By Rilwan Ameen - Beverly Hills, California - In traditional pep rally style, the staff of Lawry’s Prime Rib restaurant and members of Temple City HS marching band welcomed the Rose Bowl participants, the Michigan State Spartans and Stanford Cardinal to raucous ovations.
And there I stood each time over the course of the weekend, transfixed by the brigade that awaited the 2013 Big Ten and Pac-12 champions upon their individual arrivals.
On Friday, there it was: the 58th annual Lawry's Beef Bowl was underway as a police escort led the Spartans team bus through the streets of Beverly Hills.
And there I stood each time over the course of the weekend, transfixed by the brigade that awaited the 2013 Big Ten and Pac-12 champions upon their individual arrivals.
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| The Stanford Cardinal welcomed at Lawry's |
The Lawry's Beef Bowl has been college football's annual tradition prior to every Rose Bowl game since 1957; where both participating teams compete in some light-hearted fun and indulge themselves in some prime rib eating.
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| B1G meets Pac-12 |
As Head Coach Mark Dantonio departed the bus first, the Spartans were greeted to tunes from the Michigan State marching band and a festive red carpet welcome.
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| I was one of a crowd of media members MSU Head Coach Mark Dantonio addressed |
"To walk down that red carpet as we walked in with all the people, you know I had to take a step back because I wasn't sure who was supposed to go first there," Dantonio said. "We're just excited to be here."
Waiting from the signal from the photog to head to the media area where players and coaches would answer questions about the event, I watched in awe as the MSU fight song blared on while players and staff exited the buses one-by-one heading inside to Lawry's for their first test prior to the 'grandaddy of them all', the 100th Rose Bowl game on New Year's Day.
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| MSU emblem on Police motorcycle |
Rushing inside to the horde of media all ready for the Spartan contingent, I had my general list of questions that I had prepared -- ranging from who can eat the most prime rib on the team?, to describe the feeling coming from cold East Lansing to 80-degree Pasadena and does the success of the season come into perspective being honored at an event like this?
Well Senior offensive lineman, Center Travis Jackson broke down the competition amongst his teammates, thus ending all of my "preparedness" with one statement.
"I got a top five for the beef bowl today," Jackson said.
"We have the four meat squad members and then we have Shawn Kamm (said to have eaten a team-high 79 wings at last year's Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl), so I wanted to profile those guys for you."
After describing attributes of his teammates eating abilities from girth and endurance to great shoulders and length; when asked about where he was in the mix, Jackson joked --
"I'm a supporter, you know I'm like these guys press guy."
Sophomore Offensive Lineman Jack Allen carved the first piece of beef at the Lawry's Beef Bowl, selecting Coach Dantonio to be awarded with the opening plate.
The favored Kamm ended up eating the most on the Spartans with five plates of prime rib.
The friendly competitive eating continued on Saturday afternoon as the Stanford Cardinal made their way to Lawry's looking to one-up the Spartans total at the beef bowl.
As the Rose Bowl defending champions, Stanford Head Coach David Shaw put the fun nature of the event into perspective.
"After last year's beef bowl we just had one individual we had to worry about the next day Josh Garnett," said Shaw.
Garnett was Stanford's leading beef eater last year and proclaimed upon entering Lawry's "the champ is here."
Legend has it, that traditionally whoever wins the Beef Bowl competition usually wins the Rose Bowl game just days later -- at about a 70 percent clip (according to Lawry's officials the trend has occurred 39 times in the history of the event). Stanford ended up winning the Beef Bowl but lost the big game to Michigan State - a reversal of past history!
As for my results in the beef bowl, I was able to consume a grand total of two pieces of beef (the record is 8). Needless to say Southern California tradition, bowl football and prime rib can make for quite the contest and lasting memories to along with it.
"We have the four meat squad members and then we have Shawn Kamm (said to have eaten a team-high 79 wings at last year's Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl), so I wanted to profile those guys for you."
After describing attributes of his teammates eating abilities from girth and endurance to great shoulders and length; when asked about where he was in the mix, Jackson joked --
"I'm a supporter, you know I'm like these guys press guy."
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| Jackson's teammate Junior Linebacker Taiwan Jones addresses the media |
The favored Kamm ended up eating the most on the Spartans with five plates of prime rib.
The friendly competitive eating continued on Saturday afternoon as the Stanford Cardinal made their way to Lawry's looking to one-up the Spartans total at the beef bowl.
As the Rose Bowl defending champions, Stanford Head Coach David Shaw put the fun nature of the event into perspective.
"After last year's beef bowl we just had one individual we had to worry about the next day Josh Garnett," said Shaw.
Garnett was Stanford's leading beef eater last year and proclaimed upon entering Lawry's "the champ is here."
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| Temple City HS marching band playing to the tunes of both teams fight song |
Legend has it, that traditionally whoever wins the Beef Bowl competition usually wins the Rose Bowl game just days later -- at about a 70 percent clip (according to Lawry's officials the trend has occurred 39 times in the history of the event). Stanford ended up winning the Beef Bowl but lost the big game to Michigan State - a reversal of past history!
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| Site of the 100th Rose Bowl Game |
As for my results in the beef bowl, I was able to consume a grand total of two pieces of beef (the record is 8). Needless to say Southern California tradition, bowl football and prime rib can make for quite the contest and lasting memories to along with it.
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| Myself with ESPNLA.com's Arash Markazi |
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