MONMOUTH – Saturday afternoon’s Monmouth University football game in West Long Branch, NJ was host to the annual reunion of old friends and fellow “Big Blues,” as four Old Dominion University 1986 alumni took to tailgating in the parking lot and reminiscing about college days several hours prior to the game.
46-year-old Craig Strauss from Westchester, NY is the main organizer of the ODU reunion, and tries to get everyone together at least once a year.
For Strauss and friends, life isn’t how it used to be back in 1986, with family life and careers taking up most of their time nowadays. They try to find the time in everyone’s hectic schedules – between kids’ soccer practices and PTA meetings – to get together for a few beers and to look back on the more simple times.
The four individuals that make up this tight group of originally eight alumni all met freshman year at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, VA in 1982. They lived on the same floor in Gresham Hall and have kept in close touch over the years. Along with Strauss, there were tailgaters Mark Bellini, Jeanne Kinneally and Denise Iaffery, along with their wives, husbands, and children.
“It’s great to see how they all have kept in touch over the years,” said 46-year-old Patricia Bellini, Mark’s wife and a cashier at Cracker Barrel in Clinton, NJ. “Mark only went to school one year at Old Dominion, so the fact he considers Craig and everyone else still such great friends really means something.”
Although this quartet usually meets in New York City in mid-October to enjoy some
drinks and dancing, Strauss suggested that they all try to make it to an Old Dominion football game, since this is the first year that ODU has a team.
Not everyone was too excited over the idea of taking a trip down to Virginia, so when we Strauss saw that they were playing Monmouth, he figured it was the next best thing since they all live close enough to the area.
The game started at 1 p.m. and Strauss and crew arrived and began to set up a tailgate at around 11 a.m. The day was hot and humid, so Strauss and Mark Bellini managed to save a few parking spots under a cluster of trees.
Strauss started up a mini grill and the kids, most under the age of 13, began a game of touch football. The afternoon consisted of old friends sitting around a blacktop, sipping beers and laughing over the innocent trouble they caused in college.
Strauss remembers the good times he used to have with Dominoes delivery back at ODU.
Whenever someone in the dorm building ordered Dominos pizza, he and friends would wait for the driver to get out for his delivery, and then if he left the doors to the car unlocked, they would snake attack and go in to take all the food still left unarmed in the car.
The gang headed into the game a few minutes past the first quarter. Old Dominion, also known as the “Big Blue,” defeated Monmouth 35-21. Some fellow ODU alumni recognized the Gresham crew, and managed to set up a decent size fan base in the stands.
The afternoon ended with plans for the night to continue with dinner and more drinks at Kinneally’s home in Manasquan, NJ.
Strauss and Kinneally hope to rally most of the gang together and catch a train down to Norfolk when Old Dominion plays the Virginia Military Institute on home turf November 13.
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