Photo by: Ball State University Creative Services
Hot for Tots: How Worthen Arena Went Tater Crazy
April 16, 2020 | General, Men's Basketball
An examination of the "Tots for Missed Shots" phenomenon, from the beginning
"You gonna eat your tots?"
-Napoleon Dynamite
On Nov. 5, 2019, with the Ball State men's basketball team routing Defiance College 79-34 in the season opener at John E. Worthen Arena, Yellow Jackets guard Matthew Cline was fouled by BSU's Miryne Thomas on a 3-point attempt with 4:03 remaining. The sophomore toed the charity stripe in front of The Nest. The visit to the line marked the chance for either free points for his team or, potentially, free vegetables for the 3,294 supporters in attendance that evening.
Who doesn't like free starchy food?
Weekly Meeting, Ball State Sports Properties and Ball State Marketing, a Monday in October
The usual crew congregated in the Stoops Buick/GMC Ticket Center on a Monday in October. Shane Nichols, Justin Phillips and Jeff Jacomet from the Ball State Sports Properties team joined associate athletic director Shawn Sullivan in his office. The group reviewed recent football game promotions, talked about different signage opportunities and looked to wrap-up the sponsor activations for the swiftly approaching basketball season. Nichols had an iced tea in hand.
"We had an opening for the missed free throw activation," said Nichols, a Ball State graduate who is the general manager of the properties team. "We talked about Roots Burger Bar and what was on their menu because we owed them a promotion for the basketball season. Tater tots came up. They are delicious at Roots. Then, our colleague Jeff (Jacomet) harkened back to a classic episode of "The Office" about "Scott's Tots" and after laughing about that for a couple of minutes we knew we had something."
The team had been focused on creating in-game promotions that would provide results for corporate partners and engage fans concurrently. In order to accomplish this, the partner must be willing to risk a certain amount of product in the hopes that the return outweighs that investment. That's the job of the Ball State marketing and sponsorship teams. Activate above expectations.
"When we sat down to talk about how to integrate Roots into the basketball game day experience, we wanted to try and make it memorable for fans and impactful for the business," Sullivan said. "Roots had already shown they were up for just about anything in terms of creativity. But would they be willing to give away food? We decided that tater tots might be a price-efficient option. Next was how to incorporate the restaurant and food into a scenario during the course of a game. A scenario that is fairly frequent to provide consistent value every game. A bonus would be to then tie those elements into fan involvement. How about getting loud when our team needs it the most?"
Eventually, after strategizing over logistics and promotion names, the group concluded that "Tots for Missed Shots" was the winner, leveraging every time a visiting team went to the free throw line to shoot at least two shots. First attempt to execute the promotion? Nov. 5 when Ball State hosted Defiance.
But only if Scotty Wise was on board.
"Well, I'm a marketing major alumni from Ball State, so I love working on promotional efforts like this," said Wise, the proprietor of Roots and veteran of the restaurant and hospitality business. "I love creativity, getting students involved and all the while helping out the team while promoting the restaurant. I think for the best promotions it must be a win-win-win. A win for the students, crowd. A win for the team. And a win for the restaurant. This accomplished all three."
Tater Tots, The Beginning
Americans consume 70 million pounds of tots per year according to foodimentary.com. How did such a simple idea become such a big hit with the appetites of the United States? Leftovers, of course.
The founders of Ore-Ida began their business focusing on sweet corn. The Grigg brothers were the largest distributor of sweet corn in the United States by 1951. But the company desired to get into the frozen potato phenomenon which was pioneered by J.R. Simplot. It was difficult work.
From Eater.com: "The Grigg brothers (F. Nephi and Golden) wanted in. But french fry creation had a technology problem: The machinery could cut the potatoes into fries, but, as Nephi wrote, 'we had a problem of separating the fries from the slivers and small pieces of potatoes that occurred [when] slicing the irregular shaped potatoes.'
"When an equipment manufacturing company inexplicably showed up at their plant to demonstrate a prune sorter, Nephi and his plant superintendent Slim Burton chatted with them about a redesign. Could the barrel be redesigned so that it would eliminate the unwanted pieces of potatoes from the very wanted french fries? It could."
More innovation occurred and, eventually, Ore-Ida's Tater Tots came to life.
Again, from Eater.com: "So they got creative, smashed those bits together with some new machinery, blanched, formed, cooked in oil, and froze what would become their company's namesake. The original plan, according to Grigg's papers, was for the tots to be fried, but later home chefs realized they tasted just as good baked, and Ore-Ida changed its branding. Some brilliant man on the research committee — who according to Nephi's note 'traveled the markets playing a ukelele and demonstrating our product' but whose name is lost to history — came up with the name with the help of a thesaurus and an affinity for alliteration, and the Tater Tot was off to the races."
The term Tater Tot, the first of which was sold by the company in 1954, is trademarked by the Ore-Ida company which was sold to Heinz in the 1960's before merging with Kraft in 2015.
"I think tater tots are nostalgic," said Wise, who has served up the item on menus for years. "When we eat tater tots, we are reminded of growing up. School lunches, dinners at home … I believe the movie "Napoleon Dynamite" actually contributed to some of the 'return of the tot hype' as well. It is hard to forget Napoleon stuffing tots in his pants pockets to eat later during a quiz in class. And, in all truthfulness, they are just a great comfort food snack."
A tradition is born
It wasn't one of the largest crowds of the season – in fact one of the smallest – but the energy in the building ticked up when the graphic appeared on ChirpVision. The video board informed patrons that if an opposing player missed two consecutive free throws during a trip to the foul line, everyone would receive FREE TATER TOTS!
The aforementioned Defiance guard, Cline, dribbled, took a breath and shot it toward the iron for his first attempt. Clang.
"We were fortunate that during the debut of the promotion that night that the visiting team went to the line a few times during the game and converted on both shots," said Sullivan. "It provided us a chance to educate the fans that this is happening every time the visitors are at the free throw line. The graphic was displayed several times with the premise of the promotion. It reinforced to the fans, 'when the opposition is at the line, you can win free tots and you should get loud.'"
The official bounced it back to the sophomore guard from Fostoria, Ohio, for his second attempt. Same routine, but the crowd was at full throat this time around after realizing that with one miss they could be enjoying "American Ingenuity at its Finest"* for FREE at Roots Burger Bar. The band was suddenly chanting in three distinct syllables, "TA-TER TOTS!"
The toss rimmed out. Euphoria inside the octagon-shaped venue named after Ball State's 11th president. Cline made the third attempt but that was of little concern to anyone present. FREE TOTS! A new fan tradition was born.
"What stands out in my mind is how it built throughout the season," recalled long-time public address announcer Tom Simpson. "I remember the students and band getting into it first. And then it was like a wave every game as the season went on. As the games became more important the momentum of the promotion really ramped up."
Simpson believes it impacted the opposing shooters.
"With promotions you never know if the players are paying attention. But you could tell that the visiting players would step up for that first shot wondering why all of a sudden the crowd would go berserk. But then after they would miss the first the crowd would go absolutely insane, and that has to get in the shooter's head a little bit."
The promotion worked out even better than Wise predicted.
"I never imagined that the students would grab onto the promotion so well and have so much fun with it," he said. "The signs they held up and the chants they did at games were so much fun to watch. When I saw a video of some of the band chanting 'We Want Tots' at the Northern Illinois game on the road, it made me really proud."
The Cardinals played 15 home games at Worthen Arena during the 2019-20 men's basketball season. At 10 of them, opposing players missed two consecutive free throws, resulting in free tots. In contrast, that scenario only occurred three times during the 2018-19 campaign. Is it possible that the allure of free baby potatoes contributed to wins on the hardwood?
"Admittedly, I am pretty locked into coaching during games, so it took me a while to catch onto the tots promotion," head men's basketball coach James Whitford said. "But eventually it became impossible even for me not to notice the crowd's excitement when the opponent was shooting free throws. And just in general, the energy inside Worthen was greater this season than any other during my time at Ball State. That certainly makes a difference for our team, and there's no doubt it played a role in our home court success this year."
Ball State Athletics encourages all fans to take a look at carry out options from Roots Burger Bar in the Village and all of our local restaurant partners.
*Foodimentary called Tater Tots American Ingenuity at its Finest.
References:
https://www.eater.com/2017/8/28/16159710/tater-tots-ore-ida-history
https://foodimentary.com/tag/tater-tots/
-Napoleon Dynamite
On Nov. 5, 2019, with the Ball State men's basketball team routing Defiance College 79-34 in the season opener at John E. Worthen Arena, Yellow Jackets guard Matthew Cline was fouled by BSU's Miryne Thomas on a 3-point attempt with 4:03 remaining. The sophomore toed the charity stripe in front of The Nest. The visit to the line marked the chance for either free points for his team or, potentially, free vegetables for the 3,294 supporters in attendance that evening.
Who doesn't like free starchy food?
Weekly Meeting, Ball State Sports Properties and Ball State Marketing, a Monday in October
The usual crew congregated in the Stoops Buick/GMC Ticket Center on a Monday in October. Shane Nichols, Justin Phillips and Jeff Jacomet from the Ball State Sports Properties team joined associate athletic director Shawn Sullivan in his office. The group reviewed recent football game promotions, talked about different signage opportunities and looked to wrap-up the sponsor activations for the swiftly approaching basketball season. Nichols had an iced tea in hand.
"We had an opening for the missed free throw activation," said Nichols, a Ball State graduate who is the general manager of the properties team. "We talked about Roots Burger Bar and what was on their menu because we owed them a promotion for the basketball season. Tater tots came up. They are delicious at Roots. Then, our colleague Jeff (Jacomet) harkened back to a classic episode of "The Office" about "Scott's Tots" and after laughing about that for a couple of minutes we knew we had something."
The team had been focused on creating in-game promotions that would provide results for corporate partners and engage fans concurrently. In order to accomplish this, the partner must be willing to risk a certain amount of product in the hopes that the return outweighs that investment. That's the job of the Ball State marketing and sponsorship teams. Activate above expectations.
"When we sat down to talk about how to integrate Roots into the basketball game day experience, we wanted to try and make it memorable for fans and impactful for the business," Sullivan said. "Roots had already shown they were up for just about anything in terms of creativity. But would they be willing to give away food? We decided that tater tots might be a price-efficient option. Next was how to incorporate the restaurant and food into a scenario during the course of a game. A scenario that is fairly frequent to provide consistent value every game. A bonus would be to then tie those elements into fan involvement. How about getting loud when our team needs it the most?"
Eventually, after strategizing over logistics and promotion names, the group concluded that "Tots for Missed Shots" was the winner, leveraging every time a visiting team went to the free throw line to shoot at least two shots. First attempt to execute the promotion? Nov. 5 when Ball State hosted Defiance.
But only if Scotty Wise was on board.
"Well, I'm a marketing major alumni from Ball State, so I love working on promotional efforts like this," said Wise, the proprietor of Roots and veteran of the restaurant and hospitality business. "I love creativity, getting students involved and all the while helping out the team while promoting the restaurant. I think for the best promotions it must be a win-win-win. A win for the students, crowd. A win for the team. And a win for the restaurant. This accomplished all three."
Tater Tots, The Beginning
Americans consume 70 million pounds of tots per year according to foodimentary.com. How did such a simple idea become such a big hit with the appetites of the United States? Leftovers, of course.
The founders of Ore-Ida began their business focusing on sweet corn. The Grigg brothers were the largest distributor of sweet corn in the United States by 1951. But the company desired to get into the frozen potato phenomenon which was pioneered by J.R. Simplot. It was difficult work.
From Eater.com: "The Grigg brothers (F. Nephi and Golden) wanted in. But french fry creation had a technology problem: The machinery could cut the potatoes into fries, but, as Nephi wrote, 'we had a problem of separating the fries from the slivers and small pieces of potatoes that occurred [when] slicing the irregular shaped potatoes.'
"When an equipment manufacturing company inexplicably showed up at their plant to demonstrate a prune sorter, Nephi and his plant superintendent Slim Burton chatted with them about a redesign. Could the barrel be redesigned so that it would eliminate the unwanted pieces of potatoes from the very wanted french fries? It could."
More innovation occurred and, eventually, Ore-Ida's Tater Tots came to life.
Again, from Eater.com: "So they got creative, smashed those bits together with some new machinery, blanched, formed, cooked in oil, and froze what would become their company's namesake. The original plan, according to Grigg's papers, was for the tots to be fried, but later home chefs realized they tasted just as good baked, and Ore-Ida changed its branding. Some brilliant man on the research committee — who according to Nephi's note 'traveled the markets playing a ukelele and demonstrating our product' but whose name is lost to history — came up with the name with the help of a thesaurus and an affinity for alliteration, and the Tater Tot was off to the races."
The term Tater Tot, the first of which was sold by the company in 1954, is trademarked by the Ore-Ida company which was sold to Heinz in the 1960's before merging with Kraft in 2015.
"I think tater tots are nostalgic," said Wise, who has served up the item on menus for years. "When we eat tater tots, we are reminded of growing up. School lunches, dinners at home … I believe the movie "Napoleon Dynamite" actually contributed to some of the 'return of the tot hype' as well. It is hard to forget Napoleon stuffing tots in his pants pockets to eat later during a quiz in class. And, in all truthfulness, they are just a great comfort food snack."
Some missed free throws last night means tots today! @RootsBurgerBar #chirpchirp pic.twitter.com/mXuXHwwPEA
— Ball State Sports (@BallStateSports) January 8, 2020
A tradition is born
It wasn't one of the largest crowds of the season – in fact one of the smallest – but the energy in the building ticked up when the graphic appeared on ChirpVision. The video board informed patrons that if an opposing player missed two consecutive free throws during a trip to the foul line, everyone would receive FREE TATER TOTS!
The aforementioned Defiance guard, Cline, dribbled, took a breath and shot it toward the iron for his first attempt. Clang.
"We were fortunate that during the debut of the promotion that night that the visiting team went to the line a few times during the game and converted on both shots," said Sullivan. "It provided us a chance to educate the fans that this is happening every time the visitors are at the free throw line. The graphic was displayed several times with the premise of the promotion. It reinforced to the fans, 'when the opposition is at the line, you can win free tots and you should get loud.'"
The official bounced it back to the sophomore guard from Fostoria, Ohio, for his second attempt. Same routine, but the crowd was at full throat this time around after realizing that with one miss they could be enjoying "American Ingenuity at its Finest"* for FREE at Roots Burger Bar. The band was suddenly chanting in three distinct syllables, "TA-TER TOTS!"
The toss rimmed out. Euphoria inside the octagon-shaped venue named after Ball State's 11th president. Cline made the third attempt but that was of little concern to anyone present. FREE TOTS! A new fan tradition was born.
TOTS!!! TOTS!!! TOTS!!! TOTS!!!
— Ball State Sports (@BallStateSports) February 12, 2020
TOTS!!! TOTS!!! TOTS!!! TOTS!!!
TOTS!!! TOTS!!! TOTS!!! TOTS!!!
TOTS!!! TOTS!!! TOTS!!! TOTS!!!
"What stands out in my mind is how it built throughout the season," recalled long-time public address announcer Tom Simpson. "I remember the students and band getting into it first. And then it was like a wave every game as the season went on. As the games became more important the momentum of the promotion really ramped up."
Simpson believes it impacted the opposing shooters.
"With promotions you never know if the players are paying attention. But you could tell that the visiting players would step up for that first shot wondering why all of a sudden the crowd would go berserk. But then after they would miss the first the crowd would go absolutely insane, and that has to get in the shooter's head a little bit."
The promotion worked out even better than Wise predicted.
"I never imagined that the students would grab onto the promotion so well and have so much fun with it," he said. "The signs they held up and the chants they did at games were so much fun to watch. When I saw a video of some of the band chanting 'We Want Tots' at the Northern Illinois game on the road, it made me really proud."
@GoHuskiesMBB where's our tots? pic.twitter.com/sGnzZBGDD0
— Christian DuBois (@IMDRR) March 7, 2020
The Cardinals played 15 home games at Worthen Arena during the 2019-20 men's basketball season. At 10 of them, opposing players missed two consecutive free throws, resulting in free tots. In contrast, that scenario only occurred three times during the 2018-19 campaign. Is it possible that the allure of free baby potatoes contributed to wins on the hardwood?
"Admittedly, I am pretty locked into coaching during games, so it took me a while to catch onto the tots promotion," head men's basketball coach James Whitford said. "But eventually it became impossible even for me not to notice the crowd's excitement when the opponent was shooting free throws. And just in general, the energy inside Worthen was greater this season than any other during my time at Ball State. That certainly makes a difference for our team, and there's no doubt it played a role in our home court success this year."
Ball State Athletics encourages all fans to take a look at carry out options from Roots Burger Bar in the Village and all of our local restaurant partners.
*Foodimentary called Tater Tots American Ingenuity at its Finest.
References:
https://www.eater.com/2017/8/28/16159710/tater-tots-ore-ida-history
https://foodimentary.com/tag/tater-tots/
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