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Setting the tailgate standard! |
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Hoopty ONE Complements of Zack Shelly, of Shelly Auto Sales |
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Texas Longhorn football tailgate in front of the Bob Bullock Museum |
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VS |
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The aggies were jacked up, but the overall talent level at Texas was just to much. Colt was just incredible, it appears he is in the lead for the Heisman. If he plays this well next week in the Big-12 Championship game vs Nebraska, he should be able to lock it up..
ALSO see the tailgate article from the Statesman to the right ——————->
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and ou still SUCKS! |
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spike@hornfanhoopty.com |
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Game Twelve Notes: |
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7:00 PM Saturday ABC—Cowboys Stadium |
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Hoopty TWO Complements of Zack Shelly, of Shelly Auto Sales |
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"Sure Wish They Would Invent Sumthin To Keep The Sun Outta My Eyes." |
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You Just Can't Fix Stupid ! |
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Next Game |
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HFH— The Beer Snorkel Guy! See the video below |
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Until the BCS Championship |
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By Ricardo Gándara You can't quarrel much with Bobby Ugiansky's way of doing things. You might have seen his behemoth tailgating bus parked near Scholz Garten on Longhorn game days. It's the outlandish Texas orange bus with the party deck on top and all those people on it who seem to be having a dandy time. This season, on a terribly hot September afternoon, the 30 or so happy tailgaters seemed unfazed because misting fans kept them cool, as did the 12-ounce cans of whatever they were drinking. If you witnessed it, you kind of wanted to partake. Sorry; it's by invitation only. But here's a sneak peek at Ugiansky's 32-foot Texas Sports Bus: Inside, faux brick paneling on the walls gives it an English pub feel. There's a nice wood floor. Four 27-inch flat-screen TVs track every play. A dry bar is within reach. Signed photos of frequent visitor Cat Osterman, the former Texas All-America and Olympic softball player, are everywhere. If you're fortunate, Ugiansky, 45, just might let you sit on the black leather couch in a room at the back of the bus. The door reads: "The Lucky Lounge." Sporting a T-shirt that reads "Locked and Loaded," the Longhorn fan, who prefers to tailgate and does not attend football games, explains his rationale for it all: "My goal was for people to come away with the feeling 'now, that's how you do something,' " he said. And how. A handyman by trade, Ugiansky bought the bus in Austin in 2005 for $1,800 and put about $45,000 into it, working alone. Hence the Texas Sports Bus that he says won him ESPN College Gameday's Ultimate Tailgater Award last year. Ugiansky is not alone among Texas fans who customize vehicles to show their true colors. Zack Shelley, 38, of Belton, brings his 1977 Cadillac hearse and 1960 Bel Air Parkwood station wagon to the tailgating area for every home game. Justin Sheedy of San Antonio shows off his Texas Fight Bus, an old school bus that he converted into a rolling nightclub complete with a disco ball and stripper pole. Friends Levon Steele, 31, and Rudy Jacobs, 37, have a 1981 fire and rescue truck that once belonged to the Lake Travis Fire Department. Now, it's painted orange and white with horns on the hood and a 58-inch LCD flat screen in the side where firefighting equipment was once stored. It's tailgaters gone brash. But why? "Well, for me, I'm a Longhorn nut and a car nut, so when you combine both you end up being a Longhorn car nut," said Shelley, who owns Shelley's Auto Sales in Belton. During football season, the hearse is his everyday car. "I get stopped on the road. People scream. They take photos and get excited about seeing a crazy car." He said his wife, Theresa, thinks his choice of cars is strange. "She enjoys the tailgating, but I can't get her to ride in the hearse," he said. At the tailgating section south of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and west of Red River Street, wandering fans can't resist posing in front of the hearse or station wagon for pictures. Shelley doesn't mind. "The camaraderie of this addiction I have for fixing up old cars is unbelievable. It's helped me create a core group of tailgaters who've become my football family. It's enriched my life," he said. See the cars at www.hornfanhoopty.com. Sheedy, 32, who works in sales for a technology company, is married and has an infant son, said he got his idea for a bus when he attended the Texas-Ohio State game in Columbus in 2005. "Buckeye fans had them, and I got to tour a couple. I got some ideas," he said. He and friend David Taborsky took it on as a project. About $20,000 later, they have a bus with limo-style seating, a linoleum floor, a ceiling painted like a football field, a disco ball, color lighting, a fog machine and, of course, the stripper pole. "We leave the dancing to the ladies, but sometimes guys can't resist. It's all in good fun," he said. See it at www.texasfightbus.com. Sheedy said he'd like to get a much bigger TV for inside, upgrade the upholstery with Longhorn colors and set up a beer keg with refrigeration, known as a kegerator. "With something like this, you can always do more," he said. Steele and Jacobs' Longhorn truck is tame by comparison. Their group, Mike's Tailgate Crew, is named in memory of former tailgater Michael Sena, who died in 2006. The group started out with a pop-up and a small grill. Now, as many as 200 guests gather around the truck and under a tent. Steele, a firefighter in Lake Travis, bought the truck at an auction for $4,500. Steele, who just got engaged to Elisha Remus, said his fiancée orginally thought he was crazy for buying the truck. "She didn't see my vision, but now that it's all set up, she loves it," he said. "I envisioned a tailgating truck for convenience and ease. We didn't know it'd turn out like this. It's an attention getter," Steele said. Ugiansky said his bus sometimes attracts too much attention. "When people have a Longhorn party, they'll ask me to bring out the bus," he said. He is also known for parking it on Comal Street behind Disch-Falk Field during baseball season. He and friends sit on the deck to catch the games over the right field fence, without having to pay admission. "We'll be at a game during March, and we'll also have the college basketball tournament on our TV. The outfielders always want to know the scores of games," said Ugiansky, who keeps the bus at a friend's home in South Austin. Ugiansky said he is proudest of his automated deck that sits on top of the bus and lifts up a few feet with the push of a button. Tailgaters, however, are thrilled with his latest addition: beer can chutes made of PVC pipes on the deck that empty into trash cans below. And there's the 18-wheeler air horns that people blow when the Horns score. "You kind of feel humbled at the end of the day by it all. I'm a lucky man, and this bus is a testament that you'll never know where you'll be tomorrow. This bus is that proof," he said. rgandara@statesman.com; 445-3632 |
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Best Quality Meats & Sausage 2610 S General Bruce Dr |