It’s a common sight at every home football game: Swarms of fans armed with coolers and grills crawl through Lane Avenue traffic to find the perfect place to watch the game. Their loyalty has been described as religious — but are Ohio State tailgaters the best in the land?
Craig Remsburg set out to answer that question when he created “Masters of the Tailgate,” an upcoming television show that documents tailgate traditions and lets viewers decide which reigns supreme.
“Every school does something different,” said Remsburg, a graduate of the University of Iowa. “It’s about the people, the tradition and loyalty.”
The inaugural episode will air Wednesday on the Versus network and will feature OSU tailgaters at the Sept. 12 game against the University of Southern California. The rest of the first season will document tailgates at four other universities.
For the OSU episode, Remsburg’s crew went from tailgate to tailgate, eating and chatting with the fans.
“Every fan was so nice and crazy,” he said. “We loved hanging out and partying with them.”
The crew was especially impressed by skull session — the pre-game performance by the OSU Marching Band that regularly draws 10,000 fans to St. John Arena.
“I had never seen anything like that before,” Remsburg said. “Where the coach and players address the fans before the game, and the band plays. It was awesome.”
The selling point of the show, Remsburg said, is that it highlights the competitive element of tailgating — even if they’re half a country away, football fans inevitably will try to outdo each other.
“I wanted this show to be about more than just observing a tailgate,” he said.
The show’s Web site, mastersofthetailgate.com, features a section where fans can grade the tailgate featured on the show that week.
Filming has been completed on four of the five episodes scheduled for this season. The other featured colleges are the University of Florida, University of Georgia, University of Central Florida and Penn State University. The Penn State episode will be filmed when OSU visits them Nov. 7.
The Versus network, previously the Outdoor Life Network, is a relative newcomer to college football. From 1995 to 2006, the station focused on sports like fishing an hunting, but has more recently become a hub for the NHL, the United Football League and college sports.
Remsburg wouldn’t say if OSU was his favorite visit so far, but he did say that he thoroughly enjoyed the trip.
“Ohio State fans are really original,” he said. “The loyalty they have for their school is out of control.”
He also enjoyed seeing just how much OSU fans hate the University of Michigan.
“I’d heard about the ‘and Michigan still sucks’ stuff,” he said. “But it was great to hear people say it in person.”
