The BYU and Western Michigan football teams have arrived in town for Fridays Famous Idaho Potato Bowl at Albertsons Stadium and the first order of business was lunch.

Not for themselves but for more than 40,000 hungry Idahoans. The Cougar and Bronco teams went for the hairnets rather than the helmets on the first day of bowl week.

The team competition was simple to try and combined their efforts to create more than 40,000 meals for the hungry. The event held in the gymnasium at Bishop Kelly High school was a first for the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl.

In the past the kickoff event was a bowling tournament where scores were translated into pounds of beef which was then donated to needed families. After more than 20 years of Bowling for Beef in which only a handful of players were selected to bowl, this years event involved every player on each team and then some.

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Employees from Albertsons and Agri Beef worked to create another 20,000 meals for a grand total of 60,000 meals for Idaho families.

Famous Idaho Potato Bowl Executive Director Kevin McDonald told me 1 in 8 Idahoans can benefit from the team work of BYU and Western Michigan.

Both teams jumped in and for nearly two hours worked side by side...well actually the Broncos were on one side of the gym and BYU players on the other but it was definitely a total team effort met with the enthusiasm. Bowl officials had hoped to see.

BYU coach Kalani Sataki says BYU is honored to be in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl and while the blue field hasn't exactly been their friend in the past, Sataki said he's anxious for BYU fans in the area to see their Cougars try and win a 7th game.

Sataki told me he felt BYU had improved all season and excited to be on the field one more time in 2018, even if it is on the dreaded blue and against a team with ironically, a Bronco mascot.

 

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