See our story here: https://greatamericancookout.my.canva.site/ Here's the story:
In 1998, our heroes, Scott & Jayson, needed a reason to drink. What they needed was an excuse to have food and women involved. The campus of The Ohio State University hasn't been the same since! As broadcast journalism students, the boys decided to make the GAC an annual event. Should they actually get jobs after
school, they could be cast to the far corners of the country. An annual GAC would be a guarantee to see each other...and all the friends they made in their travels...at least once a year. The 2nd annual GAC returned to C-bus, at an apartment leased to neither of our heroes. Who lived there? We're still not sure. I think his name was Ken. No matter...there was a keg. And food. GAC complete! GACs 3 & 4 moved north into that state we don't give a damn about. Ishpeming, MI played home to the now-infamous party in both 2000 and '01. Keg:check. Food:check. Women:check. Drama:check. It occurs to the guys that the drama could be eliminated if the women were. But no one ever had the guts to pull the trigger. Fear of spooning with each other at the end of a day of drinking will do that. So beer, food & women made their way to Springfield, MO for GACV. This is where the party starts to evolve from a day of boozing into a whole weekend. That's called Progress! GAC6 burst upon the scene in the cozy resort town of Traverse City, MI. It wasn't quite so cozy by sun-up the next day. And Jayson bitches to this day about getting called into work on that fateful, hung-over Sunday. El GAC siete va a Reading, PA. Yo quiero Puerto Rico! We kid because we care. And so does "Jersey", who actually makes an appearance. Sidebar: the strippers were fantastic! GAC8 moved off the mainland. Bassett Island in the west arm of Grand Traverse Bay provided the perfect place to sun our beer-bloated bodies. The island party broke a GAC record, as we got well into our third keg before the sun came back up. M*ch*gan dominates the list of GAC sites by 2006. GAC9 heads downstate to Kalamazoo. The party seems to be growing up, although most participants have not. The cookout is hosted at what starts as a very nice family abode. In the morning, it's a very nice family abode with a puddle of human pee in the basement (and with some semi-scared neighbors). The GAC crew celebrated a dirty decade in 2007. Traverse City became the first-ever 3-time host site. The actual party was held at lovely Sayler Park in Yuba, MI. (Thanks to TC Celtic for the rides to and fro, and for "The Boys Would Just Like You To Spray It Down A Bit"!) GACX is all about dedication. One guest quit his job to be there. Another drove 5 hours on a suspended license. Scott & Jayson agree they'd be much more successful in life if they'd dedicate as much energy to anything else as they do to the GAC! Add a new state to the tally sheet as GAC11 walks in Memphis. August is sticky in the mid-south. And don't even get me started on the humidity! Hey-o! The '08 version featured a first-ever baby & first-ever girl brave enough to admit to being with Lee (who made his 8th appearance, trailing only the founders on the all-time list). It was back to TC for GAC12. The Coach beat the rush for our 2-drink minimum (maximum?). Things got a little ghetto and a lot drunk (fast!) so the party moved to the downtown bar scene, which I soon learned I was taking for granted. Lucky number 13 was more "Black Diamond" than "black cats". A return to Memphis reminded us that party buses are ingenious. The Cookout was followed by plenty of booze & thousands of people sitting through a sweltering baseball game to see the Dizzle belt out Sweet Caroline! Much love, Beale Street. The rain couldn't spoil the GAC's Wisconsin debut. The 14th annual affair saw the return of Chowd for the first time since GAC1. We reveled in a successful start to a new era of OSU football and played a little pigskin with the Graff boys in the yard. Scott, already sans luggage (good work Delta), then saw his monster burgers eaten out from under his nose. For a small crowd, we put a serious dent in that keg (glad we didn't settle for the pony!)
The Great American Cookout returned home for its 15th birthday! For the first time since GAC2, the party was held in Columbus. We tailgated before & after the OSU-Purdue game...and Jayson & Jessi hit up the Old 97s concert at the Newport that night! It rained for the 3rd time in 4 years, but who can really remember it all, as the hosts find out that sleep deprivation is a good compliment to booze in your mid-30's. Nothing like an all-nighter BEFORE the party! Needless to say, come Sunday morning, none of the participants were in quite as good of shape as the marathoners running the streets of Columbus. The 16th edition of the GAC made it back-to-back years in the Buckeye State, venturing into Lima. Family & friends partook of the beer and 3 rounds on the grill, lasting well past sundown, before heading to the bar. Hoops brought the moonshine and the cornhole. One co-worker had several more beers than she planned on before heading to the office. 50-week-old Bria Geiser was the designated driver at her first Great American Cookout. GAC17 took us to our 10th different host city: Houston, TX. We caught an Astros game, cooked out in 100-degree heat and capped the party at the world's coolest (drinking and) driving range. Friends from around the state (as well as OH & TN) made the trek to the Energy Capital of the World to keep the Great American tradition going strong. GAC18 brought the good times back to Lima. The festivities kicked off with a rousing rendition of the OSU fight song played on baritone by a surprise guest all the way from the UP (Luds). The return of PapaNoll was another pleasant surprise as a by-product of bringing the GAC back home to the Buckeye State. GAC19 was a blowout back in Houston. The hosts got moderately drunk at the local microbrewery before the party even began. Then we continued to pickle our livers deep into the night. There was commemorative swag and a return to live music for the first time in 9 years. GAC20 celebrated a major anniversary back in Lima. Jayson & Jessi were happy to fill their new back yard with beer, food, friends, cornhole and a toasty fire. The weekend started with a trip to the race track and ended with one partier locked in the can, hugging the porcelain throne. In between came more beer as sides, Jimmy playing master chef with some ribs & Jerome showing up with...cake. We all learned we were 20 years older than when we first began hosting these GACs! We took the Great American Cookout back offshore for its 21st birthday, invading Put-In-Bay. Naturally, shots and fishbowls were in order. As were monster jello shot syringes at the Beer Barrel. You wacky 21-year-olds! TEP & Timmy made the trip down from TC. Damage was done to the rental house by innocently tossing a bag on a bed, but somehow NOT by taking a hammer to a propane tank at 3am. Go figure. Facebook had a character limit in this segment for several years, so I stopped chronicling our adventures, but rest assured we just hit 25 years in 2022 and have no plans to stop. Cleveland gave us a 12th host city during the 2020 pandemic and in '22. GACs have featured beer, food, women, broken grills, kiddie pools, tequila, smoked-out apartments, cheating on girlfriends who aren't present, arguments over baseball, Chowds, pasta bowls that never get returned, lots of laughs, Columbus Clippers mugs, stolen signs, childish pranks, drunken pilgrimages to bars, cheating on girlfriends who ARE present, borrowed grills, ridiculous forays into the world of "sidedishes", apartments that are magically cleaned up by the time the host comes to the next day, a few tears, strip clubs, Mel Hall, illegal trips to the pool, body shots, risking eviction, Every Rose Has It's Thorn, nudity, Golden Tee, keg stands on balconies, filling hotel sinks (and birdbaths) with puke, bringing more meat as your sidedish, red headed sluts (the shot), red headed slt (not the shot), field corn, very unforgiving latin beverages, "The Well Game", the world's largest slices of pizza, imported baked beans, raining beer, the R-Phils, walk-off homeruns, churgers, passing out (not "rocking out") with your ____ out, tents & bonfires, late night skinny dipping, farmer's tans, chasing racoons with lighter fluid, Beach Caps & Beach Beer Pong, missing the hole in the porta john, Sailor Jerry, the "Eastern Bloc", Tate's salute to the host state, "$20 for three cups", busted tents that collapse when a fat kid climbs in after a long night of drinking, "Yes! There really is a Kalamazoo", "Bigfoot" sightings, Cornhole, "We want snowball!", housebreaking more than just Philly: the family dog, Mike Moran's music, Me & Ju-Lee-Oh (as in, Oh God, please stop!), the party bus, pirate Schaubs, horseshoes, veggie burgers, fighting the ranger, passing out amidst the tall grass, security cameras?, a shot tower, jailbait bikini carwash, commemorative t-shirts, the porn phone, hurricanes on Beale Street, guests beating the hosts to the party, after-hours hot dogs, complete and utter dehydration, Redbirds, the Black Neil Diamond, Ohio State football, grilling in the rain, stolen burgers, a fantastically humorous proximity between broadcasting rivals, all-nighters & sleep-deprivation, tailgating, post-party concerts, marathon runners making us all look bad, moonshine, Texas Hold'Ems, $150 Marc Krauss jerseys, pre-shipped meat, Yelp, the return of John Dalys, Manziel man-crushes, Ubering to Top Golf and back, Luds on the baritone, commemorative cups & coozies, outdoor air conditioning, hangover prevention elixirs, getting drunk before the party begins, peewee football, dirt track racing, domestic abuse at Lima's classiest (read: still ghetto) bar, professional quality ribs & poppers, Jerome's special gift of...cake, locking one's self in a bathroom for a night of yakking, the Miller Line, The Goat: Soup & Whiskey, Beer Barrel jello shot syringes, career advancement in the ladies room, fishbowls at the Fish Bowl, trying to blow up a rental house with a hammer & a propane tank, and commemorative masks to keep the party rocking through a global pandemic. What will you add to the legacy as the GAC enters a second quarter-century?
