Grants Supermarket and Ramey Auto Group’s Tailgate Tour feeds Princeton Senior High School ahead of rivalry game

PRINCETON, W.Va. (WVVA) - Princeton High School football players, coaches and cheerleaders were treated to a pre-game meal today before the Princeton-Bluefield rivalry game.

Thanks to Grants Supermarket and Ramey Auto Group’s Tailgate Tour, more than 100 steaks were grilled for the meal, which was served in the Princeton High School cafeteria.

Today’s cookout kicked off the annual tour by Grants and Ramey, with stops planned this year to include 15 high schools in the region.

Robert Ramey, President of Ramey Automotive Group, said the cookout is a tradition.

“We also partner with WVVA and we do cookouts on Fridays for all the local teams in West Virginia and Virginia,” he said. “We’ve been doing it for well over 10 years.”

Ramey said the tour can extend to some playoff games if a team advances.

“We are cooking 105 (steaks) today,” he said, with Princeton being one of the bigger schools.

Ramey said the schedule is worked out each year in consultation with the schools to figure out which home game would be the best one for the cookout.

“We try to line it all up and make all the magic happen,” he said, adding that other stores help in some of the areas to get 15 cookouts in. “It’s quite a task to do, but we make it happen.”

Ramey said he and many employees of Ramey and Grants are football fans and he played football himself.

“It’s deep in our blood,” he said, and they particularly like the rivalry games.

Next week, the tour will stop in Tazewell with a pre-game meal before the Tazewell-Richlands rivalry game.

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