JohnnieFootball.com Salutes St. Paul Law Enforcement and Metro Transit
Known to many who frequent D3Football.com and online chatroom PostPatterns as “One Armed Scott”, Adam Johnson is also the West Region writer for that site. In a special to JF.com, “OAS” spent the day watching the Johnnies and Tommies battle in the race for the MIAC title. As Adam writes, there was actually another battle about to take place well before the two teams ever took the field.
Ever since Glenn Caruso took over the St. Thomas football team in January 2008, the program has boasted the slogan, “New Team, New Coach, New Attitude.”
Apparently, the St. Thomas administration has taken the opportunity to adopt a new slogan, “New era, New policies, No fun.”
Johnnie fans did a great job directing fellow fans of D3 football to meet in the same spot as years past for the pre-game tailgate–the entrance from Cretin into the parking lot near the main gate to the stadium.
Upon arrival, it was clear in this new era of Caruso football that the administration took the opportunity to start a new era as well.
“No alcoholic beverages – No tailgating” signs welcomed visitors to the parking lot once they found their way to the Summit entrance—the Cretin entrance was an exit only route. Security asked sternly, “Where are ya headed?’” to each car that arrived. I mean hello? It’s the Johnnie-Tommie game! Do you think I’m headed to Mock Trial?
Anyway.
“No alcoholic beverages”—OK, fine that is pretty standard at the Division III levels and everyone knows that responsible adults still imbibe responsibly sipping from red cups. Those who want to drink to projectile vomiting levels are down the street at Tommie frat houses.
But “No tailgating?”—I mean that’s like taking peanut butter away from jelly or Sonny away from Cher or Sarah Palin away from a SNL skit. These things just go together!
So Operation Relocation went into effect and we found ourselves setting up on the south side of the parking lot, two feet off of school property, on city property near the MTC bus stop.
No sooner had the grill been lit and tables set up did a 50 plus year old guy with a handheld walkie talkie stop over sporting his St. Thomas security issued sweater and warn us that we were on City property and that the St. Paul police would likely stop over and ticket us for not having a permit.
All I could muster out of frustration was, “Wow, you’re really making it convenient to have a little fun before the biggest game of your season.”
He gave no response and went on down the sidewalk to warn the others who had set up tailgate camp.
We started grilling and conversing and imbibing from red cups and little white jello shot cups. It felt like years past–just a few hundred feet south.
Then, suddenly, the group was filled with fear as St. Paul’s finest rolled up. They first went to the Tommie tailgate in the boulevard separating the east and west lanes of Summit. There was no IDing or stern warnings. In fact one officer took part by fixing up a hot dog.
As St. Paul’s finest ate at the Tommie tailgate, a MTC bus pulled up. One of the same busses that our security guard friend said we would be blocking. He stepped off the bus and immediately fixed up a bratwurst with mustard. He turned down the jello shot but was happy to get a late morning snack on his route.
The cops headed in our direction and we thought they might give us flack as the group was predominantly made up of the enemy.
They came over and “investigated” what we had and immediately dove in and grabbed a cheeseburger. They proclaimed themselves equal opportunity tasters and we had a great conversation with them. Confused by the one guy in the Mount Union apparel, we were able to brief the officer on the D3 football landscape.
As the parking lot remained a sterile collection of gas guzzling vehicles, the Johnnie tailgate became an eccentric collection of cheeseburger, bratwurst and adult beverage consuming football fans, officers and bus drivers.
There were no tickets, warnings or orders to move the tailgate as our security guard friend had warned us about.
The Tommies went on to lose their 11th straight to St. John’s and I am sure that Coach Caruso will enter the game next year having made some changes so that his team has a chance to prevail.
And hopefully, the administration will make some changes too so when the game returns to St. Paul, fans aren’t pushed to the fringe but rather embraced as most tailgating fans are by colleges across the country.
Johnnie Up Everybody!
