I read this on a BYU message board and thought I would share it here:
First, for those that that have never been to Oxford MS, let me say that it is a wonderful college town. We stayed in Memphis and drove the hour down to Oxford, but having it to do all over again, it would be a no brainer to stay in Oxford. It is a college town vibe in a beautiful setting. It consists of a few main areas....the main drag is known as The Square. As the name implies, it is a town square built around an old courthouse/city building. Today that old historic building still anchors the Square, while fun shops and local restaurants populate the perimeter. The Square itself is not limited to the actual square, but branches out to various streets that are connected to The Square. So all in all, you can spend part of the day walking around, looking at stores, grabbing food, and just taking in the atmosphere. It is very picturesque, like a movie set, with massive trees and beautiful architecture. There are a couple of eateries there that seem to be game day traditions, as the lineup in the morning for breakfast was quite long. There is also a red open air double decker shuttle bus that drives between The Square and The Grove. It is only a few blocks so we hiked, but would have been fun to ride the bus. It is definitely Game Day protocol to be at the Grove, so that is where we spent our pre-game time.
From The Square, you walk approx 8 short blocks to get to campus. That area is populated with amazing historic brick homes, craftsman bungalows, and other cool looking antebellum type architecture. Everything seems to have that old collegiate brick look, very cool. In true college town style, most homes rock some sort of Ole Miss branding, be it a flag or a banner or something, very often a Colonel Reb item. He is everywhere.
The entrance to campus is a bottleneck...the road passes over a bridge and that is how you get in and out. Once you cross the bridge, you are at the entrance to The Grove, which is the front part of the main and oldest portion of campus. (I might compare it to maybe that area of the U with all the cool old buildings....not in the way they look, but to compare how that part of campus is distinctly older than the rest).
Folks, a word about The Grove. As you all know, roadies are a part of my DNA. I live for them. This is my favorite time of year. The Grove has always been on my Top 10 things to do and see as a college football fan, along with visiting Notre Dame, attending a Rose Bowl, etc. And I feel like I have done my fair share and seen quite a bit. There is a lot of hype surrounding The Grove, and truthfully, at its core, it is basically a tailgate, so how cool could it be? That being said, I can assure you that The Grove did not disappoint. If anything, it amazed. What was once a Top 10 thing has been bumped to maybe a Top 5 thing.
The scene at The Grove is just that...a scene. People do not tailgate...they socialize. They dont eat...they dine. And they take their roles as hosts very seriously. You aren't going very far without someone asking you if you are enjoying yourself. The process begins in earnest the day before, as people congregate near the Grove waiting for the signal. The signal is a whistle that is blown, right around 8PM. People begin hanging out at around 2 or 3 PM. But once the whistle is blown, you can run and stake out your spot with a pop up tent. As with most schools, families have laid claim to a traditional spot on the Grove that has been theirs for years. People will send their older children to hang around on Friday afternoon in order to secure their spot. Once you are done with work on Friday, you head over to meet your children and start prepping. At 8, the tents go up. It is fair to say that at 8:01, the party is already underway.
The uniform of The Grove is also part of its charm and appeal. Men will wear khaki shorts, loafers with no socks, and an Ole Miss polo. Traditionalists, which were legion, can be found in seersucker suits of salmon or light blue, blazers, oxford shirt, tie or some combo of the aforementioned. The heat is not a deterrent. As I mentioned before, this is a tradition dating back for decades, and people take it very seriously. The women wear strapless cocktail type dresses and heels, almost without exception. And yes, it seemed like i couldn't walk 10 feet without seeing a beautiful woman walk by. I received several texts asking about this specifically. Without beating a dead horse, I will simply reiterate.....beatiful women, hot humid weather, strapless dresses with short hemlines.....it was an amazing spectacle. Sorry to disappoint, but I did not engage in much photo journalism.
The layout of The Grove is a convenient circular loop. And no space goes unused. The pop up tents almost literally touch each other end to end. It is like a small tent city that goes up overnight, quartered off by strategic pathways that allow ingress and egress. Imagine the aftermath of a general admission concert, with people walking in a crowd, inching your way along, and that will, give you a sense. The size of the crowd will ebb and flow but for the most part it seems to intensify as kickoff approaches. It is estimated that approximately 80k populate The Grove on game day and I think a solid argument could be made for more than that. It is quite common for many of the Grove participants to not attend the game at all but rather to stay back and continue to socialize. Of course, the vast majority do make their way to the game, as football is still a way of life in the South.
The vibe in The Grove is that of pure revelry, but not hedonism. You are not going to see lots of beer bongs in The Grove. You aren't going to see a lot of passed out drunkards. You aren't going to see frat boys doing shots off sorority girl stomachs. You will see everyone having a great time, enjoying a drink, dining in style, and chatting each other up. The food runs the gamut, but almost all of it on the higher end. There is no cooking in the Grove, no open flames, no coals, nothing. So everything is prepared beforehand. As a result, you don't see much pedestrian tailgate fare. In fact, I literally didn't see one tent serving hot dogs or burgers. It was all BBQ, pulled pork, seafood salad, smoked ham sandwiches, homemade desserts, coolers filled with drinks, and lots of in between. We had a nice laugh when we saw a BYU married couple that were sitting off to the side....eating Subway sandwiches. first, that is a vint BYU move to go cheapo on a vacay. Second, it is completely out of touch with the ethos of The Grove. There seem to be two main rules in effect there....one, come prepared to have a good time, and two, nobody goes hungry. You thirsty? Have a beer or a water. you boys hungry? Come grab some food. You folks tried dry ribs? Come on over and have some. As I mentioned before, these people take Southern hospitality seriously, so the notion of packing some fast food into the Grove is almost an insult to the entire production. There is an Ole Miss adage that is quite true..."we may lose the game, but we never lose the party." and this proved to be the case. The Grove is all about having fun, and more importantly, being a gracious guest or a good host.
Let me interject that I had previously heard that you would see fancy tents with chandeliers and lots of opulence in the Grove. We walked the entire thing and didn't see one example of that. Perhaps it is a disappearing vestige of the old guard. I saw standard pop up tents as far as the eye can see. We did see fancy set ups, though, don't get me wrong. People decorating their tables with candlesticks, centerpieces, etc. Flat screens and dishes were common, although that is common at most tailgates at big schools, so nothing new there.
The people in The Grove are as colorful as the scenery. Actually, better said, the personalities are colorful. The people are shockingly uncolorful. In fact, Ole Miss may actually be whiter than BYU, no kidding. Zero racial diversity in The Grove. Blacks, Asians, Hispanics...forget it. We started counting and for the longest time, could not find a single African American there that was not scalping tickets. Eventually, we did see a group of 6 or so, but beyond that, a very homogenous group, to be sure. However, what they lack in diversity, they make up for in gregariousness. People whooping and hollering, welcoming you, hugging old friends, and generally being quite affable. We had one guy come up and offer jello that he had made....yellow, green, you name it. I laughed and told him I wasn't a drinker so thanks for the jello shots, but I would have to politely pass. He looked puzzled and clarified that he knew we didn't drink, so he had made real plain jello for us to eat because he heard we loved jello. lol. It was so great because his motives were pure and I got a kick out of imagining this guy making jello in the fridge the day before the game. Poor guy, not sure if anyone else took him up on his free jello. I also noticed that it was common for older fans to recite their Ole Miss pedigree when talking to you. "I'm so and so, Ole Miss class of 78, my daddy and grandaddy are also Ole Miss alum..." I assume that is part of the general social formalities of Southern culture but it was something I noticed and appreciated.
We were able to find the Walk of Champions archway, which is the entrance to a physical line of demarcation within the grove. It is the walkway on which the entire team does its walk through the crowd on the way to the stadium. I was lucky enough to catch this and was glad I did. Really neat to see the crowd smashed in 20 or more deep taking pics and vid as the team cut through, high fiving everyone. A very nice tradition.
Speaking of tradition....the Hotty Toddy. I was expecting Hotty toddy to be the battle cry of the day amongst fans, but actually I didn't hear anyone greet each other with it once all day. I assumed it was the equivalent of Fight On, Hook em horns, or OH-IO....something you say to someone else as you pass them in the street or whatever, but it didn't really prove to be. The Hotty Toddy cheer, however, was in effect. If someone yells out "Are you ready?" then you had better be ready. Because everyone participates no matter what you are doing, "Are you ready?....Hell yes! Hotty toddy gosh almighty who the hell are we (hey!) film flam, bim bam, Ole Miss by damn!" yes, we heard that one a few times yesterday. It was fun.
Once the Walk of Champions takes place, people start to file down to Vaught. It is a short walk from The Grove to the stadium. The stadium is on the smaller side for the SEC but really only a few thousand less than LES, I believe. It feels cozy but is still a great venue. Good sight lines so really no bad seats in the house, the video board is excellent. Again, the game has already been sliced and diced but I can tell you that by and large, the fans were great. It was loud in there but not overwhelming, certainly nothing amazing, but definitely fun. Attendance was unimpressive, frankly. Lots of empty seats for a home opener and from what I was told, not uncommon all season long. Keep in mind that this year, they host Georgia, LSU, Arkansas, and I believe Alabama or Auburn. And they still don't sell out. I didn't like that. The fans were classy during all the injuries (often a bellwether for fan bases, unfortunately) and after the game, lots of "congratulations" or "thanks for coming" or whatnot. One thing that I though was interesting....this fan base is pretty fatalist once they get inside the stadium, they hope to win but expect to lose. Even when up 13-0 and driving, fans around me kept saying that it was only a matter of time until they lost. They were very impressed by our D and said that they underestimated our speed. What else could they say about our D, though? We were knocking players out of the game left and right it seemed, and that KVN sequence with the sack and TD left more than a few fans pretty impressed. They also loved Pendleton. My one game comment...Eason has gotta go. That dude is a liability and I think Texas is going to feast on a steady diet of CE next week. He was overmatched all game long. But I digress. One humorous anecdote from the game. I sat next to an older lady, maybe in her late 60s. At one point, a trio of shirtless body painted BYU fans ran by on the concourse waving to the crowd. She turned to me and said, "oh my, that is pretty ghetto...we dont really do that around here.."
Post game means back to The Grove for dinner, post game analysis, and then packing up. Those that are not assigned clean up duties make their way to The Square for drinks and more socializing. We headed there for dinner, drinks, and watching football in TV. The crowd was lively and we had an enjoyable time.
As we walked back to the car, right around 11PM, we were still in high spirits...cutting through The Square, beautiful women still milling about all over, and the weather cooling off just a tad, we collectively agreed that Oxford would have been a really great place to go to school. Ole Miss, by damn!
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