A day filled with food, beer and … mustaches

The smell of beer and cigarette smoke that overwhelmed the air for more than an hour was gone,… The smell of beer and cigarette smoke that overwhelmed the air for more than an hour was gone, replaced with the scent of a grill cooking hot dogs and hamburgers. Since it was only 11 a.m. it could only mean that football season had once again started. But most of the people occupying parking lot Red 7D met a rare obstacle while trying to get a full whiff of the surrounding aroma: mustaches. Before Pitt’s game against Bowling Green on Saturday, more than 80 people gathered for the fourth annual Wann-stache Bash, a tailgate party celebrating Pitt football and, more importantly, Pitt football coach Dave Wannstedt’s mustache, before the season’s opening home game. ‘He’s so famous for his ‘stache, and we just wanted a reason to do something fun and ridiculous,’ said Jarrett Katawczik, a founder of the event and 2003 Pitt graduate. Katawczik now lives in California but came back to Pittsburgh for the long weekend and the Bash. ‘It serves as a reunion of sorts,’ said Nick Elliot, another founder of the party and 2003 Pitt graduate. Elliot said the other two founders of the event live in the Pittsburgh area, as does he, but people come from as far as California and Florida for the long weekend. The area where the event took place wasn’t difficult to spot once in the parking lot. On a beam, the group hung three posters. One pictured the Panther logo with a mustache and the phrase ‘Just Grow It’ printed on top. Another poster featured the event’s logo, which was a cartoon circle with eyes, legs and a gigantic mustache. The final poster was a movie poster for ‘Anchorman’ with the event’s creators’ faces put into the photo, as the movie was the theme for this year’s event. And if the signs weren’t enough, there were the mustaches. Nearly all of the attendees sported some sort of facial hair. Within the group of mustachioed party-goers, there were varying degrees of upper-lip growth. Some mustaches were thin and hardly visible, while others were bushy and dark for all to see. Some ended at the corner of the mouth, and others went to the end of the lips, took a turn southbound for the chin, and possibly went all the way down to the neck. Female tailgaters donned, presumably, fake mustaches for the event. While the mustaches differed from person to person, most people wore the same shirt. It was the official Wann-stache Bash 4 T-shirt, with the event’s logo on the front of the shirt, with the ‘Anchorman’ poster on the back. One person wore last year’s shirt, when the event had a Mexican theme, and the back of the shirt read ‘Bash de Wann-stache,’ and had a picture of Wannstedt in a sombrero. Elliot commented that Wannstedt’s mustache is worthy of inspiring the event because of the sheer bravado it takes to wear such a ‘stache. ‘It has a bit of reckless abandon to it,’ he said. ‘It’s easily one of the best all-time mustaches in sports.’ Both Elliot and Katawczik said they keep the area between their upper lip and nose naked throughout the year but grow the mustaches for the event. Elliot’s was a Fu Manchu, where the ‘stache curves the end of the lips and goes down to the chin. Katawczik went with a more traditional look, but he said he grew his for most of the month, so it was fairly thick. Elliot said he hopes current Pitt students will join in future Wann-stache bashes. ‘We want it to be something fun and something that gets them interested in coming down here to support the football team.’ Juniors Nick Lazaro, Peter Duke and Rob Musgrave, who all attended the event and grew mustaches, said the mustache could grow to be a Pitt football ritual. ‘We need something to get people to come to games, and the mustache just might be it,’ said Musgrave. ‘It could be our tradition that everyone grows a mustache for the first game of the season.’ Lazzaro also said the mustache could also be a way to bring back alumni. ‘What do men over 40 like?’ he asked. ‘Mustaches, beer, football. So why not bring them together?’ The apex of the party in terms of number of people came from about 11 p.m. to noon, when about half of the attendees started making their way into the stadium. Those who didn’t have tickets continued to drink, eat and listen to music. There was a TV, but it couldn’t pick up the channel the game was on. At around 2 p.m., they gave out awards, including one for best female mustache and best Wann-stache, for the best overall mustache. The six winners were given tiny trophies with a fake mustache placed on it. The trophy for best Wann-stache was a witch with a fake mustache added on. The winner was Joe Rok, a 2002 Pitt-Johnstown graduate, whose thick mustache was a Wann-stacheian effort that would make Wooly Willy jealous. Elliot said he hopes to continue the event even once Wannstedt has moved on. ‘He’s not going to be here forever,’ said Elliot. ‘Hopefully he can turn things around and win a bit more, and we’ll keep his name as the title of the event. If not, though, we’ll just make it the Mustache Bash or something, unless they hire someone else with a mustache. Ideally, that would be great.’