On home gameday, legacy tailgates take over the Legends of Notre Dame parking lot. These tailgates consist of generations of alumni, many of whom have been tailgating here for over a decade.
Crowley Family Tailgate
John Crowley ‘92 is a key figure of the Crowley family tailgate. He is a former law school graduate and a university trustee who delivered the commencement address to the class of 2020.
The Crowley family hosts tailgate with family members and friends where they shared how the University has changed over the years.
The Crowley family tailgate, marked today by their signature green tents, has been running since 2015, when Megan Crowley, John Crowley’s daughter, was a freshman.
“Over the years we have had hundreds and hundreds of different family, friends, classmates, colleagues and random strangers join us for our tailgate, which is great,” John Crowley said.
He notes that the logistics of the gameday experience have improved over the years, but the spirit remains unchanged.
In discussing the broader changes that the University has gone through, Crowley noted the more competitive admissions that Notre Dame has seen recently.
“We all kid around, my classmates and I, that there is absolutely no way we would ever be admitted today. The kids are so smart, so driven, so talented and again they just all live the same spirit of Notre Dame and commitment to faith, to service and to something bigger than themselves,” Crowley said.
John Romano ‘14 is a friend of the Crowley family, a proud former resident of Dillon Hall and was the football leprechaun in 2013.
Romano said that he comes from a line of around 20 cousins, aunts and uncles who came to Notre Dame before him, but that in addition to that, he was inspired to come to Notre Dame for the culture.
He mentioned that the first Notre Dame game he attended was in 1995. He also shared that he has been coming to the Crowley family tailgate for the last 10 years, noting that the game-day experience has gotten significantly busier with increasing fun activities.
Seven Families Notre Dame Tailgate
Ed Delahanty ‘63 is a founding member of the Seven Families Notre Dame tailgate. Delahanty noted that this tailgate started with only two families and expanded from there, with the current seven families doing it together for the last six to seven years.
“Well, this used to be a little tailgate out of the trunk of somebody’s car, that is the way it started. Now we have got a full-time staff that sets up our tents,” Delahanty said.
The Seven Families Notre Dame tailgate shows different flags of family members who graduated from the University of Notre Dame.
He also explained that every family has a flag that hangs above their tailgate with the graduating years from those family members.
Velasquez Family Tailgate
Art Velasquez ‘87 noted that his family has a long running history with the University after his ancestors came to the United States as migrant workers around 1920.
“My grandfather went to a different grammar school every year and his version of eighth grade was the last year they had a grade school on Notre Dame’s campus. It was called Minim. When he was here, it made such an effect on him that he said that if he had a son he was going to go to Notre Dame … In 1956 my dad got to campus at Notre Dame and the dream came true,” Velasquez said.
He mentioned that when his father became a member of the board of trustees of the University, they were able to enhance the tailgating experience.
“When my dad became a trustee and he started getting what we call the ‘rock-star parking and ticket privileges,’ we were able to really step up our tailgate that we do every game,” Velasquez said.
Arthur Velasquez, father of Art Velasquez, said, “We had seven graduates. In two years, we will have 100 years of experience with the University.”
The tagline of the Velasquez family tailgate is “Since Forever” pointing to their long-running connection to Notre Dame.
The Velasquez family discusses generations of family members attending Notre Dame and significance of the tailgate.
Arthur Velasquez stated that when it was time for college, Notre Dame was the only place he knew. Growing up, his father would bring him to one football game per year, with his first game being a matchup between Notre Dame and the University of Oklahoma about 70 years ago.
He described that, in the early days, the area around the stadium turned into mud when it rained.
Class of 1968 Tailgate
Tom Weyer and Tom Gibbs ‘68 have been running their tailgate since 1966. They met right before starting their freshman year and have been friends since.
They reminisced about how they used to have class on Saturdays and would be sitting in class watching people walk to the stadium, envious because they had to be in class prior to the game.
Weyer has a granddaughter who attended Notre Dame and Gibbs has a son and a daughter who attended as well. Gibbs’ son, Bill Gibbs ‘97, played football for the Fighting Irish.
Tom Weyer and Tom Gibbs '68 hosts tailgate tent representing the class of 1968.
Weyer and Gibbs said that a lot has changed on campus, noting that there are probably twice as many buildings now. The Notre Dame Fieldhouse, the building that they had pep rallies in, would rock and tremble when they had 3,000 to 4,000 people in it on Friday nights before the game.
McMahon Tailgate
Dan McMahon was a member of the class of 1986 and graduated law school in 1989.
He said that his first Notre Dame game was actually an away game in Chicago against Northwestern University in 1974. His first home game was directly following the national championship of 1973 when they played against Purdue University in 1974.
His tailgate has been running since 1982 when he was a freshman in college. He took on leading it with some friends in 1989 when they graduated.
McMahon, a former resident of Dillon Hall, noted that a lot has changed over the years.
“It is much more organized than it was before. It was very haphazard. Back in the day, this was all an open field, Supreme Field, and you could park wherever you wanted. There were no rules,” he said.
“There could be an RV next to a Fiat car. The dorms would come out and they would stake their ground. There was a baseball field on Green Field at the time that Dillon Hall always got because they had the backstop behind it.”
