How I Go Columbia: Mike Stacey of Gamecock Cruisers

Most tailgaters pale in comparison to Mike Stacey.

A member of the Gamecock Cruisers recreational vehicle club, Stacey – director of human resources for Lexington 1 – and his wife, Sue, travel to Gamecock athletic events 26 weekends a year. The couple doesn’t miss a single University of South Carolina football game – home or away – and makes it to all home Gamecock baseball games, along with many home and away basketball games for the men’s and women’s teams (including the Women’s Final Four in Tampa this spring).

“Our tailgates are different from everybody else’s because they start Friday night and they end Sunday morning,” Stacey said. “And most times we keep it going with a Sunday brunch.”

Ironically, Stacey graduated not from USC but from the University of Alabama. However, his wife represents the USC alumni in the Stacey home and shares her endless enthusiasm for the school with Stacey.

The Staceys live on Lake Murray and have two grown children. The couple welcomed the family’s newest Gamecock – grandson Hayes – last football season. His arrival pleasantly interrupted Stacey’s tailgating at the 2014 USC/Auburn game.

Here, Stacey talks about his Columbia.

EAT: Friday nights during football season, you might see us at Pasta Fresca on Forest Drive. Saturday morning, if we go out for breakfast, we like The (Original) Pancake House. You have to get the cinnamon apple pancake as an appetizer. One person can’t eat that by themselves – there’s got to be like six people eating that, and then you can move on to breakfast. For brunches, we like DiPrato’s. They have all the great sides for a tailgate – chicken salad, pimento cheese and those homemade pita chips. We also like Cafe Strudel in West Columbia. They have a mean dish of Hangover Hashbrowns.

DRINK: We do most of our drinking at the RVs, where we like to come up with our own little concoctions while we tailgate. If we venture out for a drink we like to go to Thirsty Fellow or to the Vista to Liberty Tap Room. We live on the lake, and my favorite place on Lake Murray right now is the Frayed Knot Bar and Grill.

LISTEN: We pretty much listen to local sports talk radio on 107.5 while we sit around outside our RVs.

If we want to listen to music, you might find us on a Friday night of an off-weekend or a Saturday night after a baseball game at Woody’s in the Vista for music and shagging.

PLAY: We follow all home football games and all home baseball games. In between football and baseball seasons, we catch men’s and women’s basketball – we get season tickets to both. We also love life on Lake Murray. You can’t find a better place to go. If you’re not going to a Carolina athletics game, the next best place to be is on the lake.

SEE: Everything related to Carolina athletics.

This story was originally published September 8, 2015 at 6:27 PM.