PCC & ME: The Turkey Bowl Concessions, Probably the Most Fun I Had at PCC

Last time we looked at the Early Days at PCC. 

Every November, during Thanksgiving weekend, PCC conducts College Days. This is a time to showcase the college to prospective students and their parents. Part of the College Days festivities is the Turkey Bowl Soccer ⚽️ Championship game. Two finalists from the men's collegian soccer regular season battle it out for the championship bragging rights.

We were very new on campus. My wife, children and I attended. There are typically many, many spectators ringing the field. I wanted to buy hot dogs and soft drinks for my family. I made my way to the concessions stand. The operation was very small, the layout was not efficient. There was no defined way to guide customers in and through the concessions. Another problem was food prep and delivery. For example hot dogs were cooked, more like warmed on one of those small rotisserie machines you see at gas station convenience stores. The hot dogs were were skewered on one end of a metal stake. The heat source to cook the hot dogs is something like a 250 watt light bulb. The hot dogs would slowly rotate around this heat source, which made cooking time 10-15 minutes for no more than 10-12 hot dogs at a time.

I was thinking at the time this could be far more efficient moving many more fans through. Later that night, after the children had gone to bed, I sat at the kitchen table to overhead diagram my layout and make notations about how I would organize the concessions area. For example: cooking hot dogs I would use two spilt 55 gallon drums to charcoal grill the hot dogs. One for fast cooking, the other as a warming area. Once I finished I put my diagram away, but I saved it.

Fast forward to August 1988. Dr. Goddard called me to his office to say he would like me and my Public Relations (PR) class to take on running that year's Turkey Bowl concessions. I was really excited, and told him about how I drew up plans last year for how I would run it.

On the first day of my PR class I told the students (about 70) that Dean Goddard has given us the privilege and responsibility to run the Turkey Bowl concessions. A wave of excitement ran through the classroom.  I broke up the class into committees with a leader of each. I would meet with the committee leaders every Friday night leading up to the Turkey Bowl, with more frequent meetings two weeks from the event. I would hear progress updates and would offer helpful advice where needed, but the students did the leg work. I wanted this to be their project, their effort that would make it a success. They did it all, they prepared the way for a successful operation.

Dean Hurst

A couple weeks into the semester I reached out to Dean John Hurst. He was in charge of the Pan-Hellenic society. The concessions were being run by my PR class, but sponsored by and in support of the the Pan-Hellenic society. I came to ask Dean Hurst for a sum of money to launch our preparation for the Turkey Bowl.  He said the amount I asked for was their entire budget. He said he would get back to me the next day. So, he saw me the next day. He told me he asked Mrs. Horton about my financial request, and she told him to give it to me.

Among other decisions we made was to buy only food the college food service used. Mrs. Allen, Food Service Director, agreed to buy any of our unused, unopened left over products.

The day of the Turkey Bowl we were ready, excited and a little nervous. The entire day went off without a hitch. Lines of people moved quickly through our concessions. We worked hard and smart. We had fun and nearly sold out all of our products. There was an air of celebration as we tore down the area. We met as a class the following Monday. There was still this buzz of excitement among the students. Some of them shared their personal experience from the day. There were cheers and laughter throughout class time.

All said and done it was down to business. Did we make a profit? The college accounting department counted up the money, subtracted expenses. I had a couple of our graphic design students make up a large presentation check. I assigned several of my students to present that check at the next Pan-Hellenic meeting. They made that presentation to Dean Hurst and the Pan-Hellenic leadership. The amount of the presentation check was triple the funds Dean Hurst had given me weeks before. A few days later Dean Hurst saw me between classes. He said that when he showed Mrs. Horton how much profit we made through the concessions she said to him, "Whatever Mr. Martuneac wants for next year's Turkey Bowl concessions, give it to him."

Funny thing about next year is we sought out vendors who, in exchange for promotional considerations, would give us their food, snacks and soft drinks for free. Even the charcoal and ice was donated. So, we didn't have to request any funds from Pan-Hellenic. From the very first hot dog, bag of chips, candy bar and soft drink sold it was pure profit.

I also decided that instead of a single fixed operation location the fans would have to come to we needed to get out among the fans seated all around the field. This would relieve some pressure at our fixed operation, especially during half time.

We needed racks to carry our products out to the stands. So, I sent some of the students to the Pensacola Civic Center. The civic center hosted semi-pro sporting events and concerts. They had the kind of serving racks we needed. The students asked for and were given permission to borrow enough racks for our concessions.

These serving racks had promotional placards on them advertising brands like Budweiser, Miller Lite and the like. Oops! We made our own placards to cover those up.

I don't recall the exact amount of money we turned over to Dean Hurst and the Pan-Hellenic leadership that year.  I believe the amount was more than double the first year profit.

I was able to run the Turkey Bowl concessions, with my PR class over four consecutive years. I left PCC after the Spring 1992 semester. I believe the concession operations was turned over to a former student, Tony Pittarese, who had been a student for the event and was now on staff at the college.

During my final semester Dean Hurst asked to meet me. In that meeting he said Mrs. Horton told him to talk to me before I left to find out how I run the Turkey Bowl concessions. I shared all I had and knew.

Operating the Turkey Bowl concessions those four years remains one of my favorite memories and probably the most fun I had at PCC. 

LM

Addendum:

Should any students from those PR classes happen to read this article I would really enjoy hearing from you. Use my email address- indefense06@gmail.com