The Pregame Preacher

The Pregame Preacher

Orange vodka shots, behind-the-bar toasts, and sports serve as key characteristics of the Shifty’s religion

A loud “shhhhh” emanates from every corner of the room as the bartenders distribute orange vodka shots. The crowd wears orange from head-to-toe and sets down their phones as Richard “The Preacher” Parker reviews his notes one last time. He shuffles his papers, adjusts his custom-made hat that has “The Preacher” stitched on it in orange letters, and makes his way behind the bar. All eyes follow the Syracuse Orange superfan as he positions himself to give his last speech of the season as his favorite basketball team prepares to take on the University of Miami in their final home game.

Parker taps the microphone, clears his throat, and begins: “Before we start, I want to make it clear  — THE CANES ARE NOT ABLE!”

Parker’s friends and family have come to Shifty’s before every SU football and basketball home game for more than 30 years. Each game day, the group of tailgaters (which ranges anywhere from 20-200 people) make the hourlong drive to Shifty’s exactly three hours before the start of the game. In fact, there’s so many of them that they must organize themselves into subcategories — Utica 1, Utica 2, Whitesboro 1, etc., —  for billing purposes. Then, for precisely two hours before the game, the Utica group glues themselves to bar stools, orders enough beer, pizza, and wings to feed the entire Carrier Dome, and talks about everything from their kids to Jim Boeheim’s college roommate, who they happen to know. And of course, they listen to The Preacher.

Parker and his fellow “founder,” Steve Haggas, started the tradition when they bought season tickets to SU sports games back in the ‘80s. If there was a “Mount Rushmore” featuring the founding fathers of the Utica group, Haagas explains, “Dick and I, our faces would be on there.” Both young lawyers at the time, the friends recruited some of their pals from their firm, their softball league, and anyone else in the neighborhood to join them for their pregame festivities. One of these old friends, Dave Tomidy, explains that they began hosting their “tailgate party” on campus. But when their friend Lenny Picariello became the owner of Shifty’s, it felt like fate. The bar offered people behind the bar who felt more like friends than staff, four weatherproof walls and a roof over their heads, and unbeatable food: It was the perfect place to pregame. “So, we’ve been coming here forever,” Tomidy says. “I like to go out and have a drink, and I live in Utica, but this is our home away from home. We love Shifty's. It just fits us all.”

Like many traditions (especially those rooted in alcohol consumption), it’s unclear when The Preacher’s eclectic speeches started. Parker argues for six years, and Tomidy says it’s “way more than that.” But at some point during the Utica group’s 30 years of pregaming, Parker began his short “toasts” behind the bar, and they became more and more elaborate as he began to throw in the occasional rhyme and limerick. Then the group started taking videos, bringing in signs, and eventually made a custom hat and t-shirt, completing the evolution of Richard Parker into “The Preacher.”

While the group of central New York sports fans boasts laughter, camaraderie, and plenty of beer, The Preacher takes his speeches very seriously. “For me to do a real good job, I kind of have to rewrite it about three times,” Parker admits. He writes each speech out on a legal pad, carefully underlining the words that rhyme (in this particular speech there are 33 — and, yes, his friends keep count). He also numbers his pages just in case they get mixed up, throws in the occasional shout out, and emphasizes certain words by writing them in all caps with several exclamation points for ideas, points, and insights he wants to drive home. 

Though the Syracuse men’s basketball team had been enduring a losing season for the first time since the 1960s, the Utica group’s game day tradition at Shifty’s means a lot more to them than the score of any given game or the record of any given SU team’s season. It’s where their kids grew up and where they’ve spent more time than any bar in their actual home town (Parker estimates the group has gathered for about 400 games). They know each bartender by name and know the owner lineage of this bar like their own family trees. According to Haggas, the Shifty’s staff will contact one of the founders to ask what time is convenient for them to open the bar.

It’s more than sports, it’s more than beer and pizza, and it’s more than tradition, Parker explains. “​​You have certain things in your life that you look forward to doing. And this is always, always a great day,” he says. “I look forward to it.”

As Parker’s congregation raises their orange vodka shots in the air, he concludes his 4 minute, 23 second-long speech and proclaims, “So, as usual, put your beverage up and put ‘er down — throw it down the slot — don’t be distraught! The Preacher is done and finally heading out to the parking lot. But you need to be IN! ARE YOU IN?”