Snapshots in my mind - Reunions of family, friends at Doak Campbell Stadium

How many family re-unions have you ever attended where everyone from the great-grandmother to the grandchildren are excited to be there?

Chris and Kellie Kraft have found the secret to planning the perfect family re-union, one they encourage every family to consider. They manage to pull it off seven times each year with family members who live as far away as New Orleans and South Florida.

Their secret is Seminole football tailgate parties where everyone from the 3 year old in the cheerleading uniform to the 93 year old share a common heart-throbbing passion.

“We’ve had grandparents, great grandparents, brothers, all the kids and friends coming together on game days for years,” said Chris Kraft of a tradition his parents Rudy and Peggy started decades ago. “You knew it was going to be a great weekend. You knew you were going to be with family. You knew you were going to see friends you hadn’t seen in a while. You knew you were going to see a great football game and you were going to eat well.”

According to Kellie, Chris looks forward to football season, and the re-union of family and friends, with the same zeal a child looks toward Christmas.

“It is Christmas on a game weekend,” Chris said with a laugh. “Our kids are excited. My granddaughter Audrey called me on the phone and said, “Big Chief, I’m coming to see you for the football game.”

“Chris loves getting everyone together,” Kellie said. “He is like a child. He gets so excited with the Friday Night Block Party and getting everything ready for the game. We get excited for all the games, seeing our friends and certainly having our kids in town together.”

Their experience started as kids with their parents but soon extended to the bleacher seats in the student section of Doak Campbell Stadium. After marriage, the young couple moved to Ft. Lauderdale but continued to buy season tickets with friends. They even enjoyed those eight-hour drives to home football games because they knew they were coming to connect with family and friends.

“When the four kids were little we’d load the car up and make the drive from South Florida and no one complained,” Chris said. “It was fun. We were headed to Tallahassee. Kellie’s parents lived here and the kids looked forward to seeing Nana and Gran. As soon as we were in town they wanted to go see the baseball field and the football field.”

The Krafts’ first seats were in the “cheap seats” with a block of friends and fraternity brothers who have remained together in progressively better seating.

Seats like those are still available today for several games for as little as $35 for adults and $12 for children.

“All of our younger friends would bring their kids too and my parents loved it,” Chris said of his seating block. “Kellie’s parents would come to the tailgate and Kellie’s mother cooks like no other. I remember those Seminole plates with the meatballs and the spare ribs and the game day cakes. We ate very well. There was always something on the grill. My grandmother came to the games even when she was 92 or 93 years old. Everyone had fun.”

The Krafts now live in Tallahassee where Chris and his brother own the Kraft Nissan dealership. Many photos of family and friends adorn the family skybox including the latest grandbaby Carter.

“There are so many just fun memories,” Kellie said, “snapshots that enter my mind.”

There’s an indelible image of her husband Chris throwing passes to their four children during tailgate parties, of laughter and excited talk about the upcoming ballgame. And there’s the time her son and daughter met Charlie Ward and Warrick Dunn. “Our son had drawn a picture of Charlie Ward and Warrick Dunn said he’d be sure to get it to him,” Kellie remembers. “They were so warm and welcoming and so nice to our son. We have many memories of the kids, our daughter in the little cheerleading outfit and the boys in jerseys coming to games.”

Another shapshot is of the kids of her college friends playing together, growing up, with her own children.

“I remember it was Halloween and they went Trick or Treating in the Motor Home Lot so that was cute to watch,” she said. “It’s been fun to watch them all grow up with our friends’ kids who we went to school with. Now they continue to be friends and buddies and fraternity brothers and it’s nice to see it continue on with this new generation.”

There are also the memories of preparing for the game day fun.

“I love to cook. It’s my therapy,” Kellie said. “I love to prepare fun foods for our tailgates but nothing beats a burger on the grill.”

The tailgate tradition left a lasting impression on the Kraft children. Son Chase comes from New Orleans, daughter Katie is a teacher who drives up from Tampa, son Christopher, Jr. lives in Tallahassee and Cody is a student at Florida State.

“Our son Chase loves to cook so now he brings a smoker and cooks a brisket. It is fun to see what they do. They plan their tailgate fun. I get a lot of, ‘Mom, give us recipes.’” Kellie said with a smile. “We made sure that our kids grew up understanding the traditions and made sure they had fun with us. And now my favorite part is that they have started their own tradition of having their own seats and their own tailgates. Chris and I stand in the background and enjoy watching. It is fun to watch this new generation carry on.”

While the traditions remain a constant, the Krafts’ interest in where they sit in Doak has evolved as needs have changed for their friends and family. Over the years they have come to experience all the price and experience alternatives for families of all ages and incomes.

After years of sitting in the lower bowl bleachers, Chris’s father and mother opted for the comfort of a skybox which Chris and Kellie and friends now lease. The younger generations still enjoy the ambiance of those lower bowl seats. And now the Krafts are adding seats in the Champions Club, premium club seat section in the South Endzone.

The new Champions Club offers another experience with comfortable outdoor seating and the comfort of an indoor luxury skybox and another price point.

The Champions Club will feature high speed elevators to more than 70,000 sq ft of air-conditioned comfort with 34,000 sq ft of covered rooftop terraces with cabanas and food and beverage befitting of a Kraft tailgate party.

“The Champions Club sounds very exciting to me,” Kellie said. “I think it’s a wonderful opportunity to be interactive with the game and to sit with friends and visit.”

“We thought the Champions Club would be a great opportunity to truly see everything from every angle,” Kellie said. “We grew up seeing the game from the stands and its fun. You can’t beat it, the sounds, the noise, the screaming, the cheering, especially when Osceola runs out. It gives you chills. We want our kids to sit there and enjoy it. We sat out there with them rain or shine, cold or hot. We enjoy the skybox. It is so much fun. It is nice to be able watch the different televisions and the playbacks. And now we will go see a new opportunity a new venue and experience it from all angles.”

A former volunteer chairman of Seminole Boosters, Inc., Chris believes the Champions Club is going to provide Seminole fans with the best of both worlds.

“It’s like having your own box with cool air and fantastic food and beverage but I am serious about football and excited about being able to sit outside in the club seats and really be able to watch football,” Chris said. “I love the endzone perspective. Guys who have played know you really see the play develop. You see the offensive and defensive schemes. The coach in all of us loves the perspective you have from the endzone.

“I also like that I will be able to get up and go inside at halftime and when the game is over. When the Champions Club is done, it is going to be a magnificent year-round facility. People will be clamoring to get in when they see what it is all about. As Kellie said, it’s a different way to watch the game and I am all about the game.”

Kraft is still working on re-unions of family, friends and fraternity brothers only now in the Champions Club.

“If you get in now, you will have an opportunity to put blocks together,” Kraft said. “And that’s like going back to where it all started when we were in college and we all sat together. It’s like going back to our roots, only high tech.”

“Food, family, friends and football – shared experiences create a lifetime great memories.

The traditions of the four generations of Krafts are one example of the many family reunions in and around Doak Campbell Stadium at every home game.