Tater Tots Tallahassee City Commissioner Curtis Richardson’s tater tots are one of the new menu items at Andrew’s. The restaurant’s new menu was revealed Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2019. Andrews New Menu 021919 Ts 027
By Arthur Weinstein on

Sports announcers always have an anecdote or two tucked away to share with the audience, which is how fans learned that BYU star Richie Saunders’ great-grandfather did something really important.

ESPN2 announcer Roxy Bernstein and analysts Sean Farnham and King McClure called Wednesday night’s Big 12 Tournament game between Kansas and UCF. During the second half, they looked ahead to Wednesday’s tournament schedule, and the matchup between No. 17 BYU and No. 12 Iowa State.

BYU won that game thanks to late heroics from star Richie Saunders, who led the Cougars with 23 points. Bernstein couldn’t have known what would happen in that game, but he threw out a great bit of trivia on Saunders’ great-grandfather.

He invented Tater Tots.

“His great-grandfather invented Tater Tots,” Bernstein said. “Which makes me love him even that much more.”

“Is this a true story?” McClure asked.

“100% it’s a true story,” Bernstein said.

“Invented Tater Tots?” an incredulous McClure repeated.

“Richie Saunders  …” Bernstein said.

“Richie Saunders’ great-grandfather …” Farnham said.

“Richie Saunders’ great-grandfather invented Tater Tots,” Bernstein said.

“You learn something new every day,” McClure said.

Brothers Theodore Golden Grigg and F. Nephi Grigg, founders of Ore-Ida, invented Tater Tots in 1953. How we got to mid-March without this piece of arcane yet fascinating trivia about Saunders getting spread around is a mystery, but following Bernstein’s reveal the news spread on social media.

About Arthur Weinstein

Arthur spends his free time traveling around the U.S. to sporting events, state and national parks, and in search of great restaurants off the beaten path.

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