This Saturday, the Student Government Association (SGA) teamed up with the Beta Theta Pi Fraternity (Beta) in order to bring the Big Blue Jay Tailgate to the Freshman Quad.
The Big Blue Jay Tailgate took place just before the home football game against Randolph-Macon College. The event offered students a wide variety of free food, including pulled pork, which was prepared by Beta brothers and SGA members, along with beans, cornbread, cookies and soda.
After lining up to receive their free food, students scattered around the Freshman Quad. Some relaxed in the shade provided by the trees and enjoyed the music, while others lined up for games of cornhole.
Inspiration for Saturday’s event came from the success of previous tailgates.
“We do events like this every year,” Alex Sadler, a sophomore Beta brother, said.
“Beta put it on for the first time last year with SGA, and since it was such a success, we decided that we wanted to put it on again this year,” Executive Secretary of SGA Adelaide Morphett said.
SGA only agreed to fund the tailgate last week, as the funding bill had been met with opposition from some SGA members who considered SGA’s support of Beta unfair to other fraternities. The planning, however, began months before the funding was approved.
Morphett discussed the planning involved in hosting the tailgate.
“There was a lot of planning,” she said. “We started planning this last semester, and we worked on it over the summer.”
Morphett also gave credit to Beta for its efforts.
“The Beta guys really pulled the weight,” Morphett said. “They worked on the food, worked on the dining and got [apparel brand] Southern Tide to come.”
Beta sophomore Winston Jin discussed his involvement in planning the tailgate, which ranged from cooking the food to advertising the event among to the student body.
“We put flyers around campus,” Jin said. “We got the RAs involved to get their kids to come out.”
Both Morphett and Jin were pleased with the number of people that showed.
“I think the turnout today is very great,” Morphett said.
Jin similarly expressed his satisfaction with the amount of students that attended the event.
“We had enough food to feed about 500 people ... but [we started] running out of food,” Jin said.
Jin also explained that the setup of the event was designed to accommodate the large number of attendees.
“We had two food lines so that we could mitigate the wait,” Jin said.
SGA and Beta hoped that they could use the tailgate as a way of getting the attendants to support the Hopkins football team.
“With an event like this, people are more likely to head out to the field and see how many more people are out there,” Sophomore Class Senator Ale Saichin said. “It’s more of a peer-led stampede. I think it’s great.”
Sadler emphasized the importance of promoting the football team in particular, given that students are known for being more enthusiastic about other sports teams.
“Lacrosse gets a lot of support, and we feel like we need to cover football too and help them more,” Sadler said.
Additionally, the SGA and Beta aimed to use this event as a method of encouraging widespread school pride across campus.
“I think it’s really promoting school spirit,” Morphett said of the tailgate. “It encourages community.”
Jin agreed.
“A common thing I hear on campus is that Hopkins lacks spirit. So I think this is a great spirit event. It is the first football game.”
“The tailgate really encourages everyone to come out to the games. I feel like the student body gains the most in terms of the spirit of the campus,” Jin said.
The Big Blue Jay Tailgate gave many freshman, including Dikachi Osaji, an opportunity to experience the exciting, energetic atmosphere that Hopkins has to offer students.
“The people enjoy being together and having a good time,” Osaji said. “I’m excited to get out and support Johns Hopkins.”
At around 11:45 a.m. the tailgate wrapped up, and crowds of students started heading toward the Homewood Field in order to watch the first football game of the season.
Following the morning tailgate, Hopkins defeated Randolph-Macon on Saturday with a score of 42-3.
