NFL week 1. Idaho Vandals 23-43 Washington Huskies. Huskie Stadium

A 6am arrival at Husky stadium for the Huskies’ homecoming game, who have lost their last 14 games. Today’s rivals were a lower division team from Idaho named the Vandals. An odd nickname for a team. Perhaps their former players and students went on to become prosperous graffiti artists?

We parked the bus (The Mullet) next to a wonderful group of tailgaters, who go by the name of the “6th quarter”. This is so called because for many years the marching band have a performances straight after the game (5th quarter for them), then head straight to this part of the car park where these wonderful tailgaters feed over 100 members of the marching band, which is their 6th quarter.

The car park began filling up, as did my stomach. We had sausage white gravy over scones, that they call biscuits for breakfast, followed by smoked salmon and Louisiana style sausages, called Boudin. Which is a blend of rice, pork and spices and sometimes includes alligator! One the hour every hour was “Tea time”. My ears pricked up thinking I was back in the land of Blighty. Instead of real tea, a group of around 40 people all charged their shot glasses filled with Tequila and knocked it back. A far different ritual than what I am used to back home, where tea time is at 3:30, served with some scones and jam. I washed this early morning liquor shot down with some local porter, a drink that I never thought was even made outside of the U.K shores.

The Washington people were very polite, friendly and calm. I had heard that college games are far more hedonistic and raucous than its NFL counterpart, but not here. The demographic was either older fans that have been coming here for years, or the younger students. The latter were not tailgating too much and my British sarcasm was lost on most of them.

I must have counted about 20 dogs in just the car park I was in which I have never seen before. I was unsure if tailgating with dogs is a generic college thing or because today’s home team are the “Go Dawg” Huskies. I also spotted a handful of parties that had purple and gold balloons floating up high in the sun. A woman named Kathryn was the originator of the said balloon trick, and she told me she did this so her sons (who both used to play for the Huskies) friend’s could find them at the tailgate to have some post game food. The balloons have caught on over the years with a handful of parties using them. It really makes the lot look like one massive birthday party and again it is something I have never seen before.

About an hour before game time someone told me about the famous Washington “Sailgating” that takes place on the other side of the stadium where the lake is. I didn’t believe what these folks were telling me: That people take water boats to the game and “sail gate” on their boats by the stadium.

I rushed around Husky stadium, which looked grand, set amongst the green ivy and pretty buildings of the Washington campus. NFL stadiums are either built in downtown areas or in the middle of nowhere, but this stadium being in a campus felt so much more homey. We walked under a small bridge, and there it was, Lake Washington in all its glory. Peppered throughout the water was “sail gating” boats. I couldn’t believe it.

I thought I had seen all that tailgating could bring and here I was in Washington stunned by the beauty of the lake, the surroundings and the fact that people could actually park their boats and literally walk 200 yards to the stadium.

There is not a lot of mooring space, so boats park next to each other. Sailgaters drop down a narrow plinth of wood interlinking the backs of each boat. This allows them to walk from boat to boat to get to the stadium. The “sailgaters” were far less welcoming than their wheel based peers. Maybe it’s because the boats are really expensive and very luxurious, or maybe it is just something about the “aloofness” of water, but either way no one wanted to even say hi.

Until we found a group of Vandal students who had a boat and they were a riot. They drank beer from tubes, talking smack and generally being loud and having a good time. They told me they were frustrated by the other “sailgaters” because no one was chanting for the Huskies. Upon this boat I ate a student speciality: Frito corn chips, mixed with chilli and grated cheese, tasted like my student days.

It was soon time to head into the stadium. We managed to get scalped tickets for $28 each and the face value was $50, so I was pretty happy with that. We had just missed kick off and made our way up to our seats. The back of the stadium looks out onto the water, and I know many NFL stadiums design their venues so that the fans can see a pretty view of downtown, but none of them have a view like at this stadium, it is magical.

Our seats were up high, but someone was sitting on our (metal bench) seats, so we just found a couple of empty seats. Actually our seats had cushions on them, unlike our ticket seats. When you sign up for a season ticket, you can get the University to attach a cushion onto your seat for $17 for the whole season. Luckily enough a cushion seated season ticket holder wasn’t present and we sat down on a comfy cushion to enjoy some football.

The Huskies have not won since 2007, losing 14 straight games, but today they were picked to win because their opponents are in a far lower division, and they really looked it. The Vandal QB had no power in his arm, and constantly under threw passes and never got a tight spiral. The “Go Huskie” chant got louder and they pumped a real huskie bark though the speakers when the home team was on defense.

The stadium reminded me of a U.K soccer terrace because the East and West stands had a roof over them and was incredibly steep. The Huskie Quarter back (Jake Locker) was playing well linking up with several receivers. Though you could really see that both teams had far less skill level than any NFL team, even less so than the Detroit Lions! The game day pace was much quicker than in the NFL as there are far fewer advert breaks.

The student section down below was loud and the fans around me enjoyed the sight of their team winning finally. On the whole the atmosphere was decent and polite an almost exact parallel of the tailgate atmosphere.


Locker zipped in a pass for the Huskies 3rd TD and by half time the Huskies were up 21-6. Thousands of people poured out of the terrace opposite and went onto the sidelines. A collection of 36 high school marching bands and 300 cheerleaders took the field for one almighty half time show. An ex player was then interviewed on the jumbotron. Apparently this player set a college record in one game by throwing for 300 yards and rushed for 200 yards in the same game!

In the second half the Huskies continued to dominate but their secondary was rather leaky, especially against a poor Vandal QB. It was here that I found out that in college games you cannot buy beer in the stadiums. At the pre-tailgate the tailgaters told me that although you are not really allowed alcohol on campus for a game, as long as the drinks are in classic American red plastic cups then all is ok.

After watching three home TDs we left with the scoreline being 42-23 to the home side. The Vandals scored another TD late in the 4th after we had left. We headed back to our tailgate party and the fans were in high spirits after seeing their team win for the first time since 2007. However they were still critical of their defense as did not look strong against the pass. But a win is a win!

30 minutes later and at least 100 members of the marching band came by. They were welcomed by the “6th Quarter” tailgating crew who put on a post game feast. Plenty of burgers and hot dogs went round. Jay made up his meat balls of fire and chicken dip that went very quickly and we had more Louisiana style sausages. During cutting the latter of these foods, the sausage juice (aka fat and hot sauce) squirted straight into my eye! I hit the deck and it made my whole eye-ball feel like it was on fire. I couldn’t open it for some time after washing it. I stayed well away from the sausages after that. Back at The Mullet, I gave out some British food: We did a taste off between Branston pickle and mustard Piccalilli, and the luminous latter won.

The post-game tailgate was great .The band got their instruments together and played about five songs before thanking us for the food and heading off into the sunset. It was a great pre and post tailgate party and it is true what they say about Husky stadium on their home website:

“The University of Washington is the most beautiful place to watch a college football game," Husky Stadium is the site of one of the most incredible game day environments in the country. Tailgating takes on a whole new meaning while docking on the shores of Lake Washington!

Go Dawgs!