Lawry's The Prime Rib Hosts 58th Beef Bowl

The Michigan State football team will participate in the first half of the 58th Beef Bowl at Lawry's The Prime Rib in Beverly Hills Friday, which stopped being an eating competition more than 40 years ago.

The Beef Bowl "is not about what team eats the most," said Richard R. Frank, president and chief executive officer of Lawry's Restaurants Inc.

From 1963-69, it was a beef eating contest. The event was known as the Beef Scrimmage from 1970-72 in an attempt to stop the eating competition. It returned to the original name in 1973.

Beef Bowl attendees are allowed seconds "and that's where we try to draw the line, though from time to time there's been a player or two who's tried to get around that rule," Frank said.

The amount of beef consumed by each team is determined by multiplying the number of prime rib roasts consumed by the average weight of a roast, according to Todd Erickson, the event's publicist and author of the 2005 book "Road to the Rose Bowl," about the game and the Beef Bowl.

David Shaw, the coach of the Stanford team that will dine at Lawry's on Saturday, said that while "some guys try to outdo each other," his players "know it's not" about "how much you can eat."

When the Cardinal participated in last year's Beef Bowl before its 20-14 victory over Wisconsin, Shaw "didn't let the starters eat as much as we wanted to," limiting them to two prime ribs each, defensive end Ben Gardner said.

Spartans coach Mark Dantonio told City News Service he would tell his team "don't overeat."

"We’re looking forward to being at Lawry's and having that opportunity to be involved in another unique, great Rose Bowl tradition," Dantonio said in an interview during Thursday's visit to Disneyland by the two Rose Bowl teams.

Offensive tackle Fou Fonoti, a standout at Mayfair High School in Lakewood and Cerritos College in Norwalk and Michigan State’s only player from California, said he was excited about going to Lawry's because of the opportunity to eat prime rib for free and to dine with his teammates.

When asked what he recalled about his team's Beef Bowl appearance last year, Shaw responded, "I remember that Josh Garnett ate way too much."

Shaw said he "lost count" of how much Garnett ate but "it was a lot."

Gardner said he thought Garnett "put down eight slabs of prime rib."

Garnett had "a rough night" after the Beef Bowl because "it takes a while for all that meat to go over you," Shaw said.

The amount of beef Garnett consumed did not effect his performance in practice the following day, but "we had to give him a little time before he was all better again," Shaw said.

Shaw expressed confidence that Garnett, a sophomore guard listed at 6 feet 5 and 316 pounds, won't eat as much this year.

"He’s grown this year in maturity and I think he’s going to take better care of his body," Shaw said.

Garnett was not among the players made available to be interviewed Thursday.

The Beef Bowl began in 1956 and is older than all but the Rose, Orange, Cotton, Sugar and Sun bowls. It was called "the best tradition" of the college football bowl season by The Sporting News in 2005.

Gardner called the Beef Bowl "a lot of fun," serving "the best prime rib I ever had."

"It was a great time with great food," Gardner said. "It's a special experience no matter how many times you go through it."