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An Obituary for the beloved Reactor

She remains in the hearts of tailgaters who swilled and swelled on her grounds

Illustration by Elise Catchings

Reactor Field put to rest after her final tailgate on Nov. 8, 2008

By Jason Scott

October 22, 2009 | 12:00 a.m. CST

Reactor Field was once a place where thousands of MU faithful performed that sacred ritual of college football: a rite known as tailgating. Alas, after a short illness, the beloved mecca met an abrupt end in 2008. Her life as holy ground open to Mizzou football fans and other general-public pilgrims lasted untold decades.
Prior to being developed, Reactor spent her infancy as a recreational field where intramural athletes clashed and Columbia residents oohed and aahed at fireworks on the Fourth of July. Earlier classes of tailgaters also flocked to her during the ’80s and ’90s, until gravel calmed those once grassy seas when she became a commuter lot in 2004. But Reactor was always destined for more — as a tailgate superstar.
At the height of her popularity in 2008, Reactor welcomed thousands of black- and gold-clad Mizzou football fans into her 980-spot lot. Packs trudged up and down Providence Road when making the pilgrimage to her grounds before the game. Tailgate parties spilled into one another while beer and liquor rolled down the gullets, chins and shirts of fans, many of them underage. People relieved themselves between cars in make-believe privacy instead of in the Port-a-Potties. Game days were the perfect excuse to get day-drunk, and many fans, classy or not-so, took advantage.
“It was crowded, and there was a lot of partying and alcohol consumption going on,” says Nick Shatro, an MU upperclassman who remembers the happy times when he tailgated at Reactor during the 2008 football season. It was an era when rowdy game-goers carried on without a care, remaining blissfully unaware that they were helping to bring about Reactor’s demise.
“There were people who went in there with no intention of going to the game who just wanted to party,” says Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Cathy Scroggs. She continues: “There were weekends when there were more people going down the hill to Reactor than there were coming up the hill going to the game. The crowd would get so big so fast that you (couldn’t) really get in there and break it up without creating more difficulties.”
University officials weren’t the only people beginning to have concerns regarding the tailgaters’ behavior; police were becoming uneasy, too. In the beginning, MU police patrolled on their own, but as the situation worsened, reinforcements were brought in. Despite the additional officers dispatched by Columbia police, the Boone County Sheriff’s Department and the Missouri State Highway Patrol, Reactor romping continued to get out-of-hand.
“Toward the end, especially the last couple of games, a significant number of officers were at that area,” says MU Police Capt. Brian Weimer. “We had one arrest that was made for the assault of a police officer. We know there’s always potential for danger when dealing with large crowds.”
It seemed enough was enough. Reactor’s symptoms were serious, and treatment options had to be considered. The MU athletics department, with input from MU police and MU officials, decided that Reactor needed rest. Beginning with the 2008 Homecoming game against Colorado, people were allowed to park (and therefore tailgate) there only three hours prior to kickoff. The hope was that things would be easier to control and that the illness Reactor had been wrestling with would ultimately go into remission.
But it was not to be. Despite the shorter hours, determined drinkers and aggressive imbibers continued to behave in much the same manner. Reactor wasn’t recovering. And MU pulled the plug.
The last time that tailgaters enjoyed with their dear parking lot was on Nov. 8, 2008, the day of the season’s final home game against Kansas State. When the kickoff of MU’s first home game in 2009 rolled around Sept. 12, the Reactor faithful were forced to move on — the lot had officially been closed to game-day parties.
Reactor’s nigh 1,000 spaces are now used for event staff and media. The scene that once swarmed with a wild mass of fans is just another lifeless expanse full of cars.
Some of the bereaved, such as Colleen Hoffmann, vice president of the Missouri Student Association, are still learning to cope. “Everyone is really displaced,” she says.
Other refugee tailgaters concentrate on remembering the good times they spent with Reactor during the past few seasons. Everyone was present. Everyone was joyous. “My parents wouldn’t have condoned what went on there, but it was still a fun time,” says MU sophomore Blair Thompson, another former Reactor devotee.
Still others have shown their love by joining the Rally for Reactor Facebook group, where more than 4,200 supporters hope their online petition will help persuade the powers that be to bring Reactor back to its former tailgate prominence. The initiative is backed by MSA, which also sold T-shirts to support their noble cause.
“Given that the season already started, I don’t think getting Reactor back is necessarily going to happen,” says Hoffmann. “We’re trying to voice student opinion and use student leaders to come up with some type of compromise that would fit within the administration’s vision of what they want to see at tailgates. We’re seeing support.”
Reactor Field was preceded in death by Frat Pit, another site of debauchery that was similarly put to rest in 2007. She is survived by Lot X and other parking lots where tailgating occurs in a more benign fashion. Thousands of tailgaters, filled with hazy memories of celebration in the gravel land now relegated to their memories, continue to mourn the loss.

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