Notre Dame Tailgating Was Once a Free-for-All in an Open Field

Dan McMahon still remembers game days when, as McMahon put it, “There could be an RV next to a Fiat car.”

McMahon, who earned his undergraduate degree in 1986 and his law degree in 1989, has run the same Notre Dame tailgate since he was a freshman in 1982.

McMahon said back then “this was all an open field” and “you could park wherever you wanted.” He added, “There were no rules.”

McMahon called the scene very haphazard. In 2025, when he described those Saturdays, he said it was much more organized.

Dorm groups came out to claim spots for themselves.

Dillon Hall, the campus dorm where McMahon once lived, always took the same ground on Green Field, which at the time included a baseball field.

McMahon said Dillon Hall always got that field because the backstop was behind it. A backstop is the tall fence behind home plate that stops stray balls.

McMahon's own Notre Dame history goes back further. He first saw the team on the road against Northwestern in Chicago in 1974.

After that trip, he watched Purdue at home, just after Notre Dame won the 1973 national championship.

He started tailgating in 1982. After graduation in 1989, he and some friends took over leading the gathering.

McMahon said that open-field scramble had given way to a much more organized game day.