By JACKIE BORCHARDT

“Woooo-eeee!” Murphy Tetley whistles, removing the lid from a large metal pot and peering inside.

It’s 3:30 p.m., and the turkey’s almost done. Tetley lets go of the leg, and the 11-pound bird plunges back into the hot peanut oil. Dinner will be ready in a few minutes — not on fine china with polished silverware but on paper plates while hungry tailgaters listen to college football on the radio.

Deep-fried turkey isn’t standard tailgate grub. But Tetley won’t settle for burgers or hot dogs, and he accepts the risk that comes with adventurous cooking.

“I’m next to my truck and I’ve got LP gas on pressure, an open flame and oil at 350 degrees — if it comes up and over,” he said. “There’s nothing smart about this.”

At MU, tailgating is more than grilling brats and drinking beer. It’s a tradition, an alumni ritual, a chance to reprise college days with old friends and new ones.

While most stick to grilling burgers and playing lawn games, other tailgaters have found ways to take their game day parties to a professional level.

With the right food, drinks, games and friends, they say the tailgate experience can surpass front row seats at the game. Some focus on finding the best way to entertain, while others, like Tetley, spend weeks organizing a feast.

Tetley, 58 and a die-hard tailgater, decided to fry turkeys for the Oct. 6 Nebraska matchup.

“We’ve done beer brats, kabobs,” he said. “Maybe next time I’ll smoke fresh salmon. If it’s an early game, maybe smoked salmon and eggs?” An information science instructor at William Woods University in Fulton, Tetley is already planning foe the Nov. 24 Border Showdown when MU plays arch rival Kansas at Arrowhead Stadium.

“When you’re in Kansas City, you gotta do ribs,” he said. “We’ll do some K.C. barbecuing of some kind. It

depends on the game time. If it’s an 11 a.m. game, we’ll get there early and cook breakfast.”

For the Nebraska game, Tetley cooked two turkeys while longtime friend Creighton Cox, 62, baked biscuits in a Dutch oven and boiled corn-on-the-cob in honor of the Cornhuskers.

Cox, who lives in Jefferson City, prepared the biscuits early that morning before driving to Columbia.

“You put charcoal under and on top, about six to eight briquets,” he says. “At 300 degrees, they’ll be done in about 30 minutes.”

Cox’s wife, Diane, 61, joins the tailgate party, now in its fourth year, but lets the guys do the cooking.

“He does make excellent biscuits,” she said. “I don’t even attempt anymore. I just let them do their thing. If they need me, they holler.”

A core of four put out the spread, which they share with neighboring tailgaters and anyone who drops by.

“That’s one thing about tailgating — if you’re wearing Missouri colors, you’re family,” Creighton Cox said.

Once this season, a friend brought hummus to the tailgate.

“Murphy said, ‘That’s not even real food,’ ” Diane Cox said. “But we’re willing to try new things, too. We’ll do anything and everything.”

She says she’s supportive of her husband’s pasttime.

“He enjoys this so much that I tell him one of these days he’s going to come to my thing,” she said. “I haven’t figured that out just yet, but when I do, he’ll do it.”

On game day, tailgate toys are scatteredon the ground outside the pair of tents on a parking lot near the baseball stadium. Four hot-pink lawn flamingos are stuck in the ground, welcoming guests to the party. Truman the Tiger is a regular attendee.

A small plush figurine of the MU mascot sits behind the wheel of Tetley’s radio-controlled miniature Jeep. A tiny referee figurine rides shotgun, and the Jeep often delivers precious cargo to fellow tailgaters.

“We’ll send food like biscuits and gravy in the morning, and they’ll send beer back,” Creigton Cox said. “Murph’s got all the toys — he’s my hero.”