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The
Fork You Tailgating Club was created in 1997, when Bill, Dennis
& Ron began tailgating together before Bear home games. Together
we have 50 years of Tailgating experience. What makes
the Fork You Tailgating Club (F.U.T.C.) unique is our continual
growth in membership. Every game more people join the
Club. Once you have tailgated with us.....you are part of
the Club! We aren't sure how many people have joined, but
we had close to 1,000 people during the 2006 season! Our
main focus is to provide out-of-town fans and people
attending their first Bears game with a place to tailgate.
Everyone has heard of All Inclusive Vacation Packages. Basically, we offer All Inclusive Tailgating Parties.
All
you need to do is show up........and we take care of everything
else!!!
Founding
Members: Ron, Bill & Dennis
Charter
Members: Renee, Karin, Tom, Kevin, Jon and Dan
Dennis
was first exposed to Tailgating when he was just 7 years old in
1978. Since then, he has seen the Bears play in 26
different stadiums, made it through 8 of the 10 coldest games in
Soldier
Field history and was in attendance at the Fog Bowl and
the Halloween Night Monsoon Bowl. Dennis (a.k.a. Denrod,
urlacher2000, u2k) decided to offer these Tailgating Packages
after becoming fed up with the hassles of bringing all our
gear on road trips. He has also been appreciative of all
the great people they have met on the road that were hospitable
and accommodating to them. Even fans from opposing teams
have been willing to share that favorite recipe, let us
borrow something that was forgotten, allowed us to use some
grill space and talk football. He figured that the F.U.T.C.
could help out others......like we had been helped out over the
years. Dennis' favorite part of Tailgating is
cooking, meeting new fans every week, making sure everyone has a
good time & gets enough to eat. He also likes to burn
stuff! Dennis' favorite road trips were to Old Mile High
stadium in Denver
(2nd coldest November game in Broncos history and New Mile High
stadium in Denver
(Coldest November game in Broncos history) - - and both were
Bear wins! Other favorites include a Thanksgiving
win at Detroit in 1993, a win over the Tenneessee Oilers (before
they were the Titans) in Vanderbilt Stadium (before their new
stadium) and the Monday Night Miracle Comeback at Arizona
last season. Dennis' all time favorite Tailgate Party was
before the playoff loss to Philly
which was the last game at old Soldier
Field. Dennis has more Fantasy Football
Championships than Ron & Bill combined.
Ron
is a Bear Fan since birth. (He is also a closet Raiders
fan) The greatest day of his life was when he became a
season ticket holder in 2003. Ron (a.k.a. Crush) heading
into the 2007 season, has a consecutive Soldier
Field home game streak of 68 straight games! Ron
has witnessed the Bears play football in 13 different stadiums
and even made four trips down to U of I when the Bears played in
Champaign
for a season. He enjoyed sitting through 4 of the 5
coldest games in Soldier
Field History. His favorite games were the
back-to-back overtime wins against San Fran & Cleveland
in 2001. However, no game ever matched the intensity and
electricity in the stadium when the Bears beat the Saints in the
NFC Championship game last season. Ron's favorite road
trips include Miami
(Super Bowl XLI), Seattle
, Dallas
(Thanksgiving)
and New
England . His favorite tailgates are all of them,
but he thinks there will never be a bigger/better party than the
Monster Tailgate Party we threw in Miami
before the Super
Bowl. Ron takes over the grill when Dennis drinks
too much. He also makes one of our most popular appetizers
- - - Caribbean Jerk Chicken. Ron is a proud Organ &
Tissue Donor and his favorite color patterns are Navy Blue &
Orange, Silver & Black plus Pink & Chartreuse.
Bill
(a.k.a. Wild Bill or Sammy
Hagar) becomes Santa Claus around Halloween and for all
the games in December. He invites all good, and especially
bad, little girls to sit on his lap for photos. He also
likes long walks on the beach and dinner by candlelight. Bill had a streak of 65 consecutive home games at Soldier
Field - - - until missing the Packer's game last December
(so he could celebrate the New
Year in London
). His current streak now stands at 2. He loves the
start of every new season and will never forget the times when
the Tailgate Party was the best part of Gameday. Bill
loves all the road trips because of the Bear fans we meet all
over the country. This includes a Bear fan from Canada
who we met in Seattle
. You could see the passion in this fan's eyes when he
started to have tears in his eyes when he found out we were
season ticket holders from Chicago . Bill's favorite road
trip was the thrilling win at Tampa where Marty Booker made that
phenomenal catch in the endzone while being malachied between
Lynch and company. One of Bill's best memories of old Soldier
Field is when Mike Brown's mom came down to our seats
during his rookie season to thank us for supporting her son and
wearing his jersey. It was the first Brown jersey she had
seen a fan wearing (because it was custom made before he was a
star) and she gave us one of his rookie cards. If Dallas
is America 's Team, then Bill feels the Bears are the World's
Team w/ the best fans anywhere. Bill doesn't have a
problem with opposing teams fans joining our Tailgate Parties,
but he usually hides the lighter fluid from Dennis when they
show up. So far we have only sent one opposing teams fans
to the hospital. It was an accident, but nobody wanted to
take him to the emergency room (because it was too close to
kickoff!).
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