Ole Miss Football Cancels One Of The School’s Greatest Pre-Game Traditions Due To COVID-19 Concerns
It’s okay to have college football in the South in 2020 (currently, anyway) but not some college football traditions.
Schools across the SEC have banned tailgating for the season and that includes one of the greatest tailgate parties in the land, the Grove at Ole Miss.
“We may not win a lot of games,” so goes the popular phrase among Rebels fans and alumni, “but we’ve never lost a party.”
Unfortunately, Ole Miss has lost the party this year. HEY, flim flam, bim bam, the “Hotty Toddy” pregame atmosphere has been cooled in an attempt to control the spread of coronavirus in this very unusual year.
It is interesting to note that the order came not from the school president or athletic director, but the governor of Mississippi, Tate Reeves. In the understatement of the month if not the upcoming fall, Reeves said he knew it would be an “unpopular decision.” As almost a side note, he also announced that game attendance would be limited to 25%.
The Grove is a 10-acre grassy area in the the center of the Old Miss campus that is the epicenter that brings out the spirits (and spirit) of Ole Miss fans before games. It’s such a high-spirited affair that fans of opposing teams are welcome to crash it. Rebels will even give them a drink in exchange for the words “Hoddy Toddie.”
Tho I’m not sure that applies to fans of Alabama and LSU, and certainly not Mississippi State.
Tailgating at college football games is as much of a part of the atmosphere as the games themselves. At Ole Miss it reaches a fevered pitch with the “Hoddy Toddy” greeting/cheer and also by the fact that the Rebels are so rarely competitive that fans don’t want to wait until their team is down 28-zip to imbibe.
This year offers little chance for that to change, tho fans are pumped up about new coach Lane Kiffin and an offense that could potentially make expected blowouts somewhat interesting. But there will be no pregame tailgating at the Grove to get them in the usual state of pre-game mind.
Officially, anyway.
ARE YOU READY???
Hell yes, damn right!!!
hoddy toddy gosh almighty
who in the hell are we…HEY!!!
flim flam, bim bam
OLE MISS BY DAMN!!!
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