Hawkeyes spin salads, eat the Beef Bowl

LOS ANGELES - Linebacker Travis Perry donned the chef's gear and served up a 16-ounce slice of prime rib to quarterback C.J. Beathard. He took a bite and one of the speakers asked at that precise moment for his name.

'C hmmmphhff Beat lumpphhff” was all Beathard could articulate.

KTLA weatherman Mark Kriski told this joke: 'How do you keep Stanford out of your backyard? You put goalposts in them.” And Lawry's 60th Beef Bowl was off and running.

Conceived by one of the owners of Lawry's, a well-known prime rib restaurant in Beverly Hills, there was a point in time when the Beef Bowl was an informal eating competition. In fact, the Hawkeyes won the first Beef Bowl in 1957, out-eating Oregon State by 17 pounds.

They don't stress the competition part anymore. The all-you-can-eat was discontinued in the 1970s. Now, it's a 16-ounce prime rib with Lawry's famous spinning bowl salad, mashed potatoes and gravy, whipped cream horseradish corn and a slice of apple pie and dab of vanilla ice cream for dessert.

You can get a second helping of 12-ounce prime rib, but nutrition became a thing between the time the Hawkeyes out-ate Oregon State in 1957. Lawry's no longer publicizes how much each team eats. The team and individual marks are believed to be held by Purdue in 2001 (734 pounds) and Michigan offensive lineman Ed Muranksy in 1978 (8 pounds).

Beathard said he expected offensive lineman Ike Boettger to break the huddle as Iowa's Beef Bowl champion. Boettger is 6-6, 305 pounds and has room to put down a torso-sized piece of beef.

Of course, that postgame interview would go something like this: 'Mmmmphff mmmphff mphhfff ummphhff umppffffhh.”

l Comments: (319) 398-8256; marc.morehouse@thegazette.com