MARSHALL – Southwest Minnesota hosted their homecoming game against Upper Iowa Saturday afternoon, an occasion that drew in alumni from far and wide. While the Mustangs blew out the Peacocks 47-7, the highlight of the day for many of those in attendance was the tailgating and festivities outside of the stadium.

People began to set up their tailgating spots early in the morning before the 5 p.m. kickoff. By the time the afternoon rolled around, the cement lot across from Mattke Field and the grass lot a short walk away were nearly filled with pickup trucks and SUVs loaded with foreman grills and pregame snacks.

Among the early arrivals were Jeet Sausen and Adam Poole. The couple set up their brown-topped tent, adorned with a white flap on the side that read “Go Mustangs!” under the SMSU logo, at 9 a.m to prepare for game day. The scent of grilled meats filled the air around their spot just steps away from the stadium gates and upbeat music helped to bring gameday energy to the event.

While neither Poole nor Sausen are alumni of SMSU, Poole said they want to bring the same tailgating culture to Marshall that they experienced at Penn State, where Sausen worked for seven years before taking a job with the SMSU SUCCESS program.

“It’s about the community,” Poole said. “If you look around here, we have children running around. We have kids our age. We have older people-I’m probably old, now that I say it. You get that whole culture where everybody wants to come together, hang out, and support the team.”

People that just drove by were even enticed to join the festivities, according to Sausen.

“This hasn’t really been done a whole lot before, so they think, ‘oh, that’s something new and exciting, what’s that?’ This is just our way of bringing together our friends that are down here.”

While Sausen and Poole have only started tailgating for Mustang football recently, homecoming weekend is an annual tradition dating back decades for many others.

Michael Kraemer and Duane Norell were among those in attendance who were members of the inaugural SMSU football team. There were 117 participants at the first team workout, but by the time they graduated four years later, only six people from that first day remained because so many went to fight in the Vietnam War, according to Kraemer. While it’s been more than 50 years since they graduated from SMSU, Kraemer said it’s the friendships they made on the team and at the school that keep them coming back year after year.

Joe Ludemann, another former player who graduated in 2007, said that he and his friends from college circle the date on their calendar every year, with some members of the group trying to come from as far as Wyoming.

“We’re all in our late 30’s now, things can get a little hectic with kids and families and all that… but it’s on the calendar already, so it’s a nice way to say, ‘hey guys, start thinking about homecoming,’ so they can start thinking ahead about their schedules,” Ludemann said.