Grove is back after year off amid COVID
Ole Miss tradition just as hectic, exciting as ever
For Alan Weatherly and his crew, Ole Miss game day starts at 2 p.m. the day before, when they climb into their two trailers and make the roughly hourlong drive from Olive Branch to Oxford.
The trailers hold tents that will be set up throughout The Grove, a 10-acre grassy plot in the middle of the University of Mississippi campus that, on game day, transforms into party central.
Weatherly and his wife, Jennifer Weatherly, are tent vendors that partner with the school. Their business, Elite Tailgating Company, started in 2015 and this year, despite an ongoing pandemic, is having more success than ever.
“We’re doing close to 100 tents tonight,” Weatherly said. “We have the Ole Miss Cheer Parents and we have an extremely large group with a lot of parents from St. Louis whose kids all go here.”
Many of Weatherly’s employees are students at the school, including Mckenzie Richardson, an Ole Miss cheerleader. He met up with Elite Tailgating company after practice to help prepare The Grove.
“It’s more fun (than last year),” Richardson said. “Last year, they had shut down a bunch of stuff, so this year there is more opening up and they don’t even really require a mask as much.”
Morgan Atkins, a senior at Ole Miss and the Associated Student Body president, agrees there hasn’t been a difference between tailgating in 2019 and tailgating in 2021. From what she has seen, people are just really excited to be back.
“I think, especially because we had a full year without it, it definitely changed the environment of what games were a little bit,” Atkins said about the year without The Grove. “But I think, too, it’s also really cool to come back into this with having Lane Kiffin as coach now and the difference that has made too, with the stamina and the excitement around the program as well.”
On Saturday, The Grove fills with the kind of Southern hospitality it’s known for. Food and drinks are shared, tents for people to leave the purses and bags they are unable to bring into the stadium, while others have TVS to watch the game.
But Friday night, the Grove is every person for themselves.
The Grove sits empty, patrolled by security, until 7 p.m., when it opens for people to prep spots for the next day. The starting time is strict and people attempting to get a jump are pointed out and removed.
Spots on The Grove are not reserved but go to those quickest to claim a plot of grass. That’s where the evening competition starts.
As a partner of the university, Weatherly gets a small head start. His tents are already there, on The Grove, ahead of the setup rush, though they still need to be grabbed and hauled to the proper location and then unfolded. But is still an advantage over others who are not allowed to bring tailgating gear near The Grove until 7 p.m.
This process can be, Weatherly joked, a more athletic event than the actual football game.
At around 6:55 p.m., a group of five students show up to join the rush for spots on The Grove. The students, who are carrying a tent, are sent away — they are not partners with the university and have to wait until it starts to bring their gear.
At 6:58 p.m., workers in bright yellow vests that mark a tent vendor company step off the curb and set up in race position, ready to run. There isn’t jostling for position — they know where they need to be; they stand still, in a horizontal line, eyes pinned on the tents they need to grab.
A few seconds before 7 p.m., the security guards step away and the metaphorical race gun has gone off. Those in yellow vests start running.
Technically, Jennifer Weatherly said, there is no running allowed. That doesn’t stop anyone.
The Grove goes from being populated by only oak trees to having lines of tents erected within five minutes. Once the initial rush is over, things tend to calm down a little bit.
Elite Tailgating Company works through the evening, setting up hay under the tents and arranging tables, chairs, coolers and TVS. By 11 p.m., they are mostly done, but an employee will stay through the night, just to be safe.
By 6 a.m. on Saturday morning, tailgaters start to arrive, filling The Grove for the 2:30 p.m. kickoff against LSU.
Former New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning became the third Ole Miss player to have his jersey retired. National sports media, including SEC Nation, have been on campus since Friday morning.
“I walked by and saw Tim Tebow doing his soundcheck,” Atkins said. “It was just the craziest thing, I never thought I would hear that on my way to class.”
Atkins, from Olive Branch, grew up going tailgating at Ole Miss. For her, spending Saturdays in The Grove is a routine born out of a childhood of driving the hour and a half south.
“Going to football games is an expectation,” Atkins said. “Like every Saturday, I’m like ‘OK, there’s a home game, I will be in Oxford, I will be tailgating.’ ”
For Weatherly, the first half of game day is spent “fighting fires.” Two or three of the 30 TVS they set up in tents have problems that need to be fixed; a few broken chairs need to be replaced; one tent needs an extra table.
After, they have a few hours to relax and visit with their customers. Three hours after the end of the game, The Grove shuts down and it’s time for Elite Tailgating to pack up. With fewer employees than they had to set up Friday, it takes about six to seven hours to pack up the trailers.
For Weatherly and his crew, Ole Miss game days end at midnight on Saturday when they arrive back home in Olive Branch, exhausted but excited to do it all over again next home game.
There are three more Ole Miss home games this season and The Grove will be open and packed full for all of them.
Reach Gina Butkovich at 901-2326714.