Over 500 MSU fans and dozens of parked cars packed the West Anna Head Parking Lot two blocks off the Berkeley campus to do a little tailgating MSU-style.

“It’s awesome to come into a parking lot and see 99 percent of the places taken up by State fans,” said Eric Gillow, a 1999 MSU graduate from Okemos. “We came in here at 9 a.m. and there were only four cars here, but they were all from MSU.”

By noon not much had changed, as the parking lot was full of MSU Green and White, with just a few Golden Bears fans in the lot.

Scott Chinoski, a 2003 graduate and President of the MSU Alumni Club of the San Francisco Bay Area, said the tailgate was just a small part of what his group planned for the traveling fans.

“We expected over 12,000 alumni to come out here and as the host alumni group, we just have to make sure they feel at home and make this an extension of MSU,” Chinoski said. “We had a city tour, a bar crawl, this tailgate, we provided maps, and we just wanted to raise awareness for the alumni association and what we can do.”

According to 2007 graduate Mike Findling, the Friday night Bar Crawl was a great success. The Los Angeles resident and Detroit native said he and his group of friends felt like they were “back in East Lansing.”

“It’s a good representation for the school,” Findling said of the turnout. “I knew there were going to be a lot of people here but not to the extent that they were taking over every place they were in.”

The MSU faithful did indeed take over the West Anna Head Parking Lot, and by noon Cal’s Parking and Transportation Department had to start turning people away due to spots reserved for media parking.

Lot attendant Max Liu said the department usually doesn’t send attendants to lots until 11:30 a.m., but with the vast following of MSU fans, he had to come into work early after receiving a call from his supervisor at 9 a.m.

Niu said the early phone call was definitely a surprise.

“Quite frankly, yeah,” said Niu, who added the number of MSU fans present was similar to what other Pac-10 teams bring to Berkeley. “It’s a pretty big turnout. I know it’s the first game of the season and all, but to come from all the way out in the Midwest is pretty impressive.”

MSU fans continued to impress, as every few minutes another car had to be told there was simply no room to park.

“It’s awful, and a lot of people have been saying that, it’s just not a good tailgating area,” said 1996 graduate Kris Sanford, who moved to California three months ago, and had to beg Niu to let him in. “I don’t think the Pac-10 is that much into tailgating like the Big Ten is. With that being said, we’re going to give them a show.”

No matter how crowded the tailgating area was or who would win the evening’s game, the MSU faithful were enjoying the chance to be around other die-hard Spartans on the San Francisco Bay.

“You can’t beat this,” 1982 graduate Thaddeus Unold said of being in California. “We came out Thursday and saw the city, enjoyed a ball game in Oakland against the (Minnesota) Twins and (Oakland) A’s and just hooted it up and enjoyed ourselves.

“We went to Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco and saw so many people wearing Green and White. It was really, really nice to see that out here.”