Tailgating is an all-American tradition. For many, it simply wouldn't be football without a good tailgating party. For others, it simply wouldn't be tailgating without a little football.

At colleges around the country, every home game -- and often, every away game -- students, families and fans park their cars, pull down their tailgates (when appropriate) and partake in a ritual pre-game picnic. Out come the burgers and the beer, the potato salad and the cookies.

It was 97 degrees in the shade on a sweltering September day, and Tom Lawrence was flipping burgers on a hot grill.

He wouldn't have it any other way.

Lawrence, president of the Greater Richmond Alumni Chapter of the University of Richmond Alumni Association, was cooking Angus beef hot dogs, sirloin burgers, his special brined chicken breasts and more for his fellow alumni before the big game.

C.G. Hudgins, who is himself an alumnus of UR, calls his wife, Linda, a professional tailgater.

"We have it down to a science," Linda Hudgins said, citing 15 years' of tailgating experience at everything from the UR games to the Strawberry Hill and Montpelier Hunt Races to golf events.

"I keep everything all packed and ready to go all the time," she said, including plastic ware, cups, and a tablecloth color-coded for the event.

Several UR fraternities and sororities host parties, said Tony DeRosa, president of Phi Gamma Delta. The food tends to be typical student fare -- burgers and hot dogs, and sometimes chicken wings -- and the police are on hand to ensure that alcohol is not consumed by underaged students.

In the rows between the cars, students set up games of cornhole, which used to be called bean-bag toss, and a relatively new game that goes by many names, the most printable one of which is ladder ball. Two teams of two players throw a pair of balls connected by a string at a small ladder perhaps 25 feet away. Points are scored by wrapping the balls around a rung -- the higher up the ladder, the more points scored.

One student playing the game was Brian Farrell, a senior transfer student who was attending his first UR tailgate.

"It's a school spirit thing," he said of tailgating.

But does tailgating really need an excuse?

At Virginia Tech, the tailgating tradition turns the town of Blacksburg into a sea of orange and maroon as alumni, students and local residents don the school colors, crowd into local groceries to pick up supplies, grab a spot in a parking lot and fire up their grills.

In the parking lots outside Lane Stadium and on the edges of the sprawling campus, the crisp autumn air is thick with the smell of hamburger, chicken, bratwurst and steak. Beer, wine and liquor flow freely as adults sit in lawn chairs beneath tents and listen to game-day radio broadcasts while children toss footballs.

"It's a fantastic place to be," said Willis Blackwood of Midlothian, who has returned to Blacksburg to tailgate every year since graduating from Tech in 1972. Blackwood, in charge of cooking the bratwurst and white chicken chili before the Tech-Western Kentucky football game last weekend, said his tradition started this way: Four buddies got together and began making the drive to Blacksburg for home football games, picking up fried chicken along the way. Before they knew it, they were bringing grills and their own food, and the menus grew more elaborate as they tried their hand at shrimp scampi, linguini and Chinese dishes.

Today, he said, the group often numbers about 50.

"It's a social experience," said Drew Showalter, 24, of Covington, hoisting a beer on the sidewalk as he stood between a tent and a pickup tailgate. Showalter and his buddies have been tailgating for more than a decade. "You've got to get up at the . . . crack of dawn to have any fun," he said.

B.H. Rakestraw of Roanoke said he's been tailgating for a decade, pairing up with buddy Bob Williams of Roanoke to share the grilling duties. At first, they bought their food, but six years ago decided to cook on site. "We kind of worked up to it," Rakestraw said. Williams added, "We just thought it was more fun to make our own food."

Nancy Tuskey has been driving from Richmond to the University of Virginia games in Charlottesville for 20 years. She and her husband, Larry, have an assigned parking spot next to Scott Stadium, where they tailgate with their three children, their children's friends, assorted siblings, cousins and friends. On any given week, 20 to 40 people crowd around the food.

Everyone contributes food, and on the day before each home game -- and some of the away games -- her family and friends drop by to bring their contributions to her garage.

"They have the same assignment every week. We don't have that much variation because everyone likes the old standards," she said. Ham biscuits, Mexican layered dip -- Tuskey makes both of those herself -- deviled eggs, various cheeses and crackers, shrimp cocktail.

"The best thing of all is the fried chicken. We stop at a place in Charlottesville that's well-known. It's called Wayside Takeout [& Catering]. It's always mobbed. You order in advance and hopefully they'll have your order ready for you. . . . You pick it up and it's so hot you almost burn your lap while you drive to the stadium. Fresh out of the fryer, and it's wonderful."

Tuskey has learned from experience that her fellow tailgaters prefer finger food for dessert -- "two-bite items you can pick up and pop in your mouth," she said. That means no cake, but brownies, brownie bites, cookies and small cupcakes.

They also bring fruit and a vegetable tray. "My daughter's girlfriends like the healthy stuff," she said.

Drinks tend to be beer and wine, unless it's a noon game, which calls for bloody marys or mimosas. Water and soft drinks are always available, too.

Their tailgating stops before the game begins. They make sure they get into the stadium in time to see the animated Cav Man destroy the opponent's mascot on the scoreboard.

Tuskey's husband and two of their three children graduated from U.Va. "The one that got away went to [Washington and Lee]." She is such a fan that many Richmonders know her as Cavalier Nancy, the name she uses when calling in to the radio show SportsPhone with Big Al.

"After the game, we go back to the car and get the food back out. Most of them in the parking lot do. Then you wait for the traffic to die down," she said.
Contact Daniel Neman at (804) 649-6408 or dneman@timesdispatch.com.

Contact Rex Bowman at (540) 344-3612 or rbowman@timesdispatch.com.