{"id":4674,"date":"2013-12-12T14:22:40","date_gmt":"2013-12-12T19:22:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/dev-mag\/?p=1341"},"modified":"2014-06-02T15:00:37","modified_gmt":"2014-06-02T19:00:37","slug":"the-gangs-all-here","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/2013\/12\/12\/the-gangs-all-here\/","title":{"rendered":"The Gang\u2019s All Here"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"RedFlag\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Many tailgating groups have come and gone at Allen E. Paulson Stadium, but for the last 13 years, one group of individuals has stayed strong. They call themselves the Red Flag Gang.<\/p>\n

The group of about 35 people makes it to every home game and many away games, where they share food, drinks and camaraderie, things many of the group members can\u2019t imagine Saturdays at Paulson without.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s kind of funny because people have always heard of the Red Flag Gang,\u201d said original group member Seaby Phillips (\u201975). \u201cWhether it is good things or bad things, everybody always seems to hear about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mike Wright, who began tailgating because his son, Justin Wright (\u201802), played for the Eagles in the early 2000s, is considered the founder after initiating the group\u2019s first meet up. Wright said he saw fellow Georgia Southern fans at a red light and reached out to them about meeting up on a Georgia Southern online sports message board now known as gsufans.com.<\/p>\n

\u201cI posted on the message board, which was created by Paul Barkley, that I would put up a flag so we could find each other,\u201d Wright said. \u201cI said let\u2019s don\u2019t do white and let\u2019s don\u2019t do blue. Nobody had red at the time, so I got some PVC pipe and put the red flag up, and it just kind of grew from there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though he no longer tailgates with the group, Wright said, \u201cIt was the camaraderie that made the Red Flag Gang special. We were a friendly group and always had new people come in. It was four of the greatest years of my life. I was able to go places, do things and meet people, and I wouldn\u2019t take the world for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Doyle Clifton (\u201975), another original member, said the gang even welcomes opposing fans to join their tailgate.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe always invite opposing fans to join us for festivities before the battle begins on the field, and many, even when they lose, come back after the game for more fellowship,\u201d Clifton said. \u201cWe have a pretty good reputation for taking care of our \u2018enemy\/friends\u2019 and many of these same fans come back year after year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Through the years, various people have been in charge of the red flag, said Phillips, who is currently the keeper. \u201cIt\u2019s almost like a sacred thing now to get there and raise the red flag because I don\u2019t feel like it\u2019s time to tailgate until the flag is flying.\u201d<\/p>\n

And just what is the atmosphere like at a Red Flag Gang tailgate? \u201cExcitement. We\u2019re all just excited about getting to see our Eagles play one more time, the pageantry of the band and Freedom\u2019s flight,\u201d Phillips said. \u201cWe\u2019re all just passionate about Georgia Southern and football, and we enjoy the tradition of being there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clifton described the gang as a family that jokes around, and sometimes even argues. \u201cWe fight over football, politics and sometimes each other, but we all can\u2019t wait for football season so we can get back together again,\u201d Clifton said. \u201cHopefully the Red Flag Gang will continue into the next phase of Georgia Southern football and become even stronger as we change and grow as Georgia Southern.\u201d – Crissie Elrick<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Red Flag Gang Stands Out in a Sea of Blue and White<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4578,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[42],"class_list":["post-4674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","tag-fall-2013"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4674","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4674"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4674\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}