Overdressed: A Southern Girl’s Deep Dive Into Midwestern Football Gameday Attire

Graphic by Halliday Mafrige

I had no idea what to wear to my first Northwestern football game. Simply, there were too many options! During the summer, I had curated the perfect wardrobe for gamedays, shopping in local Houston boutiques in the Texas Christian University section since they had a purple school color. 

My mom even found a designer on Instagram to make me a custom beaded bag strap for my clear purse that said “Go ‘Cats,” like the ones girls back home wore at their Southern schools. Would a dress be too much? What about a skirt set? I came prepared to show out. 

Then I started seeing Wildcat Instagram posts. I swiped through each carousel, looking for even one Southern girl’s cowboy boots or ruffled blouse in the background. Nothing. The girls who went up a week early wore…T-shirts? 

So, I decided to grunge-down my look — play it safe and keep the Dan Post boots in the dorm room. I cut up the “Purple Pride” t-shirt given to all the first-years at Wildcat Welcome and paired it with some big purple earrings, bubble braids, the beaded bag strap from my mom and white leather tennis shoes. 

When we got to the stadium, I felt ridiculous. I was so overdressed in Evanston, though I would be underdressed for College Station — the place I had grown up watching football games. 

“It was an event that you were dressing and preparing for,” said Tessa Nixon, my hoodie-wearing first-year roommate. “It wasn't inappropriate for Northwestern…You were just working a little harder than other people were.”

A quick look at my evolving gameday fashion. / Photos by Halliday Mafrige

Born and brought up as a maroon-bleeding Texas A&M fan, my alum father put me in an “Aggie baby” dress as soon as my little butt fit into it. I grew up with a constant rotation of A&M shirts in my dresser until I became old enough to dress myself. And boy, did I make some questionable decisions as I figured out my personal style. 

Maroon Aggie shirt, let me introduce you to my new neon green jeggings from Justice. No, it is not a school color, but I liked the outfit so much that I wore it to meet the school’s rough collie mascot, Reveille VIII.

In junior high, I began dressing more formally and stylishly for football games. I got excited when I saw maroon dresses and skirts at the store. By high school, I dedicated a significant amount of closet space to “Aggie clothes” in maroon, white and tan. I also collected clear purses, maroon earrings and bows and monogrammed Texas A&M cowboy boots. I had fun with my clothes.

That changed when I came to Evanston. It became more of a put-on-anything-that-says-NU ritual, and we would run out of the dorm to go to a tailgate at an off-campus fraternity house. 

If we got lucky, we would make it to the stadium, where most students would leave by halftime anyway. I no longer looked forward to putting together an outfit and started spending less time on my looks. 

In College Station, I wore team colored formal clothes that would work at a white-tablecloth dinner. In Evanston, outfits tend to run on the graphic-tee side. Yet, NU gameday dress was not always this way. 

“The clothes were a little fancier if you would go to the football game,” said NU alum Mary Schreibstein from the class of ’68. “People were having a good time, and they were showing it by caring about what they were wearing.”

1958 Homecoming Court / Source: Northwestern Archives

Photos from the Northwestern Archives taken in 1958 and 1960 depict groups of women wearing luxurious fur coats and gloves to keep warm in the chilly Evanston November (one of these images features Princesses Birgitta and Desiree of Sweden, who visited Chicago to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the American-Scandinavian Foundation… which is wild to me). The men in the ’60s photo dressed in suits, yet a few have more casual jackets over them. 

I also believe that weather dictates modern clothing choices. In Texas, very few cold games occur during the season, as it only gets cold (and I mean around 50 degrees) in late November. 

There, we would layer as cute as we could manage, but my sister and I would sometimes end up buying a hoodie to throw on; a laughable concept in the Midwest. At Ryan Field, if you do not prepare for the freezing wind, you are out of luck. It makes sense that people prioritize different things in the later months of the season.

“I would never consider wearing shorts to a Northwestern football game unless it was like 80 degrees or like 70 degrees,” Nixon said. “And for the majority of our season, it's not that warm.”

For gameday footwear, we turn to the sixties. A photo from the 1966 yearbook shows three shoe examples. A man’s leather loafer, a woman’s preppy white tennis shoe and a woman’s open-toed sandal. 

While people still wear preppy tennis shoes in the South, usually a luxury brand like Golden Goose, I would be shocked to see open-toed sandals or loafers today. In Texas, at least, you would need to watch out for the steel-toed cowboy boots since those options offer little defense from a rowdy frat boy’s boot. Schreibstein told me that in the late ‘60s, some girls would wear go-go boots to the game. 

Still, times were changing. In the ’50s, it became normal for women to wear pants — and in the ’70s, the American designer Halston emphasized the construction of simple garments. The ’70s also saw a rise in branded sports apparel from brands like Champion. 

Athletic clothes shifted from purely made for athletes to worn by everyone. Players also began sharing their name, image and likeness with brands that would sell merchandise promoting them. In the ’70s, large music acts like The Beatles and Rolling Stones would sell merchandise at their shows, further popularizing the graphic tee.

’70s gameday fashion (left), Branded gear at Homecoming 1979 (right) / Source: Northwestern Archives

With the rise of casual T-shirts, it became easier to dress with school spirit. But it became less creative and fun. “In the North, everyone's trying to blend in,” Nixon said. “In the South, everyone's trying to stand out.” 

Southern schools latch onto this tradition of dressing up because it forms a part of the school’s identity. 

“It has to do with Southern manners,” said A&M alum Rocky Mafrige from the class of ’93— my father. “Football is the front porch of the university: you want to look nice, so people come in. It is how Southern universities sell their colleges and people take pride in that. Appearance matters.” 

Nowadays, tailgate fashion seems inspired by the streetwear of the location of the University. In the South, people put on dresses and skirts to get groceries. So, it makes sense that Southern tradition includes getting dressed up for football games like going to a nice party. In the North, it is much more casual, so it makes sense that people tend to prioritize comfort.

“Fashion is a performance,” said Alicia Caticha, professor of art history at Northwestern. “That's certainly not dress you wear every day, right? I love that. But it's this form of signaling where your allegiance stands.”

To me, putting effort into gameday outfits shows you care for the players and the team. So have fun with fashion and dress with flair this fall in this new era of Ryan Field. 

Spend some extra time on your hair, buy some purple beads or grab some friends and paint big letters on your chest. And if you are from the South like me, wear those cowboy boots with pride.