Jessica Woodburn received a call from a friend who was shopping at a Dick’s Sporting Goods store and was taken aback by the shirts he saw.

“’This is amazing. I can’t believe that you guys have the Taco Time promotion on Nike’s T-shirts,’” Woodburn recalled him telling her.

But Woodburn, the marketing director of Hospitality Syracuse Inc., a company that owns 52 Taco Bells throughout New York, didn’t understand.

“What are you talking about?” Woodburn responded.

Nike did research and found Taco Time as fans’ favorite promotion at Syracuse University basketball games. So in February and March of 2013, Nike made T-shirts that stated, “We want tacos.”

“This promotion just kind of took on a life of its own,” said Woodburn, who bought one of the shirts and hung it in her office.

If the Orange scores a certain number of points — it used to be 75, but was changed to 70 this season — fans can take their ticket to an area Taco Bell and redeem it for a free taco. Taco Time in the Carrier Dome began in 1995 and this season marks the 20th anniversary of the promotion that’s become a tradition. Taco Time was reached for the first time this regular season on Tuesday night by the men’s basketball team.

It’s a connection that has combined the most prominent basketball team in central New York and Taco Bell’s target demographic of college students. And when the Orange scores enough points, it’s beneficial not only to the team and to fans, but to Taco Bell, as well.

“If someone got a free taco, they’re probably going to buy at least another taco or certainly at least a drink to wash it down,” said Michael Veley, Syracuse Athletics’ marketing director in 1995 who sold the original sponsorship.

Veley was hired for that position just two months before the basketball season started. He was a one-person marketing team and didn’t have much time.

Now the director and chair of SU’s sport management program, Veley had previously heard stories of a promotion in the 1980s in which fans could redeem a ticket for free French fries from Burger King if Syracuse scored 100 points. But that was back when the Orange was an offensive juggernaut and had legends Derrick Coleman and Sherman Douglas.

So Veley did the research on the five prior seasons and found that SU would score 75 about two out of every three games. Syracuse had a successful season and made it as far as the national championship.

Within a few years, when the Orange came within one possession of 75 points, fans would start chanting, “We want tacos!”

And it’s a tradition that hasn’t worn out.

“We’re always amazed when we go to the games and see the involvement from the crowd,” Woodburn said. “It blows us away. It’s something that’s built over the years. It’s an amazing partnership.”

Steve Pinkerton, vice president of Hospitality Syracuse, Inc., worked with Veley to put the promotion together. He expected it to do well because of the win-win nature in which it was designed, but it wasn’t until a three or four years later when it set in.

Several days after the Orange played Georgetown and reached 75 points, a handful of customers came in to the Taco Bell located on Erie Boulevard to redeem their free tacos. Nearly half a week after Syracuse faced its biggest rival, Pinkerton saw the fans were still jacked up over the game. And the tacos.

Though Nike only made the “We want tacos” shirts during the spring of 2013, SU Bookstore divisional merchandise manager Gale Youmell said their sale was successful.

Youmell said she’s done her own research and is looking into the possibility of bringing the shirts back, potentially through a company other than Nike.

“There was an interest in it,” Youmell said of spring 2013. “So we thought, ‘Yeah, OK, we need to carry that for the students and the fans.’”

Approximately nine years after the promotion began with the men’s team, the women’s team adopted Taco Time as well, but for the sake of attainability, at 65 points. Earlier this month, it was miscommunicated by SU Athletics that the women’s mark would be bumping up to 70 but Woodburn said it will remain at 65 this season.

In 2012, the Taco Bell in Kimmel Food Court closed, but the Erie Boulevard location is just 5 miles from the Dome. Students with season tickets no longer receive physical tickets like they used to when the promotion began, but Taco Bell will still honor the redemption if an SUID card is shown, Woodburn said.

And amid the ups and downs of Syracuse basketball over the past 20 years, there has remained one strong tradition: Taco Time.

“The beauty is that everybody can win,” Veley said.

Published on November 17, 2015 at 8:58 pm

Contact Paul: pmschwed@syr.edu | @pschweds