The Oklahoma football team is scheduled to participate in the 62nd Beef Bowl Thursday at Lawry’s The Prime Rib in Beverly Hills, one day before its opponent in Monday’s College Football Playoff Semifinal at the Rose Bowl, Georgia.
The Beef Bowl began in 1956 and is older than all but the Rose, Orange, Cotton, Sugar and Sun bowls. It is billed by organizers as college football’s most enduring pre-bowl game tradition.
More than 21,480 players and coaches have been served at Beef Bowl events with more than 84,100 pounds of prime rib consumed, according to Todd Erickson, the event’s publicist and author of the 2005 book, “Road to the Rose Bowl,” which explores the Rose Bowl Game and the tradition of Lawry’s Beef Bowl through players’ and coaches’ recollections.
The Sooners will be participating in their second Beef Bowl and the Bulldogs their first. Georgia’s only previous Rose Bowl appearance, in 1943, came before the creation of the Beef Bowl.
Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield is expected to become the 19th Heisman Trophy winner to participate in the Beef Bowl.
Lawry’s Beef Bowl has not been a competition since 1970. Coaches are informed that there is a limit of two servings of prime rib per player.
Richard R. Frank, president and chief executive officer of Lawry’s Restaurants Inc., said Lawry’s Beef Bowl “is not about what team eats the most.”
“The purpose of the event is to honor champion student-athletes for their achievement as a team of making it to the Rose Bowl Game,” said Frank, whose late father, Richard N. Frank, conceived the Beef Bowl in 1956, shortly after becoming Lawry’s president.
“The meal is a large part of the celebration because these are young men with enormous appetites, but it’s more about celebrating together away from the practice field in a legendary setting.”
—City News Service