Will Alabama win Jello shot challenge at College World Series?

How long has it been since Alabama baseball has been to the College World Series? Consider this: CWS fans weren’t even competing in a shot challenge yet. The Crimson Tide last reached the series in 1999, and it would be 2011 before the origins of what is now the famous “Rocco’s Jello Shot Challenge” began to form.

Originally, a bar known as Goodnight’s was the venue for a liquid shot battle between fans of two SEC schools (of course), Florida and South Carolina, in 2011. Since then, fans of all eight schools involved in the CWS compete to buy the most shots, which the bar tracked by school. In 2019, the competition was refined to a Jello shot competition under the renamed Rocco’s Pizza and Cantina. At $5 per shot, a portion of the proceeds now go to support food bank charities.

Thirsty LSU fans set the competition’s single-school record in 2023 at 68,888 shots, at a total cost of nearly $350,000.

Alabama fans can find Rocco’s at 1302 Mike Fahey Street. The Crimson Tide fan base’s competition will include fans of Oklahoma, West Virginia, Troy, North Carolina, Texas, Georgia and Ole Miss. This year’s shots will be colored red, white and blue to commemorate America’s 250th birthday, according to the contest’s official X account.

PREDICTIONS: Can Alabama baseball make College World Series run?

FAMILY AFFAIR: Alabama’s John Lemm gets family support all the way from Australia as Tide reaches CWS

Reach Tuscaloosa News columnist Chase Goodbread at cgoodbread@gannett.com. Follow on X @chasegoodbread.