Photograph by Grant Moxley
When you think of tailgates in the Queen City, it’s hard to picture anything but the iconic Before the Roar Tailgate hosted by Bengal Jim and his friends Mark Thomas, TonydaTiger Brooks, Craig Johnson, and James Coppola. The party has grown to take up half of Smale Park and keeps getting bigger, so we sit down with Jimmie Foster (a.k.a. Bengal Jim) to learn what goes into throwing the city’s longest-running continuous tailgate.
You’ve been running the longest continuous tailgate in the city since 1993. How did it start and grow to where it is now?
Starting out, it was nothing more than me and four or five of my buddies sitting with a charcoal grill and a cooler. We’ve literally not missed a tailgate since. Even through COVID we found a way to tailgate responsibly. During the pandemic, we had a customer who had this giant lot a few blocks from the stadium, and we did a drive-in tailgate. The Bengals were playing, but we watched the game in the lot on a giant screen.
Around 2013 or 2014, I made some friends who became my close friends to this day. Their brains are wired to be marketing people. I’ll never forget when James Coppola told me to turn my bucket hat sideways and took a picture of it. At the next game, he had this little silhouette of my head on a banner that read, “Welcome to Bengal Jim’s Tailgate.” I asked, “What are you doing?” He goes, “Jim, we’re going to market this.” I told him, “No, I don’t want my name on it. We’ve got to call it something else.” They went ahead and did it anyway, and it just started getting bigger and bigger.
In 2021, the tailgate got ridiculously big. We get anywhere between 2,500 to 5,000 people in attendance now, so it’s become more of a street party than anything. We’re located on the east side of Lot E, which butts up against Smale Park. We rent out half Smale Park on game days to accommodate the crowds.
We always use the tailgate to help charities. In 2019 and 2020 we realized a lot of local organizations couldn’t raise money due to COVID. They were used to having events and doing fund-raisers, but they couldn’t do that anymore. That’s when we really started to step up our charity game, and this season we’re going to come close to hitting $1 million raised since 2019.
This tailgate is not just a bunch of guys sitting around a cooler with a case of beer anymore—now it’s a community event. Every tailgate features a charity that comes down to sell raffle tickets. We raffle away items like helmets and jerseys. At one game last year we raised about $8,000 for Honor Flight, so it’s been fun to use this platform to help others.
Photograph by Grant Moxley
How would you describe the tailgate experience for someone who hasn’t been to one?
People can’t comprehend this, because they just say it’s a tailgate, right? Well, it’s no longer what a tailgate traditionally is. We’ve got tons of former players and families of current players who attend. We’ve got little kids, people from all walks of life, and people from all over the world who attend. We have a giant map where people can grab a pin and stick it in to show where they’re coming here from. All 50 states are represented, hundreds of cities, and nearly 40 different countries.
This tailgate is a destination. It’s part of fans’ Bengals game day experience, and many local businesses are involved: Skyline Chili, Donatos, Everything Bagels, Cincy Hat, Bengal Bids, HighGrain Brewing, and more. David Fulcher and Ickey Woods set up in the park with us to promote their foundations. There’s a full-blown stage, a DJ, a sound system, and a 20-foot-tall inflatable Joe Burrow.
We love showing off our city, and we love the Bengals. The experience is like none other, not just in Cincinnati. There’s nothing like what we do across the NFL. I’ve been to every NFL city. You’ve got people from all walks of life here, and none of that matters on game day. We’re all Bengals fans coming together.
Photograph by Grant Moxley
What’s the infrastructure like for an event of this size?
It’s evolved over the years. We used to have grills and provide food. It was a pain dealing that as the tailgate got bigger. Luckily, a lot of Bengals sponsors want to be part of what we’re doing. My buddy Steve Messel owns the Norwood Skyline Chili location, and he brings his food truck down. They’ll give away the first 500 coneys for free. Then Donatos will come down and give away pizza slices for free. Everything Bagel in Eastgate brings hundreds of bagels and cream cheese and bagel chips.
Do you still host tailgates at away games?
We usually go to every game home and away, but we don’t do a massive tailgate for every away game. Last year in Miami we pre-sold over 1,000 tickets to the tailgate. It’s a big expense for us to bring everything, but this season it looks like it’s going to be Miami, Charlotte, and Indianapolis. We’re welcoming to any fans, whether Bengal fans or not.
I would say 25 to 35 percent of attendees at the away game tailgates are from Cincinnati. We had a massive tailgate at the game in Arizona a few years ago. It was unbelievable. Every Bengals fan on the West Coast came.
Photograph by Grant Moxley
Any unique memories from past tailgates?
Oh, geez, hundreds of them. We’ve had multiple engagements and multiple weddings. We randomly get some big names that show up like Emilio Estevez and Jonathan India, plus a lot of former Bengals players.
Anything else you want people to know about the tailgate or the experience?
It’s important for people to understand this isn’t just Bengal Jim and friends. I didn’t want my name on this tailgate. There are four other people running it with me and dozens of others who make this tailgate work. It’s a labor of love for all of us.
