Four decades of tailgating fun
Alumni
“It’s a long winding, epic saga about friendship, football, betrayal, redemption, good versus evil, bands, and roasted pigs,” said alum Duffy Myrtetus. He’s referring to the tailgate gathering known as 42 & the Tree. The group even has its own Facebook page and logo.
Myrtetus, along with fellow 1985 alums, including UR board member Jeff Brown, Trib Sutton, Andy Rich, Doug Ehlers, and Dave Bayer, played on UR’s football team together before deciding after graduation to organize a tailgate that’s endured through 40 football seasons. Classmates John Casey, Kevin Stubbe, and 1984 alum Jake Moore are also part of the outing that began at City Stadium.
“There wasn’t much shade there. So, on hot days early in the season it was uncomfortable,” Myrtetus said. “There was one craggy tree with a handful of leaves. We tried to park near it for whatever negligible shade it threw off.”
Robins football stadium generated a lot of excitement when it opened on September 18, 2010. Brown arranged for everyone to buy their tickets together and set up tables and chairs on several prime spots near fraternity row, starting with space 42, which was conveniently located under the shade of a large willow oak tree.
“It became a good landmark to tell people where to meet us,” Myrtetus said. “That is where the tailgate name originated.”
David Lyons, a 1987 alum and a handful of others joined the tailgate posse at the new stadium.
Sutton is grateful for the group’s longevity. “We were blessed to have so many friends here in town,” he said. “The tailgate has been one of those things I could count on to show up, where I could throw up a table, and reconnect. It’s been wonderful.”
The numbers in attendance continued to grow as 42 & the Tree hosted the Richmond football players’ parents, and on many occasions, friends and people from the local neighborhood would wander over.
“We’ve cooked pigs, roasted oysters, had bands. It was the ultimate tailgate, open to all,” Myrtetus said. Folks sometimes arrive the night before to roast and smoke up a pig or two.
They have quite a few stories to tell. One involves a friend’s deuce and a half truck that was used as the stage for a live band. “It was also used as a VIP lounge —it was so high up you could watch the game in it from the parking lot,” Myrtetus said.
Sutton recalled the year nine of them piled into a van and drove to see the Spiders take on the University of Montana at the 2008 national football championship game in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The Spiders won their first-ever NCAA Division I National Championship that year, defeating Montana 24-7. The tailgaters stayed up until 3 a.m. celebrating that win.
“Our kids have grown up with our tailgates,” Sutton said. “Now many of them are helping take charge.”
Bo Brown, Jeff’s son, is a junior lacrosse player and a third-generation Spider athlete. Jeff’s father went to UR on a full baseball scholarship. Bo has been going to the tailgates since the City Stadium days.
“I think what is important to me is how close-knit the group is with one another,” Bo said. “I don't think I could ever leave 42 & the Tree. It is too big of a core memory for me to give up, even after I graduate.”
One of his fondest memories happened even before the festivities. “One of the guys from 42 and the Tree would sometimes pull out this golf cart that he had tricked out in full Richmond-themed decorations. They would let me drive it from their house to the parking lot, with them in it of course,” Bo said.
It’s an honor to be a part of this UR crowd. The graduating students in the group receive cords for “distinction and excellence in tailgating” to wear on their caps.
“A handful of kids who earned graduate degrees are presented with a Doctor of Tailgating honorary degree from 42 and the Tree,” Myrtetus said.
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