Tailgates and Basketball

Kevia Clarke and Bill Morrill man
the literature booth at the tailgate party

On a frigid night in January, NMJC had it’s first ever Tailgate Party, just before the basketball games started at. It was called a tailgate party, but in reality, it was far too cold to have an authentic one. Nevertheless, hamburgers were grilled outside over mesquite wood, and then brought inside to eat.

This idea began with a small committee, consisting of Richard Morris, Lisa Hardison, Eva Sanchez (Texas Tech), Linda Neel, Pat Gorman, Lance Caviness, Kevia Clarke and Tim Perry. Together, they wanted to figure out how to get high school students onto the campus. Once here, they wanted to share information with them from different departments.

“We all agreed that this would be a perfect opportunity for a tailgate party,” said Lisa. Therefore, the wheels were set into motion to make this plan become a reality.

So, the Athletic and Student Recruiting departments announced that they would be hosting a Tailgate Party for over 1200 seniors and their parents from Hobbs, Eunice, Jal, Lovington, Tatum, Floyd, Dora, Artesia, Seminole, Seagraves, Plains, Denver City, and Loving. In addition, this entire event, the meals and admission to the game were all free of charge.

“The idea behind this was to get prospective students to interact with our faculty and currently enrolled students,” said Richard Morris.

The idea of a tailgate party is not new; the way it was carried out was new. It can be explained by a simple buzzword: synergy. Athletics and Student Recruiting clearly expounded the meaning of this word, by working cooperatively on this event.

To emphasize this, Dr. Steve McCleery said, “I absolutely think it’s viable for every entity on this campus to look for ways of working with other entities, to bring about great activities like this one. We have great people in recruiting, great people in athletics, and they are coming together to create some nice synergy . . . some really nice synergy.”