Raising Cane’s Founder Todd Graves Broke A Record Previously Held By Merle Haggard When He Bought 6,000 Jell-O Shots During The 2023 College World Series

Bet Merle never expected his record to be broken with…Jell-O shots.

Every year during the College World Series, Rocco’s Pizza in Omaha, Nebraska hosts a Jell-O shot challenge for the competing teams. Fans prove their allegiance by ordering Jell-O shots in their team’s colors, all the proceeds go to charity, and a tally is kept on a whiteboard to track which team orders the most shots during the tournament.

Honestly, as someone who’s not really into the CWS, it’s my favorite part of the tournament.

Of course it’s not really a fair fight when LSU is in the tournament, because if you know anything about Tigers fans it’s that they know how to drink. They have a well-earned reputation for knowing how to party, and they always put on quite a show in Jell-O shot challenge.

In fact, as of right now, they’re leading the challenge for the 2025 College World Series with nearly double the next closest team.

And back in 2023, they had some help from one wealthy Louisiana native to set a new record.

Todd Graves, founder of fast food fried chicken chain Raising Cane’s, sent LSU to the top of the leaderboard – and into the record books – with a purchase of 6,000 Jell-O shots.

Each Jell-O shot at the restaurant cost $5 a piece, meaning that Graves shelled out $30,000 dollars for his spot in the record books – but the proceeds go to Heartland Food Bank, as well as food pantries for all eight respective teams.

In the process, Graves not only broke the Jell-O shot challenge record, but he also broke a longstanding record that had, up to that point, been held by country music legend Merle Haggard.

Back in 1983, the Hag set a record back in 1983 when he ordered 5,095 “C.C. Waterbacks,” a shot of Canadian Club whiskey with a water chaser, for patrons at Billy Bob’s Texas.

Merle bought the shots in honor of his 28th hit song, “C.C. Waterback,” from his 1982 duets album with George Jones, A Taste Of Yesterday’s Wine.

The bar used around 40 gallons of whiskey for the round of drinks, and the bar tab for Merle’s massive order came out to $12,737.50 – or $2.50 each. (If he had bought the same round of drinks today it would have cost him over $40k).

But when the bar owner, Billy Bob Barnett, presented Merle with the check, he offered to buy the Hag a drink on the house – and Merle took him up on it.

The purchase earned Merle the Guiness World Record for largest round of drinks ever bought by one person, a record that stood until 2016, when a U.K. brewery bought 412 beers at a pub to celebrate Queen Elizabeth’s 90th birthday.

And I know what you’re thinking: Wait, only 412 beers? Merle Haggard bought over 5,000 shots.

Well apparently because the beer order amounted to over 42 gallons, while Merle’s was just under 40, the brewery technically broke Merle’s record.

Yeah, it’s some BS.

But Merle’s place in the history books still stood as the largest round of shots ever bought by one person – until Graves broke it a couple years ago.