Breakfast brats for tailgaters

The 11 a.m. start couldn't throw Outback Bowl fans off their games.

By JANET ZINK, Times Staff Writer
Published January 2, 2008

ADVERTISEMENT [James Borchuck | Times] Wisconsin fan Robert Mitchell of Riverview flips some beer-soaked brats on the grill while tailgating with his wife, Jill (not pictured), before the Outback Bowl on Tuesday morning.

TAMPA - Beer, brats and hot dogs aren't usually breakfast fare, but tailgaters gearing up for the early kickoff of the Outback Bowl on Tuesday happily made them their morning meal.

Outside Raymond James Stadium, University of Tennessee fans blasted the song Rocky Top from boom boxes, and University of Wisconsin supporters showed their spirit in red-and-white-stripped bib overalls.

But regardless of their team loyalties, they cheerfully ignored the 11 a.m. game time and dutifully dined on traditional football fare.

Pete Kalvig, 46, said he and his friends arrived at the stadium parking lot at 6:15 a.m.

"First in the gate in 2008," proudly declared the Bradenton resident, dressed in a red Wisconsin shirt and orange Tennessee vest.

It was still dark when he and his friends started pouring mimosas and Bloody Marys before moving on to brats and burgers.

R.J. Michaels, 23, traveled to Tampa from Tennessee for the game. He and his friends started playing Rocky Top when they got to the parking lot at 8 a.m.

"We have it on repeat," he said. "It's been playing for two hours."

A giant blowup of Wisconsin mascot Bucky Badger presided over another tailgate party, where Sarasota resident Jesse Miles, 27, continued celebrations begun in Ybor City on New Year's Eve.

"I stayed up all night," he said.

Others took a different approach. Wisconsin fan Ashley Bishop, 28, said she went to bed right after midnight so she'd be ready for her 8 a.m. arrival at the stadium.

"It kind of cramped our New Year's Eve," said fellow tailgater Marty Rognlien, 44. "We drank beer, but we didn't go out."

Ryan Aites, 23, a University of Tennessee fan from Fort Myers, also lay low for New Year's Eve.

"I would have been crazy," he said. But plans to get to the stadium by 7 a.m. didn't make that possible.

Nearby, Todd Grace, 28, shared shots of tequila at 10 a.m. over a table crammed with hot dogs, brats, potato salad and pickles.

Grace, a Wisconsin fan visiting from Minnesota, said he turned in early so he could rest up for game-day festivities.

He can celebrate New Year's Eve every year, he reasoned, but "a bowl game, not so often."

As for the game, Tennessee beat Wisconsin 21-17.

[Last modified January 1, 2008, 23:12:01]