STILLWATER, Okla. (AP) — The clock declares midnight in Kristen Gundy’s white Suburban.

The Oklahoma State campus, bristling a couple of hours earlier with a Thursday night football game, now is mostly deserted. But Kristen and her husband are on a mission.

Find some football fans.

The tail-gating armies south of Boone Pickens Stadium have cleared. So have the parking lots on Duck Street, north of the stadium, and Hester Street, south of campus.

“We’ll find somebody,” said Mr. Kristen Gundy. “This is pretty routine, because we’ve played so many night games.”

Elm Avenue, home of Eskimo Joe’s, is full of revelers, celebrating a 31-28 victory over Colorado. But the Suburban drives past; that’s a crowd with other things on its mind. So the Gundys head for the sure bet, the makeshift RV park west of the OSU track.

The Suburban pulls in and rolls up to a group of Cowboys fans sitting outside a fifth-wheel camper. Mike Gundy barrels out from the Suburban’s back seat.

“Oh my gosh,” says Phil Crabtree of Seabrook, Texas. “This is the greatest thing ever.”

Les Miles brought The Walk to Stillwater, a pre-game ritual that has become a wildly popular tradition.

Mike Gundy has brought The Tailgate Tour. After every OSU home game, the Gundys troll campus to chat with lingering fans, thanking them for their loyalty. They crash tail-gate parties. Knock on Winnebago doors, provided the lights are on. Stop and chat with anyone wearing orange.

“We’re very blessed to meet these people,” Kristen Gundy said. “If they get a little bit of joy shaking my husband’s hand and visiting with him, you just go home, win or lose, and your heart is filled with joy. And you know why you’re here.”

The tour was Kristen’s idea.

“She said we needed to do something different,” Mike Gundy said. “She said, ‘Why not go out and shake people’s hands?'”

Gundy had only one question for his wife.

“What if we lose?” he asked.

“That’s part of it,” Kristen told him.

Turns out, Cowboy fans have appreciated the visit even more after an OSU defeat. Sort of conveys the message, we’re all in this together.

“We were leaving the first home game, we just saw all the fans tailgating, and kids playing catch, and that’s what it’s all about,” Kristen said. “So I just felt like suddenly pulling in and saying, thank you for coming out, putting these tents out and supporting the team.”

Crabtree and his wife, Carmen, flew in from Houston for the game. Their friend, Reagan Eden of Bixby, supplied the RV. They regale Gundy with tales of their loyalty.

“This is his life,” Carmen Crabtree says of her husband. “Our 6-year-old accused him of having a girlfriend, we take him to the airport so much.”

That mistress is OSU football.

But Gundy stirs the conversation, too. He discovers that Carmen Crabtree is a Texas A&M graduate and tells her, “We’re all Aggies.” Gundy embarks on a discussion of fish camp, one of the A&M traditions in which students learn the Aggies’ myriad yells.

“We can get that started here,” Gundy said. He slaps Phil Crabtree on the shoulder. “I think you’re just the guy.”

Few people in Stillwater felt like partying the evening of Nov. 3, 2007. The Cowboys had just blown a 21-point, fourth-quarter lead and lost to Texas 38-35. Larry Soderstrom, recently diagnosed with colon cancer, was cold and tired. He was at the low point of his chemotherapy, having lost about 30 pounds, then the Longhorns ruined his day.

But Soderstrom’s family lingered. Louise Soderstrom, through a mutual friend, had asked the Gundys to stop by after the game. She planned to wait as long as possible.

And here they came.

“Surprised me, certainly,” Larry Soderstrom said. “They were so nice, so supportive. We talked for quite awhile. Mike was very encouraging.

“It meant a lot to me at that point. For him to take time in that situation … … one of the most gut-wrenching losses in OSU history … what a terrible situation. He took the time to come by and see me, it meant an awful lot.”

The Soderstroms moved to Stillwater from Tulsa upon retirement, so they could be closer to OSU sports. They are some of those loyal fans Kristen Gundy talked about.

“Very down to Earth thing they do,” Soderstrom said of the Tailgate Tour. “It’s a way for Mike to connect with our fan base.

“It’s terrific. It’s a chance for our fans to see Mike and Kristen, that they’re regular people.”

The Gundys posed for a snapshot with the Soderstroms that day. That picture still hangs on the Soderstroms’ wall.

The Gundys have skipped their tour only once in five years, when one of their sons was ill. They don’t plan to stop.

“I don’t know how long we’ll be here,” Kristen said. “But we’ll be here til they kick us out or until he (Mike) dies.

“It’s a very blessed life that we have. We’re touched by these people.

“This brings them true joy, to come and be a part of this. It’s something that really means a lot to Mike and I.”

Which is how they come to be standing on a gravel parking lot, on a cool November night, with the clock well past 12, talking football and life with OSU fans. Reagan Eden says he was in San Diego for the Holiday Bowl and Phoenix for the Insight Bowl and wants to go back to San Diego. That, of course, would require a Bedlam loss.

“You beat Booby (Stoops), I’ll live with it,” Eden says.

Phil Crabtree is less specific on the conversation. He’s still marveling at who barreled out of the back seat.

“I can’t believe you’re here,” Crabtree says. “This is awesome.”

Soon enough, Gundy climbs back into the Suburban, and it slowly drives off, away from the RV park and deeper into the heart of Oklahoma State fans.

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