College football in the state of Oregon -- and perhaps the collective BAC of certain pockets of The Beaver State -- took on an interesting wrinkle earlier in September when Portland State head coach Bruce Barnum generated hype for the team's home opener against Western Oregon by promising to buy a beer for every fan who came out to the game.
That was enough for fans to come out for a 21-17 Vikings victory, and now the time has come for their coach to pay the piper.
In a Twitter post on Tuesday afternoon, Bruce Barnum shared a receipt from Barny's Beer Garden from Saturday's game, showing that he paid $14,448 for a total of 2,064 drinks of beer. Coors Light was the drink of choice for 1,260 fans, while 786 fans made merry with Deschutes Fresh Squeezed IPA -- a local brand from Bend, Ore.
— Bruce Barnum (@CoachBarnum69) September 21, 2021
"It blew up a little bit," Barnum told KGW TV. "... I was thinking 'pandemic, college football hasn't been around, let's kind of get a little crew and have beers on top of the roof like Shawshank Redemption.' But this blew up a little too much."
While putting himself out of nearly $15,000 may hurt his wallet -- and his family may not also be particularly pleased, based on Barnum's talk with local television -- the beer-buying stunt proved a great success with fans, as well as with university brass.
"I heard everybody had a good time," Barnum said. "I was told by the brass immediately after the game that everybody had a blast. So good for it. I hope that brings somebody back. I hope there's some 'hey, that was fun, let's go back out and watch the Vikings play football.'"
After picking up their first victory of the season, Portland State's next game will be their first in Big Sky Conference play as they take on No. 13-ranked Montana State.
