Serious Cyclone football enthusiasts arrived several hours before the 6 p.m. game on Saturday, but they weren’t there as early as ISU Police Capt. Gene Deisinger.

Deisinger arrived at the stadium at noon, beating even the earliest fan by a couple of hours. He came with the purpose of keeping tailgaters in order, spending part of his shift walking through the stadium parking lots and making sure nothing illegal was taking place.

There wasn’t much to worry about — most of the parties were modest groups of people circled around their grill discussing Iowa State’s roster. They grilled burgers and drank their Miller Genuine Draft, while their children played 500 in the parking lots next to the stadium.

After inspecting the parking lot, Deisinger decided to move to an area with more activity. He began walking to Elwood Drive, joining a strong current of students and other tailgaters that cut through the tranquil parking area next to the stadium. After arriving at Elwood Drive, the traffic directors watched the pedestrians intently, making sure nobody from the massive crowd crossed the street until their designated time.

Stepping over Elwood Drive and into Parking Lot S-2 wasn’t too different from stepping into another country. The area is the new home of public parking lots, mainly student tailgaters, who used to spend their Saturday afternoons in the stadium parking lot.

The tranquil environment of the alumni lots was replaced by crushed cans of Busch Light, loud sound systems and Cyclone flags flying next to American ones.

While most of the students were concentrated in one area, the new location hasn’t made the job more difficult or the students more unruly, ISU Police officials said. The atmosphere is the same, the only difference is “all the activity is concentrated in one area,” said ISU Police Sgt. Aaron DeLashmutt.

As Deisinger walked among the tailgaters, he asked to see their IDs, shouting in order to be heard above speakers blaring AC/DC’s “You Shook Me All Night Long.”

Most students readily complied when he asked for their identification. They proudly displayed the legal status on their driver’s license as they slipped it back into their wallet and drank another Natural Light.

The students who were underage were much less bold. When their age was discovered, they sheepishly listened to Deisinger explain the fine, and quietly hung their heads as they were handed the $147 fine.

Students expressed concerns over the safety of the new tailgating location for students. Tailgaters said the constant flow of students walking across Elwood Drive will create an accident.

“I guarantee a traffic accident will happen sometime this year,” said Eric Schultz, senior in industrial technology. “The street crossing is trouble.”

ISU alumna Diane Grady said the lack of bathroom facilities was another problem with the new location for most student tailgaters. Grady said lot S-2 didn’t have as many portable bathrooms as the parking lots near the stadium.

“There aren’t enough bathrooms in these parking lots, which is why everybody is pissing in the woods,” she said, referring to the forest that ran adjacent to the parking lots on the east side of Elwood Drive.

While the atmosphere was wild, the tailgaters didn’t cause too many problems, Deisinger said.

“Today we’ve only issued citations for underage drinking — we haven’t had any custodial arrests,” he said. “By and large, this is a well-behaved crowd.”

In the end, two tailgaters were arrested for public intoxication and 36 citations were issued for underage possession of alcohol, according to ISU Police logs.