One of the most famous Men’s College World Series traditions began with rally shots and dueling pianists at a bar during a Nebraska-Creighton basketball game.
The annual event began in 2011, the year that the College World Series moved to Charles Shchwab Field — then TD Ameritrade Park — from Rosenblatt Stadium previously. South Carolina played Florida, which prompted Rocco’s to make rally shots for Florida’s fans. After noticing this, South Carolina fans wanted in on it as well, and the two fan bases went back and forth.
Manager Pat McEvoy said that he also noticed some pianists receiving tips and competing while a Nebraska-Creighton game was TVs at DJ’s Dugout, and this is what ultimately sparked the idea for the Rocco’s Jell-O shot challenge.
“I was like, ‘Man, what if we do that for all eight teams for the College World Series?’” McEvoy told Hurrdat Sports. “We made eight different shots and named them for each team’s mascot and kind of went from there.”
Eventually, the staff changed from team-specific shots to generic Jell-O shots. Although it started out small, the Jell-O Shot Challenge eventually became a staple during the College World Series. Arkansas was the first fan base to make the event big and help it take off.
“They sold us out of Jell-O the first weekend that they were here,” McEvoy said. “One guy was buying hundreds at a time, and this was the first time that anyone had bought that amount so you’re like, ‘Ah, man.’”
Recently, McEvoy and owner Kevin Culjat had the chance to go down to Arkansas to watch the Regional games. They said that while they were there, fans were super excited and showing them pictures of the night that they sold them out of Jell-O.
“So then, we kind of knew we had something,” McEvoy said.
Both McEvoy and Culjat said that they are surprised how popular this competition has gotten over the years.
“I knew competition would drive it a little bit, but it would only go so far,” McEvoy said. “So it was like, ‘All right this is cool, but what’s the next step?’ The next step was when we really got big on social media and Kevin and Bonnie decided, ‘Hey, this is way beyond anything we expected, we’re going to have to do something cool with this newfound fame, or infamy.’”
As for what they do with the money that they earn from selling the shots, they decided that they would donate it to the teams’ local food banks. Culjat said that this idea came from conducting research to see how they could help communities.
“I got online and just started looking, and that’s when we found the food banks,” Culjat said. “So you get on the food bank at Arkansas, you get in the food bank at Ole Miss and these places and you realize how important it is to these people. We were just coming off of COVID and a couple things that kind of got to me there was when I was looking at the food banks at Ole Miss, 49% of people that were using the food bank were actually employees. You forget when COVID hit and those schools shut down. So as soon as we saw that and I realized what a big need that was for those schools, it was a no-brainer.”
Not only does Rocco’s give to the communities that are competing, but it also donates locally. Culjat and McEvoy have donated to the Food Bank for the Heartland, to Creighton’s food bank, Nebraska-Omaha’s food bank and Iowa Western’s food bank, just to name a few in recent years. Culjat said that for each shot sold, $1 goes to the school that the fan chose, and $0.50 goes to the metro area in and around Omaha.
“It’s nice to kick back locally as well,” Culjat said. “A lot of local people jump in just like the schools do. So an opportunity to cover that broad of a spectrum and to raise that amount of money in such a short time and to give back to food insecurities is something that I know we’re real proud of. We just want to try to push it as far as we can.”
McEvoy and Culjat both want to make a difference. With their donations and contributions, they have helped a lot of people in the community locally and abroad.
“We’re trying to keep it simple like Kevin said,” according to McEvoy. “We’re raising money for charity. That’s what makes it interesting.”
