Since 1975, one Natchitoches family has travelled three hours south to Death Valley for Tiger football tailgating with their golden truck labeled “Nakatrash.”
Nakatrash, a “Van Geaux original,” sits in the parking lot next to Lockett Hall, and is owned by friends and family from Natchitoches.
The tailgating tent and bus was put together this weekend by Ronald Corkern and his wife Karen Corkern. Their names are labeled on the side of the truck as “MTs,” which means “Master Tailgaters.”
Ronald Corkern is an alumnus of the LSU Law School and attorney at Corkern, Crews, Guillet and Johnson, LLC. He is a former member of the former LSU Sigma Chi fraternity, where tailgates were held at the house when he was a member.
The tailgaters started unloading their truck full of ribs, pulled pork, smoked chicken and sausage around 10 a.m. Saturday morning. Ronald said the crew usually switches up their foods for tailgates.
“It’s all good,” Ronald said. “Somebody will do a gumbo, somebody will do a jambalaya, we do a little bit of everything. It’s hard to pick one.”
Nakatrash has a tradition they perform every Saturday before a game when the parade marches down “Victory Hill” on Fieldhouse Drive.
“After the band comes down it’s tradition,” Ronald said. “We all make a circle and we will dance to David Allan Coe. Then we roll right from that into ‘Callin’ Baton Rouge,’ and then we all go to the game.”
