UNIVERSITY PARK — Saturday was an early day for Mike Frye.
Out the door of his Troxelville home at 4:15 a.m., he and his wife, Bev, were first in line 75 minutes later and snagged their usual tailgate spot in the orange parking lot.
Die-hard Penn State fans, the Fryes have been tailgaters for more than 30 years and were among the tens of thousands of people Saturday who turned on their grills, chilled their cold drinks in coozies, and tossed around footballs as part of the first tailgate of the 2011 season. The Fryes occupy a pretty sweet spot — their three-tent tailgate is on a triangular sliver of grass behind the Central Pennsylvania Convention and Visitors Bureau. It’s their own island, as Mike Frye called it. Their tradition had a simple start.
“We just started out in the car eating hoagies,” said Bev Frye, whose husband is president of the Lady Lion Cager Club. “We’d look at other people (tailgating) and wonder if we’d be like that someday.” Yep, they sure are.
The Fryes’ tailgate brings together 15 or more people on a typical game day, and on Saturday, they had quite a bit more — 35. Saturday’s breakfast menu included burritos, pancakes and fruit, and for the post-game supper, the Fryes served picnic fare like hamburgers, hot dogs and macaroni salad.
Two of their longtime tailgate partners, Dick and Peggy Ingram, of Clearfield, met the Fryes in the mid-1970s when they had seats in front of them at football games.
The Fryes knew them casually. Bev Frye would compliment Peggy Ingram on her outfits — “She was always dressed to the T,” Bev Frye said — but they didn’t know one another outside football Saturdays in State College. Then one day, they started talking and the next thing they knew, they were tailgating together.
For the Ingrams, three generations sometimes gather at the tailgate. Their sons Justin, a linebacker for Joe Paterno in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and Jason Ingram live in Virginia and make it back occasionally. But Jason’s son, Luke Godissart, 15, is a regular. Luke has lots of Penn State game day memories, but perhaps his earliest is the 2000 Kickoff Classic against Southern Cal. A photo opp for him, his dad and the Nittany Lion mascot stands out as the coolest moment of that day, he says.
This year, Luke’s predicting a 9-3 or 8-4 finish, and he’s especially looking forward to this week’s game against Alabama. The Fryes met another couple the way they met the Ingrams. Jerry and Judy Spanillo, of Greensburg, sat in front of the Fryes at Lady Lions games. The story was the same: They’d noticed one another but hadn’t formally met.
“We introduced ourselves and have been the best of friends ever since,” said Jerry Spanillo, who spends the weekend here for football games but drives home after the women’s basketball games.
Another friend, Bob Bowersox, of Spring Mills, has been tailgating with the Fryes, Ingrams and Spanillos for six years. He lives the closest of everyone in their group, and he brings the vehicle with the most room to store tailgate stuff: a van for his business, Victorian Signs in Bellefonte.
Bowersox’s work is clearly visible — he created pennants outside Beaver Stadium, and two years ago he created the graphics on the side of the Penn State football travel trailer. It hauls equipment to every away game, he said. He also created a banner for their tent and some artwork on a table inside.
For Frye and his fellow tailgaters, the fun, friends and football are worth the early morning drive here. Bev Frye has one small gripe, but it’s one she can live with.
“I get the undercover work at 9, 10 o’clock at night, standing at the sink doing the dishes,” she said with a laugh.
Mike Dawson can be reached at 231-4616.
