TAILGATING: Send Lawyers, Guns and Pork Loins

Tiger Rag Tailgating is fueled by Mockler Budweiser of Baton Rouge

by Matt Reynolds
Tiger Rag Assistant Editor

(At left, The grizzled veterans of “Les Bon Ton Tigers” from left to right:
Keith Saltzman, Scott Scheffy, Judson Sanders and Scott Rainwater.)

As the legend goes, it was the opening game of the 2004 season and LSU had just successfully completed a comeback effort to top Oregon State on a rain soaked field.

Scott Scheffy and friends left Tiger Stadium and headed up the hill to the Indian Mounds to close down shop at their tailgate spot.

Scheffy and another tailgater that is now under the witness protection program, Dr. X, commenced to tidy up the area the only way they knew how – bashing abandoned styrofoam ice chests into oblivion. It simply just makes them easier to throw away.

Apparently a tow truck was spotted across the street towing one of Scheffy’s friends and one irrational reaction set up possibly one of the best policeman-tailgater dialogues in LSU history.

Dr. X spotted a whole pork loin that survived the all-day party and hurled the slab of meat toward the truck. Maybe it was luck or maybe just keen precision, but the loin left the hand of Dr. X and landed on the hood of the truck, skidded a stutter step, before clobbering the driver in the jaw like a tasty loin of the George Forman knockout grill.

The rightfully irritated driver phoned the police and, sure enough, Scheffy was shortly greeted by an officer.

The officer approached Scheffy and asked, “Ya’ll boy’s throwing anything tonight?”

To which the witty Scheffy fired back, “Only a party sir.”

And the party known as “Les Bon Ton Tigers” tailgating has never stopped.

But the origins of this traditional gathering started many years before in a dorm.

The brainchild of the current tailgate, Judson Sanders, and Scheffy were roommates in their first semester at LSU and received their first dose of party publicity then.

“Our dorm career started on our second day of class when we had a party, and of course it was busted by the police,” Scheffy, who now resides in New Orleans, said. “About three hundred beers where poured out. The first fall edition of The Reveille our freshman year had an article about our party in it. Not many people can say that.”

In their undergrad years, Scheffy and Sanders said they didn’t have money for a generator so they resorted to less-conventional ways of powering the tailgate.

“The 2001 season was really the first year we did it,” Sanders said. “We started down the hill, we couldn’t afford a generator or anything like that because we were in college. We bought a converter and we would plug it into somebody’s car and run about 200 feet of extension cord. It never failed, about halfway through the tailgate someone’s car would die. So we would jump it off or just change cars.”

In 2003, Sanders moved the tailgate to its current location in front of the Huey P. Long Field House so they wouldn’t have to rely on a DieHard to power the show any longer.

“We moved here and bought a generator on student loan money and we have been here ever since,” Sanders said.

Sanders —originally from Mobile, Ala.—came to LSU to visit a cousin his senior year in high school. One trip to Tiger Stadium on Saturday and the Bama native was sold on Baton Rouge.

“I really just fell in love with Baton Rouge,” Sanders said. “The environment and everything that came along with game day was all it took for me.”

Sanders, now a licensed attorney that works for an electrical engineering company in Baton Rouge, has taken it upon himself to make sure the tailgate happens each home game. Sanders said there are a number of reasons why he enjoys orchestrating the event, but one particularly stands out.

“No doubt it’s a lot of work, but this is what I like to do,” Sanders said. “Especially now that everyone has graduated and moved out of town, I like to set this up every week because I like the fact that if I haven’t talked to somebody in a year, they know we will be here seven Saturday’s every football season. Same spot, same deal every time. It’s a good way for everyone to stay in touch.”

You can find Sanders and Scheffy at every home game with an assortment of their fellow law school “slackers,” as Sanders said, eating Cajun delicacies, pouring strong drinks and jamming to 80’s music.

“This is just what I like to do,” Sanders said with a grin. “I love setting it all up and seeing everyone on Saturday having a good time. And lets be real, who doesn’t love 80’s music?”

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Tiger Rag Tailgating is fueled by Mockler Beverage. Want your tailgate party featured in Tiger Rag? E-mail and tell us why at matt@tigerrag.com.