The Grove (Ole Miss)
Encyclopedia
The Grove is the legendary tailgating
area located at the center of the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss)
campus. It is approximately 10 acres (4 ha) in size and is shaded by oak, elm and magnolia trees hence the grove
part of the name.
Automobiles, including RV campers, have been kept out of The Grove since a rainstorm in 1991 that reduced the Grove to a rutted swamp. The autos were replaced by tents. As a result of fans claiming certain areas within The Grove for their tents, and often getting angry when they arrived and found someone else in "their spot", rules and regulations were put in place that characterizes the party in The Grove today. The Ole Miss Alumni Association's Grove Society began in 1998 to preserve the 10 acres (4 ha) green space. The Grove Society posts a strict schedule for the event.
home games with as many as 25,000 fans. Fans arrive often around 2:00PM the day before the game (campus rule is no one allowed to "stake their claim" before 9:00 pm) to grab their spot in The Grove. Despite campus police efforts to keep the crowd at bay, fans "rush" the grove around 4:30-5:00PM. This usually serene area of campus becomes a sea of red, white and blue tents. Ole Miss freshmen generally dress in their Sunday best: Men wear slacks, button-up shirts, ties, loafers, and coats while women wear cocktail dresses or brightly colored sundress
es and high heel shoes. Some older fans also dress in this style.
Many tents are set up with fine kitchen ware. You'll often find lots of lace
and designer doilies
, fine china
, chandeliers
, sterling silver
or silver plated candelabras
and sterling silver or silver plated utensils
. Much of the food is laid out on table cloths in sterling silver or silver-plated servers.
The food fare often consists of hors d'oeuvres, but as with most tailgating parties, barbecue
still has authority. There's also the traditional Southern food: fried chicken, pork, homemade dressings, mashed potatoes and stuffed eggs.
Every now and then, a loud voice breaks the hum of the crowd present in The Grove with the yell, "Are you READY?". This is the beginning of the Ole Miss cheer, known as "Hotty Toddy".
On cue, hundreds of fans reply, "HELLLLL YES! DAAAAMN RIGHT!"
Then, in unison, they begin to chant the Hotty Toddy cheer:
The bathrooms setup in The Grove on gameday are even located in trailers called the "Hotty Toddy Potty" and the "Hotty Toddy Potty Too" respectively.
There's also a "G-rated" version of "Hotty Toddy" for the kids:
Former Ole Miss football quarterback Eli Manning
shared his times in The Grove as a child and as a former student:
ranked The Grove as the number two college football tailgating spot in the country. In its review, it said:
Additionally, Sports Illustrated
ranked The Grove number one. In its review, it said:
The New York Times
called The Grove "the mother and mistress of outdoor ritual mayhem":
A common saying by "grovers" is "We may not win every game, but we've never lost a party."
Joe Cahn, known as "The Commissioner of Tailgating", said after his 2003 Tailgating tour that The Grove is "probably the most single outstanding tailgating area in the country." He continued:
The Columbia Missourian newspaper called The Grove, "the mecca of tailgating in American sports."
The area surrounding the Walk of Champions entrance is "prime real estate" for "grovers".
. The game is played between the "Red" squad and the "Blue" squad. Ole Miss football players are assigned to a squad by the coaches and then play a full-contact game. Tickets are sold to the game. A school-record Grove Bowl crowd of 28,375 fans attended the 2009 Grove Bowl. Tailgating in The Grove also takes place at the Grove Bowl.
Tailgate party
In the United States, a tailgate party is a social event held on and around the open tailgate of a vehicle. Tailgating often involves consuming alcoholic beverages and grilling food. Tailgate parties usually occur in the parking lots at stadiums and arenas, before and occasionally after games and...
area located at the center of the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss)
University of Mississippi
The University of Mississippi, also known as Ole Miss, is a public, coeducational research university located in Oxford, Mississippi. Founded in 1844, the school is composed of the main campus in Oxford, four branch campuses located in Booneville, Grenada, Tupelo, and Southaven as well as the...
campus. It is approximately 10 acres (4 ha) in size and is shaded by oak, elm and magnolia trees hence the grove
Grove (nature)
A grove is a small group of trees with minimal or no undergrowth, such as a sequoia grove, or a small orchard planted for the cultivation of fruits or nuts...
part of the name.
History
Originally, gathering in The Grove was an informal tailgating get-together when most serious pre-game socializing took place at the fraternity and sorority houses. By the 1950s, the Grove started to become its own pregame tradition.Automobiles, including RV campers, have been kept out of The Grove since a rainstorm in 1991 that reduced the Grove to a rutted swamp. The autos were replaced by tents. As a result of fans claiming certain areas within The Grove for their tents, and often getting angry when they arrived and found someone else in "their spot", rules and regulations were put in place that characterizes the party in The Grove today. The Ole Miss Alumni Association's Grove Society began in 1998 to preserve the 10 acres (4 ha) green space. The Grove Society posts a strict schedule for the event.
Game day
Described as "the Holy Grail of tailgating sites" by Sporting News, The Grove comes to life for Ole Miss Rebels footballOle Miss Rebels football
The football history of the University of Mississippi , includes the formation of the first football team in the state and is 26th on the list of college football's all-time winning programs...
home games with as many as 25,000 fans. Fans arrive often around 2:00PM the day before the game (campus rule is no one allowed to "stake their claim" before 9:00 pm) to grab their spot in The Grove. Despite campus police efforts to keep the crowd at bay, fans "rush" the grove around 4:30-5:00PM. This usually serene area of campus becomes a sea of red, white and blue tents. Ole Miss freshmen generally dress in their Sunday best: Men wear slacks, button-up shirts, ties, loafers, and coats while women wear cocktail dresses or brightly colored sundress
Sundress
A sundress is a dress intended to be worn by women in warm weather. Typically, it is an informal or casual dress in a lightweight fabric, most commonly cotton, and usually loose fitting. The dress is intended to be worn without a layering top, and the design must therefore cut a balance between...
es and high heel shoes. Some older fans also dress in this style.
Many tents are set up with fine kitchen ware. You'll often find lots of lace
Lace
Lace is an openwork fabric, patterned with open holes in the work, made by machine or by hand. The holes can be formed via removal of threads or cloth from a previously woven fabric, but more often open spaces are created as part of the lace fabric. Lace-making is an ancient craft. True lace was...
and designer doilies
Doily
A doily is an ornamental mat, originally the name of a fabric made by Doiley, a 17th-century London draper. Doily earlier meant "genteel, affordable woolens", evidently from the same source....
, fine china
Porcelain
Porcelain is a ceramic material made by heating raw materials, generally including clay in the form of kaolin, in a kiln to temperatures between and...
, chandeliers
Chandelier
A chandelier is a branched decorative ceiling-mounted light fixture with two or more arms bearing lights. Chandeliers are often ornate, containing dozens of lamps and complex arrays of glass or crystal prisms to illuminate a room with refracted light...
, sterling silver
Sterling silver
Sterling silver is an alloy of silver containing 92.5% by mass of silver and 7.5% by mass of other metals, usually copper. The sterling silver standard has a minimum millesimal fineness of 925....
or silver plated candelabras
Candelabra
"Candelabra" is the traditional term for a set of multiple decorative candlesticks, each of which often holds a candle on each of multiple arms or branches connected to a column or pedestal...
and sterling silver or silver plated utensils
Cookware and bakeware
Cookware and bakeware are types of food preparation containers commonly found in the kitchen. Cookware comprises cooking vessels, such as saucepans and frying pans, intended for use on a stove or range cooktop. Bakeware comprises cooking vessels intended for use inside an oven...
. Much of the food is laid out on table cloths in sterling silver or silver-plated servers.
The food fare often consists of hors d'oeuvres, but as with most tailgating parties, barbecue
Barbecue
Barbecue or barbeque , used chiefly in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia is a method and apparatus for cooking meat, poultry and occasionally fish with the heat and hot smoke of a fire, smoking wood, or hot coals of...
still has authority. There's also the traditional Southern food: fried chicken, pork, homemade dressings, mashed potatoes and stuffed eggs.
Every now and then, a loud voice breaks the hum of the crowd present in The Grove with the yell, "Are you READY?". This is the beginning of the Ole Miss cheer, known as "Hotty Toddy".
On cue, hundreds of fans reply, "HELLLLL YES! DAAAAMN RIGHT!"
Then, in unison, they begin to chant the Hotty Toddy cheer:
The bathrooms setup in The Grove on gameday are even located in trailers called the "Hotty Toddy Potty" and the "Hotty Toddy Potty Too" respectively.
There's also a "G-rated" version of "Hotty Toddy" for the kids:
Former Ole Miss football quarterback Eli Manning
Eli Manning
Eli Nelson Manning is an American football quarterback for the New York Giants of the National Football League. He is the younger brother of NFL quarterback Peyton Manning and the son of former NFL quarterback Archie Manning...
shared his times in The Grove as a child and as a former student:
Legendary
ESPNESPN
Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....
ranked The Grove as the number two college football tailgating spot in the country. In its review, it said:
Additionally, Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated is an American sports media company owned by media conglomerate Time Warner. Its self titled magazine has over 3.5 million subscribers and is read by 23 million adults each week, including over 18 million men. It was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the...
ranked The Grove number one. In its review, it said:
The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
called The Grove "the mother and mistress of outdoor ritual mayhem":
A common saying by "grovers" is "We may not win every game, but we've never lost a party."
Joe Cahn, known as "The Commissioner of Tailgating", said after his 2003 Tailgating tour that The Grove is "probably the most single outstanding tailgating area in the country." He continued:
The Columbia Missourian newspaper called The Grove, "the mecca of tailgating in American sports."
Walk of Champions
On its way to the stadium a few hours before kickoff, dressed in suits and ties, the Ole Miss Rebels football team makes its way under a brick and metal arch and into the sea of "grovers". This is known as the "Walk of Champions". The arch was donated by Ole Miss' only undefeated football team, the 1962 Rebels.The area surrounding the Walk of Champions entrance is "prime real estate" for "grovers".
Grove Bowl
The Grove Bowl is the name of the annual spring intrasquad scrimmage in Vaught-Hemingway StadiumVaught-Hemingway Stadium
Vaught-Hemingway Stadium at Hollingsworth Field is an outdoor athletic stadium located in Oxford, Mississippi. The stadium serves as the home for the University of Mississippi Rebels college football team...
. The game is played between the "Red" squad and the "Blue" squad. Ole Miss football players are assigned to a squad by the coaches and then play a full-contact game. Tickets are sold to the game. A school-record Grove Bowl crowd of 28,375 fans attended the 2009 Grove Bowl. Tailgating in The Grove also takes place at the Grove Bowl.
External links
- VIDEO: Live webcam of The Grove at Ole Miss
- VIDEO: Virtual tour of The Grove at Ole Miss
- ESPN VIDEO: Gettin' In the Grove at Ole Miss
- CNN VIDEO: Groov'in in the Grove
- Sports Illustated: Saturday at the Grove; An inside look at the nation's top tailgating spot
- Tailgating Ideas: The Grove needs to be on every tailgater's 'Bucket List'