once a couple years ago, my roommate and I were wearing basketballs on our heads and had a sign that said spelled out ESPN:

chris monroE
Should
Play in the
NBA

Monroe, the leading scorer in GW history, was a senior then. So that was cool. But anyway, it was a very good time, and hopefully we'll cook out next week as well. I may post some more photos from the game later.