Operation: Pirate Ship - The Making of the B.C.S. Booty

In 2004 the Utes went undefeated 12-0 football and crashing of the BCS party in the Fiesta Bowl. During this rise to the top tailgating exploded at Utah. We began having a great need to buy a trailer to haul all the stuff we'd been accumulating for tailgating.

In January 2005 a group of us met at Macaroni Grill to eat a fine meal before we hopped on a chartered bus to Provo to invade the Marriott Center (BYU). As we were waiting for our food, we were batting ideas back and forth and sketching them out with the crayons the restaurant provides for doodling on the paper tablecloth. We were feeling feisty as we were to be heading down to Cougarland shortly, and we were conjuring ways to scare the daylights out of the Zoobies upon arrival at the House that Porn Built.

"Arrr, we be pirates!" was the natural direction we headed (Pirates of the Caribbean was popular). And the whole pirate theme set the tone for the evening (astonishingly we were even sober). It also influenced the design of the Utefans.Net Tailgating Trailer.

As we sketched out the design, we imagined tailgating in Provo this fall. "Can you imagine a pirate ship rolling into Provo this fall with a bunch of Utefans shouting, 'Prepare to be boarded!'" The frightened looks of the young, brainwashed Zoobie children would be worth the price of admission.

Over the next few weeks, the concept firmly evolved into something that we were definitely going to do. At first, people were just as puzzled as you are reading this. But the more they thought about it, the more they realized that having a Pirate Ship in the tailgate lot would be just about the coolest thing they'd ever seen.

So it came to be. The ship is named the B.C.S. Booty in honor of the big payday from busting in. If there is any relation to pirates it could be said that the Utes busted into the BCS like pirates and made off with $12 million.