The 2024-25 NCAA football Bowl Game season officially kicked off on December 14 and Big Fogg is excited to once again be a part of the action. As a pioneer in sideline heating and cooling solutions since 1999, Big Fogg considers it an honor to continue to provide sideline comfort for players and coaches year after year. If you see large misting fans on the sidelines of college football games, they are likely Big Fogg fans.
Last year Big Fogg set a company record providing heating and/or cooling sideline systems at eighteen NCAA Bowl Games in several states across the nation including Hawaii, Texas, Florida, California and Massachusetts. Big Fogg is currently on track to surpass last year’s record.
With nearly six weeks of heavy competition amongst some of the best college football teams, this bowl season has been busy and exciting. Not to mention, this season playoffs were expanded to a 12-team bracket battling for postseason trophies and bragging rights.
A LITTLE BOWL HISTORY
The very first bowl game—the Rose Bowl—was played back in 1902. After an extended break the Rose Bowl became an annual event in 1916. By the 1930s four more bowl games were added and they continue to this day: the Orange Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Sun Bowl and Cotton Bowl. Today, there are over 40 college football bowl games.
Big Fogg’s very first time providing misting fans for a college bowl game was the Aloha Bowl in the 1990’s. The company President Christopher Miehl recalls that it was unusually hot in Honolulu. Kansas State was playing BYU and both teams wanted misting fans for their sidelines. Big Fogg made arrangements to ship twelve misting fans and a crew of four to set them up. Everything went flawlessly. Since then, Big Fogg misting fans have been used at numerous NCAA bowl games and National Championship Games as well as hundreds of NFL games, including 20 Pro Bowls and 13 Super Bowls.
BEYOND BOWL GAMES
Big Fogg is the industry’s leading provider of sideline heating and cooling equipment and is no stranger to large sporting events and championship teams. In addition to football games at the college and professional levels, Big Fogg has been on hand with misting fans, cooling or heating benches and other products at hockey events like the NHL Winter Classic, soccer matches like the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, golf tournaments and PGA Championships, tennis matches including the US Open, Special Olympics, X-Games, minor and major league baseball games and a host of others.
MINOR MISHAP TO MAJOR SALE
The 2024 World Series Champions, the Los Angeles Dodgers, actually own several Big Fogg misting fans. The story of how that happened is comical. Big Fogg President Chris Miehl remembers it like it was yesterday. On a blistering hot August day many years ago when Big Fogg was new in business, Chris was in the office early because it was football season and Big Fogg was busy. The phones seemed to be ringing non-stop. He answered a call, and it was someone from the Dodgers organization. They had a game that day and needed high pressure misting fans. Although Big Fogg was extremely busy with its football customers, Chris thought, “This is the Dodgers. I have to make it happen.” He confirmed that he would get them the eight fans they requested.
With no technical crew members available and no trucks to transport the fans, it was up to Chris and one college intern. They had to rent a truck and the only one available to rent was a 26-foot Penske. The two men loaded it up and the fans only took up a tenth of the trailer space. They drove from San Diego to Dodger Stadium. The sold-out game against the Padres was at 1:30 so they had to set up eight fans in eight separate areas quickly. In the first area, they got the mister going, but a filter was clogged and created a tiny puddle.
A female executive with the Dodgers happened to walk by and frowned in disgust at the puddle. She was angry, saying she didn’t want the fans there in the first place and the puddle could be a safety hazard. Chris assured her that it was a tiny issue with a filter that they fixed, and the puddle would dry momentarily. She rolled her eyes and was clearly irritated.
Chris and the intern set up the rest of the fans in record time and they worked perfectly. After the game, they packed up the fans and were ready to head out. Chris was driving and accidentally tapped the bumper of a car as he pulled the truck out. He left an apologetic note with his contact information. He went back inside the stadium and when he came back to the truck, his intern was against a wall with a woman pointing her finger in his chest. Guess who? The female executive from earlier. It was HER car that he bumped. Chris apologized profusely and let her know that mistakes happen, and he would take care of her car.
The next morning when Chris arrived at the office, the lady had already called three times by 8:00 am. Chris answered the fourth call, and she went right into venting about what happened. She had no idea she was actually talking to Chris. He assured her that the intern was already back at college and Chris would be reprimanded. The next week Big Fogg had a purchase order from the Dodgers for 10 fans.
Whether it’s for college football bowl games or the World Series Champion Dodgers, Big Fogg goes the extra mile to ensure customer satisfaction. Big Fogg earned its well-respected reputation by providing the best outdoor cooling systems for its customers.