Goodyear Unveils ‘Tire Art’ for 2019 Cotton Bowl Classic

Dec. 27, 2019

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. and the Cotton Bowl will continue their tradition of creating life-sized sculptures of the competing teams’ mascots created from the company’s tires.

This year’s mascots are Penn State University’s mascot, the Nittany Lion, and the University of Memphis’ mascot, Tom, the Tiger. They stand over five feet tall and weigh more than 200 pounds each.

Collectively, the tire-based artwork was constructed from more than 260 Goodyear-branded tires, leverages approximately 450 hidden screws and took 400 hours to complete.

For the fourth consecutive year, Goodyear commissioned the unique talents of artist and former minor league baseball player Blake McFarland to handcraft the tire sculptures. The artwork will serve as the centerpiece for many of the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic festivities leading up to the game on Dec. 28, 2019, at AT&T Stadium and will be donated to the schools following the game.

“Goodyear’s annual tire art build has quickly become a beloved tradition for the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic,” says Rick Baker, Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic president and CEO. “Our ongoing collaboration with Goodyear continues to enhance the Cotton Bowl Classic experience every year for players and fans alike, and we look forward to creating more memories together.”

How was the sculptures created? To find out, watch this time-lapse video of the Nittany Lion and Tom the Tigue statue builds:

The Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic hosts marquee matchups as a member of the “New Year’s Six,” the top bowl games included in the College Football Playoffs Semifinal rotation.

In 2018, Goodyear announced a multiyear agreement to renew its title sponsorship of the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic, which extends its more than six-decade association with college football dating back to when the Goodyear Blimp first provided aerial coverage at the 1955 Rose Bowl game.

“Goodyear is incredibly proud to be a part of one of college football’s most revered bowl games,” says Todd Macsuga, Goodyear’s general manager of brand marketing. “The teams who compete in the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic worked hard all season long to reach this point, and these tire sculptures marry the commitment to excellence and performance that the teams exhibit and that we demonstrate in our tires.”

Goodyear’s history in college football has been marked by the Goodyear Blimp. To celebrate its legacy in the sport, the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame inducted the Goodyear Blimp as an honorary member of the College Football Hall of Fame earlier this month.

The 2019 Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic game kicks off on ESPN on Dec. 28, at 11 a.m. CST.