As the Chicago State University Cougars geared up for the first football game in the university’s history, fans poured into a dusty Bridgeview parking lot Saturday morning with truckloads of meat and coolers of beer. Tailgating wasn’t just appropriate for the occasion, they said, but a requirement for a city welcoming its first Division I college football program.
“This is a historic moment,” said Luther King, 44, an alumnus who fired up the grill hours ahead of the noon kickoff. “It’s galvanizing the community, and I couldn’t miss it.”
King was one of dozens who gathered outside SeatGeek Stadium, eager to watch the Cougars face Roosevelt University and kick off an 11-game season. Without a dedicated football field on its Far South Side campus, Chicago State will play all five home games at the Bridgeview arena, where thousands of parking spaces across multiple lots leave plenty of room to celebrate.
On Saturday, sausages sizzled atop portable grills as fans danced to upbeat music. Many wore the school’s signature green. Bean bags flew toward slanted wooden boards, with cornhole competitors pausing to scarf down homemade tacos or welcome incoming friends.
Kevin Waco, who brought his son to watch the game, said he hadn’t expected to see tailgaters. So he was surprised to find the parking lot filled with fans, and even more surprised when multiple groups offered him food.
“They’re trying to create something out of nothing, and I would like to support that,” said Waco, 52, a 1997 DePaul graduate. “It’s much more exciting than I ever expected.”
Chicago State University took formal steps towards adding football in 2023, forming a committee and launching fundraising efforts to help cover the costs. That December, the university announced it would join the Northeast Conference, and a little more than a year later, it began searching for its first head football coach.
But for CSU alumni, Saturday’s game was the culmination of a conversation that began long before any university announcement. Dion Brown, a 2009 graduate, remembers students talking about bringing football to campus while he was still in college.
“We’ve been hearing about the prospect of football for over 20 years, so to see it coming to fruition is a surreal experience,” said Brown, 41, who flew from North Carolina for Saturday’s game. “This is indicative of great things to come.”
Under Head Coach Bobby Rome II, the Cougars spent this summer training on the school’s turf baseball field, built in 2014 for a program that was discontinued in 2020. The university did, however, build a new weight room and plans to open a larger training room.
Athletic director Monique Carroll told the Tribune earlier this month that although administrators hoped to play closer to the school’s South Side campus, SeatGeek Stadium was the closest facility with both a home locker room for players and a press box large enough to accommodate coaches and media. Still, Saturday’s fans seemed unfazed by the 13-mile trek from campus to Bridgeview.
“This is right in our own backyard,” said Tameca Simmons, 42, who lives in Riverdale. “I don’t even have to leave Chicago to go to a big Division I game; now I can do that right here.”
Simmons remembers classmates transferring to Chicago State while she was in college with the expectation that they would play on a football team that never materialized. That history makes this season especially meaningful, she said, not only for those who waited decades for a team, but also because the broader community had shown up to embrace it.
“Football on the South Side means everything,” said Simmons, who graduated in 2006. “We need something positive like that; we need our kids to see something positive like that.”
Starting in the FCS, the Cougars are Chicago’s first Division I football team since the University of Chicago dropped the sport in 1939. The university says the program will forge a new sports identity for the predominantly Black institution, which has long struggled with low graduation rates, according to the US Department of Education.
That ambition was evident among fans Saturday, many of whom saw the inaugural game as only the beginning. For Carl Newman, 39, a CSU alumnus and proud new season ticket holder, the moment felt “full circle.”
Newman paused to take in the crowd of tailgaters, pointing out former classmates he hadn’t seen since he graduated in 2011. Past generations of alumni have gone on to accomplish remarkable things, he said, but they remain connected by a shared love for the place where they started.
“Chicago State is a part of me,” he said. “It’s something that allows me the opportunity to do the things I love to do, and I can’t do anything but support.”
