Cowboy Tailgating: Lone Rangers

Tailgating with one Toyota 4Runner, six Cowboy-themed lawn chairs, one grill, one cooler and one radio.

NewsOK Tailgating | Modified: August 22, 2011 at 10:29 am | Published: November 7, 2009 Comment on this article

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Away from the pandemonium south of the stadium, small groups of tailgaters parked and partied in what was once a neighborhood but is now a sprawling gravel parking lot. OSU plans to turn the area into an athletic village. On Saturday, it was eerily quiet for a game day.

"It's just a little too crowded over there," tailgater Christine Jones said of the tailgating bonanza south of the stadium.

Jones, 43, her husband and two other couples who lounged behind a 4Runner on Saturday are all OSU graduates, but none live in Oklahoma anymore. They have tried to meet in Stillwater at least once a football season for the past 19 years, said Jones, who now lives in Denver.

"It's funny being here. Me and my husband actually met at a small party at a friends' house that used to be right over there somewhere," Jones said, pointing toward the vast emptiness north of the stadium.

Jones' called her group's tailgating setup "old-fashioned." They popped open the tailgate on the SUV, put a cooler and a radio in the back and unfolded a few lawn chairs. Cooking was done on a charcoal grill small enough to put in a back seat.

"We did the tents and the big tailgates for a while. It's just too much work," Jones said. "Tickets aren't what I'd call a bargain now, so we're keeping the pregame simple and spending our money on the game."