For twenty-two years Jane Foster was the undisputed queen of the Grove, Ole Miss’s hallowed tailgating ground. And while, sure, she wasn’t the only one to include a chandelier or champagne fountain in her setup, Foster’s zebra tent became an Oxford fixture, famed as much for its welcoming hospitality as for its maximalist aesthetic. It appeared on College GameDay and SEC Nation and drew Rebels faithful and opposing fans alike. And though Foster retired the zebra tent after the 2023 season, she still gives tailgating advice on her Instagram account, which boasts more than 80,000 followers.
Foster, who attended Mississippi State for undergrad, had never been to Oxford until she married an Ole Miss alum; the rival teams had played their annual Egg Bowl game on neutral territory in Jackson up to that point. “Going to the Ole Miss ballgames was kind of a marriage compromise,” she says. “I told my husband if we’re going to start tailgating, I want my own tent.”
She settled on a zebra-striped marquee so her young children would be able to spot it in the sea of blue and red tents. Everyone else spotted it, too. Soon other families offered to help with her elaborate spreads, and a twelve-family roster eventually emerged to feed some five hundred to seven hundred visitors each game. After their first College GameDay appearance in October 2014, the tent drew nearly seven thousand people the following weekend.
All of that is to say, it’s hard to think of a person who knows more about tailgating than Foster. She shared a few pearls of wisdom and fun memories with G&G below.
Fried chicken is nonnegotiable.
The zebra tent’s spreads were legendary: finger foods like sliders, sausage balls, cold shrimp, cheese, and fruit arranged in the front; heartier fare like spaghetti stationed at the middle of the tent; and at the back, a dessert table and that champagne fountain.
But while her team embraced a different theme each week, with food to match, Foster remains emphatic that it’s not a proper tailgate without fried chicken. (Another must-have item? A stand-up foldable cooler or two.)
Long tablecloths are your secret weapon.
Aside from making a tailgate visually pop, long tablecloths conceal the space underneath the tables and create crucial storage for all those bins and coolers you lugged from the car. (Bonus tip: One of those bins should contain emergency supplies. Think Band-Aids for blistered feet, Tums “for men who ate too many meatballs,” aspirin, and Benadryl, plus things like scissors, zip ties, duct tape, and safety pins for wardrobe or tent mishaps.)
In general, Foster likes to decorate in layers, with the tablecloth as the foundation. Use serving dishes and stands of various heights, and for a truly over-the-top touch, hang something decorative like a chandelier from the tent ceiling.
It’s okay to show up empty-handed if that’s what you’re asked to do.
Foster’s advice might go against everything your mama taught you, but Southern tailgates can be highly curated affairs, right down to the servingware. “We didn’t want people bringing food because it wouldn’t be in the right container and it would mess up the aesthetics,” Foster says. If you simply can’t bear showing up without an offering, consider bringing a small nonperishable gift or a gift card to a local restaurant.
Tailgating is about more than food and football.
At its best it’s about camaraderie and community. Over the years, the zebra tent hosted kids through the Make-A-Wish Foundation and became a beloved symbol of Oxford hospitality. “A man showed up at the tent with a nurse next to him and a walking cane and told me he wanted to meet me,” Foster says. “He said, ‘I put the zebra tent and tailgating with you on my bucket list,’ and then he gets up and says, ‘I’m going to have to fly out now.’”
That communal spirit has gone both ways: On one memorable Saturday, Foster showed up to discover that the tables and chairs she had set up the night before had gone missing. To make matters worse, the zebra tent had a scheduled TV appearance that day. “We put on the fan boards that we were looking for help, and within an hour we had everything we needed,” she recalls.
We can all be friends.
The SEC is known for fierce rivalries, but “everyone was nice when they came to the tent,” says Foster, who has tailgated at several road games. While she calls many fan bases in the conference “lovely,” the fans of Auburn and Texas A&M stood out to her for their friendliness, and LSU fans always brought the party. “I’m going to get in trouble for saying this,” Foster says of the Tigers, “but those fans got all of the fun genes.”