A slight chill in the air brought out plenty of Vandal spirit Thursday as new and old Idaho fans gathered in the Kibbie Dome parking lot to prepare for the first football game of the season.
Trevor Kauer, 20, and Cailin Bary, 20, took advantage of the energized atmosphere to take part in what they said was their favorite part of tailgating. The two pride themselves in the game of cornhole, which is a similar game to beanbag toss.
“Me and Cailin are cornhole champions,” Kauer said.
Bary said she is looking forward to the new school year and the new football season.
“It”s a new season, so it”s a new start,” Bary said. “You know, anything could happen.”
Tailgating was a chance for current students and alumni to interact, get excited for the new football season and shout the Vandal Fight Song at the top of their lungs as the Vandal Marching Band rounded through the parking lot and up to the stadium.
Kauer, Bary and their friend Lise Welch, 20, also used the first tailgate of the year to get the University of Idaho community pumped up for Homecoming in October. In particular, they said people should be excited for the fireworks that will conclude the Homecoming bonfire.
“I always say it”s the best fireworks show on the Palouse,” Welch said. “And the only fireworks show on the Palouse.”
Erin Bamer | Argonaut
Joe Vandal poses with a couple of UI supporters as the Vandal Marching Band walks toward the Kibbie Dome for Idaho”s first football game of the season Thursday.
To escape the cool weather, Vandal enthusiasts had a brand new opportunity to gather and celebrate in the Idaho Fan Zone. Joan Gutzwiller, 59, invited her mother Bonita Manlicka, 80, into the Fan Zone because her husband, a UI alumnus, couldn”t be there for their annual visit to Moscow for the university”s first football game.
Gutzwiller lives in Boise, but said she and her husband love visiting UI. They have both held season ticket passes for the last six years, and her husband attends every game while she makes the trip to Moscow when the weather is the best.
“We”ve always supported Idaho”s academics,” Gutzwiller said. “But then we got into football more. And you know, we”re from Boise so I just started getting tired of being around so many Broncos.”
Manlicka had only been to three other UI football games before Thursday”s game.
She said she has never attended a winning game for the Vandals.
“I”d like to see them win,” Manlicka said. “But they”re really fun, I enjoy going to games.”
Many of the Idaho fans at the tailgate shared the same enthusiastic hope for this year”s football season.
“I am optimistic that this is going to be the year for the Vandals,” said Debbi Dockins, co-founder of the Light a Candle Program, which raises money for cancer patients in Latah and Whitman Counties. “But, you know, true fans don”t really care whether we win or lose.”
Andrew Kaus, born and raised in Moscow, said he always plans to root for Idaho and has had season tickets for as long as he can remember.
Kaus” friend Terry Evans, a UI budget specialist, also grew up in Moscow, but now currently lives in Lewiston.
He said the Moscow community has always been important to him.
Evans graduated from UI in 1989 and has worked in various positions at the university since.
Evans said he has enjoyed all of the jobs he”s held at UI and has always enjoyed going straight to a Vandal football game after getting off work.
“Any day you can come to work and end it drinking, still at work, it”s a good day,” Evans said.
Erin Bamer can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @ErinBamer