The story behind America’s most famous Jell-O shots

OMAHA — The chicken finger tycoon was adamant: He wanted $15,000 worth of Jell-O shots. There was a record that had to be broken.

Pat McEvoy, the longtime bar manager at Rocco’s Pizza and Cantina in Omaha, Nebraska, was skeptical. He was quite used to this kind of bombastic behavior in mid-June. The chaos of the Men’s College World Series attracts a certain type of hollow, hard-hitting slugger with a big mouth and zero stamina.

McEvoy explained it this way: “Everyone says they’re somebody this time of year.”

That’s especially true at Rocco’s, which is located right next to Charles Schwab Field, less than 100 yards from the right field goal. The bar’s annual Jell-O shot contest among the eight schools participating in the MCWS has become a local institution and a national sensation, drawing sold-out stands before, during and after games.

The competition is simple: whichever of the eight participating fan bases buys the most alcohol-soaked gelatin “wins.” The fans, motivated to represent their teams, can’t get enough of it.

The numbers are updated three times a day on a makeshift dry-erase board above the bar. And the numbers are staggering. Last year, Rocco’s sold 95,030 shots during the 10-day tournament. At $5 a piece, that brought in $475,150 in Jell-O alone. The bar donates $1.50 from every shot sold to the food banks associated with the eight participating institutions, as well as to a local organization.

The gelatinous schtick capitalizes on the party atmosphere of the MCWS, a tailgate party disguised as a baseball tournament. And Rocco’s has become an essential part of the overall Omaha experience with its Jell-O shot contest.

You can’t go a day watching ESPN’s MCWS coverage without hearing a mention of Jell-O. For Omahans, gulping down a cup of congealed sugar and vodka is the equivalent of kissing the Blarney Stone. The gelatin-eating contest is equal parts inspirational, outrageous, disgusting and compelling. It exploits, supports and amplifies the absurdities and essentialities of college sports enthusiasm; American capitalism at its rawest, most bizarre and addictive.

And recently it has become a means for major sponsors to demonstrate the extent of their commitment. And that’s where the chicken tender tycoon comes in.

Last summer, Todd Graves, the 52-year-old co-founder of the Raising Cane’s chicken chain and a huge fan of LSU sports, wanted to break the all-time throwing record of 18,777 set by Ole Miss fans in 2022. It was a perfect combination of generational circumstances. Graves’ beloved Tigers, led by All-Americans Paul Skenes and Dylan Crews, were in Omaha with a historically good team for the first time in six years. No fan base flocks to Eastern Nebraska like LSU, with its 19 MCWS appearances. Morale was high. A national championship seemed inevitable.

By this point in the Jell-O Showdown, the Purple and Gold had already fired more than 14,000 shots. Graves wanted to push LSU to victory, so he called McEvoy over and asked for a 3,000-shot order for the next day.

“I thought he was kidding me,” McEvoy said, “until he pulled out two black Amex cards and said, ‘You can pay for all of this right away.'”

The next morning, 3,000 somehow became 5,000. And when Graves learned that the Guinness World Record for the largest round of shots ordered by a single person was 5,093—a mark set by country music outlaw Waylon Jennings—he upped his order to 6,000.

Over the next few days, other LSU supporters, not to be outdone, upped the ante even further. Rounds of as many as 8,000 shots were ordered. And after outlasting the University of Florida in the finals and winning the national championship, the Tigers players strolled across the street to Rocco’s to join in the celebration. When the dust finally settled, LSU supporters had purchased an incredible 68,888 Jell-O shots.

A year later, the memory of Rocco’s summer romance with Baton Rouge lingers in 2023. When I walked in on Saturday morning, McEvoy was hanging a bright yellow, signed Dylan Crews jersey above the bar in Rocco’s new Jell-O Shot Room.

A message from the LSU legend is written on the uniform:

It is probably the only piece of memorabilia in baseball history that features both the word “Jell-O” and a Bible verse.

The history of its creation

This bizarre story began in 2011, during the first MCWS, held at Omaha’s sparkling new downtown stadium. A group of rowdy Florida fans, whose team was losing across the street, demanded rally shots. Someone working at the bar, then called Goodnight’s, mixed up a special cocktail to appease the thirsty Gator supporters. It was a moment that stuck in McEvoy’s mind.

The following summer, inspired by an experience watching the Nebraska-Creighton basketball game at a local piano bar, McEvoy came up with elaborate, college-specific punches, gave them raunchy names, and turned them into a competition. It was fun and quirky and made a few local news headlines, but it was a far cry from the phenomenon it is today.

Everything changed in 2019, when Goodnight’s reopened under new management as Rocco’s. The new owner, Kevin Culjat, loved McEvoy’s idea of ​​hosting an intramural, alcohol-related competition, but wanted to simplify the process. Specialty drinks required too much prep time, too many ingredients, and way, way too much glassware. So Culjat recommended premade Jell-O shots, which you could buy in bulk and not have to throw away the excess.

And so the competition was born.

That first year, Arkansas scored a respectable 864 points. When the MCWS returned post-COVID in 2021, Mississippi State fans scored 2,965 points. But things really took off in 2022 after McEvoy started a Twitter account to post regular scoreboard updates. That’s when he realized the whole thing had exceeded even his wildest expectations.

“That Monday, I had 17 followers,” he recalls. “By Saturday, I had 17,000. Before the end of the week, I thought, ‘Oh, people are really interested in this.'”

The details

The switch from liquid spirits to pre-made shots was revolutionary for Rocco’s, but some problems still existed.

In 2022, they sold 31,215 shots, but the bar could only sell what it could source, and McEvoy, Culjat and Co. struggled to keep up with demand. The pace was borderline unsustainable. Culjat said he had buckets of Jell-O shots delivered from as far away as Minneapolis and Denver. The bar still ran out of supplies.

With MCWS 2023 on the horizon, Rocco is turning to the future.

They were contacted by Jevo, a company that makes and sells automatic gelatin drink machines. The contraptions are a testament to American ingenuity, an impressive and hilarious feat of engineering: It’s a Keurig coffee maker, but for fizzy booze. The company also boasts what it calls “Squeeze and Suck Technology” for its patented cups, which allow consumers to avoid scooping out the good stuff with their fingers.

For Rocco’s, working with Jevo was an opportunity to (1) fully customize shots based on team, flavor, and color, (2) control the entire supply chain, and (3) significantly improve taste. The bar doesn’t actually use Jevo’s machines during MCWS because demand is still too high. Instead, Jevo employees work on-site at Rocco’s at night to make all of the shots for the next day by mixing fluorescent concoctions in huge stainless steel kettles.

The debate

It should be noted that not everyone loves the Jell-O Shot Challenge.

Critics have criticized Rocco’s for selling overpriced shots, many of which are never consumed. During LSU’s big 2023 spree, hundreds of drinks ended up in the trash. Alcohol laws require the shots to be consumed on-site. Handing out tens of thousands of cups in a relatively small space is no easy feat.

What’s more, the contest, which was originally a way for schools to measure the number of fans traveling to Omaha, has evolved over the past year into a pissing contest between super-rich college sports boosters. Instead of throwing big bucks around to fund facilities or boost NIL funds, businessmen and entrepreneurs can gain the same influence by buying Jell-O. For some, that dynamic has robbed the gimmick of its luster.

But most people don’t care. The whole thing is just as silly and entertaining as ever. The numbers reflect that, even if what LSU “accomplished” in 2023 will never be repeated. Some Tigers fans tried to get involved again this year, even though the team didn’t reach Omaha. But McEvoy knew that would be a bottomless pit, so he instead set up a way for diehard LSU fans to donate directly to food banks.

“LSU fans wanted to be up there,” he said. “We said no. Otherwise I could put Yahoo Sports up there and have you call. That wouldn’t be fair.”

The tally is still impressive. As of Wednesday afternoon, less than a week into the event, a total of 42,582 shots had been sold, with the University of Tennessee leading the way. That’s $212,910 worth of Jell-O sales, 30% of which ($63,873) will be donated to charity.

The fact is that College World Series attendees will find alcohol – lots of it. According to the operators of Rocco’s, some of the money could also go to a good cause.

McEvoy said: “We understand it’s a silly, silly thing. But it’s still fun.”