Beyond Patterson’s Bleachers
In September 2016, my nephew, Ben Espenhorst ’19, was a player on the Ursinus football team, and my sister-in-law and her husband invited us to join them at a game. My wife and I are both Ursinus alumni (1987 and 1988, respectively), and I had played for the Bears for four years myself. I knew the drill.
They told us to come early—for breakfast— at the tailgate.
Okay, so maybe I didn’t know the drill.
Sure enough, when we arrived at the area behind the stands of Patterson Field at 10 a.m., music was blasting from portable speakers among a sea of canopy tents. Ursinus banners, grills, lawn chairs, and full buffets filled what had been just a patch of grass during my playing days. It was all a bit disorienting.
In the mid-80s, the only reason anyone would be behind the stands at Patterson Field would be to retrieve the car keys they dropped. Archived copies of The Grizzly suggest that, for decades, Homecoming was the only tailgate event and was actually held at individual vehicles in the parking lot. And although players of the past cannot quite relate, it occurred to me that I had witnessed a bit of Ursinus’s tailgating history back then. The parents of my friend and teammate, Dan Healy ’87, were true tailgating pioneers during and beyond Dan’s playing years.
According to Healy, his father, Joe, filmed Ursinus’s home and away games when Dan began playing for Ursinus in 1984, and the full-day commitment to film those games led, naturally, to pre-game and post-game meals for Dan and his suitemates in what is now Reimert Hall. We’re talking hoagies made at home for pre-game; and then Dan’s mom Mary’s homemade roast beef and meatballs later, back at the residence hall.
The tradition continues to this day. “When our team is walking to get breakfast on game day at 9 a.m., the tents are up and the grills are starting to heat up,” Head Football Coach Pete Gallagher noted. “You have to get here early in the morning to get a spot for a 1:00 kickoff.”
Gallagher ties its growth and popularity over the years, in part, to the success of the football program in the region.
“We are committed to recruiting in the Greater Philadelphia area,” Gallagher said, “and during our recruiting process, it’s great to be able to invite our parents and families to come here and celebrate college football.”
So, unofficially, the tailgating tradition at Patterson Field can be traced back to the Healys. What inspired them to celebrate college football in their way is the same as what motivates current Ursinus parents: Pride in their student-athletes and pride in Ursinus’s successful athletic programs.