As the fourth quarter began during a recent Bulls game, the small crowd of 15,017 (give or take some no-shows) at the United Center erupted. Some booed, some cheered, but they all grew steadily louder until they reached decibel levels previously unreached that night.
Was Coby White raining 3-pointers? Was Zach LaVine dunking on a breakaway?
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No. The noise was for the Bulls’ long-running Dunkin’ Donuts race. When Cuppy Coffee came from behind to win, the crowd went crazy.
That’s how it’s gone for decades now. Along with the playing of “Sirius” during introductions, the Dunkin’ Donuts race is one of the few constants around 1901 W. Madison St, going back to the days when Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen ruled.
The promotion has been a part of Bulls games since the late days of the Chicago Stadium and its simplicity has lasted the test of time. The race is a simple idea. Dashing Donut, Cuppy Coffee and Biggie Bagel take part in an animated race on the United Center’s jumbotron. Phil Georgeff, the longtime voice of Chicago racing, calls the race as if it were the Arlington Million. Fans get their racer either on game cards handed to them when they walk into the United Center or through the Bulls’ app. Winners can get their free item at Dunkin’ the next day.
You don’t even have to be a winner to collect. Bulls president Michael Reinsdorf admitted in a recent Crain’s interview that “Dunkin’ Donuts doesn’t know who won the race. If you show up with your card, you’re going to get your free cup of coffee.”
There are stories that during Michael Jordan’s days with the Bulls, he was known to place a bet on the winner with his teammates. Jordan’s competitiveness is legendary, and he was known to look for an extra edge.
In this photo, Michael Jordan is either hurt, upset about fouling out or had just lost a four-figure bet on Cuppy Coffee. (Mark Elias / AP Photo)“I played with MJ, the ultimate cheater of all time,” said Will Perdue, who played with the Bulls from 1988 to 1995, and now is an analyst for NBC Sports Chicago. “He would always want to wager on the Dunkin’ Donuts race. What we didn’t know is that they rehearsed it. The security guards were here during the rehearsal, so they would see who wins. He’d ask the security guards who would win before he’d be willing to wager.”
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Perdue admitted he lost to Jordan a few times before he figured out what he was up to.
“Then I found out what was going on, and then I’d only bet with him if he let me pick first. Then he was like, no,” Perdue said.
(In David Halberstam’s book, “Playing for Keeps: Michael Jordan and the World He Made,” he detailed how Jordan used to win bets on whose bag would come out first on the luggage carousel by paying off the baggage handler.)
While most current Bulls aren’t as unscrupulous as Jordan was, the race is just as popular now with players as it was in the ’90s.
Wendell Carter Jr. heard of Jordan’s Dunkin’ race exploits, but said he didn’t know who to ask to get the same edge. He and teammates will also bet on the race, but won’t put down money.
“It’s usually just two of us that bet, and it’s the third one that ends up winning,” he said. “Neither one of us win. Most of the time it’s friendly. We’re playing around. We’ll do like if I win, you’ve got to clean my game shoes or something goofy like that.”
Regardless of who wins the bet, the race brings something the Bulls desperately need going into the fourth quarter: energy from the crowd. Even if fans had lost interest during the third quarter, the Dunkin’ race would bring them back in and get them yelling as the Bulls started the fourth quarter.
“It was also amazing how the fans get,” Perdue said. “Regardless of what’s going on in the game, good or bad, the fans get into it. All this for a free coffee, a donut or a bagel?”
Carter is only in his second season in Chicago, but he said he appreciates how the crowd gets into a collective frenzy.
“I thought they were showing something funny, but it shows how competitive our fans are,” he said. “They go crazy for that. I like that.”
Part of what makes the race so special is hearing Phil Georgeff’s call.
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“Georgeff was such an icon,” said Chuck Swirsky, the voice of Bulls radio since 2008 and the former sports director at WGN radio. “He remains an icon. His legacy continues to grow, because of the Dunkin’ Donut race! There are games when the crowd really isn’t engaged, and all of a sudden, it becomes, ‘Oh, it’s the Dunkin’ race!’ The crowd gets juiced, or caffeined.”
Cuppy Coffee has a considerable lead, but it’s amazing how quickly a competitor can catch up in the Dunkin’ Donuts race. (Jon Greenberg / The Athletic)Georgeff died in 2016 after a long career as “The Voice of Chicago Racing.” He called races at every horse track in Chicagoland, and was well-known for his catch phrase, “Here they come spinning out the turn!” His voice has been the signal that a race is about to begin for generations of Chicagoans.
The Bulls found out just how crucial his voice was to the race when they tried to use a different one.
“We tried to have our in-game announcer Tommy (Edwards) just sort of live read it,” said Megan Donovan, the Bulls’ senior director of partnership marketing. “After five games, we realized it just doesn’t feel right. Phil needs to be a part of it, so we invested the dollars to literally try to slice and dice Phil’s voice into the new creative so we could keep the integrity and historicalness. People just loved it. As soon as we brought it back, three games later, you saw the eruption from the crowd.”
The Bulls led the league in attendance from 2010-18 and part of the reason why the Bulls continued to draw, even going back to the early years of the post-Jordan era, is that the game experience is enjoyable. The Dunkin’ race is a key part and the Bulls want to keep it as beloved as it was in the ’90s. (The Blackhawks have done a hockey-themed race in the past, and the Bears currently do one, albeit with a sentient iced coffee included.)
“We’ve tried to give tried-and true, legendary experiences to fans,” Donovan said. “This one, we can update it if we need to, but if it’s not broke, don’t fix it. Our client loves it. Our fans love it. When we talk about growing our fanbase, this is a staple in-arena that fans who were fans in the ’90s as kids coming to games, still come now and see almost the exact race and hear Phil, and there’s some magic in that.”
However, Bulls fans are showing signs of fatigue after putting up with years of rebuilding. Going into Friday’s game, the team ranked 11th in the league in average attendance, at 18,485 per game, and 23rd in capacity, filling just 88.4 of its seats in their 14 home games. The Bulls are 5-9 at home this season after the team’s management boldly proclaimed this would be the year Chicago would get back to the playoffs.
But the beauty of the Dunkin’ race is that even when the Bulls are giving up fourth-quarter leads and Jim Boylen is making inexplicable substitutions and Kris Dunn is missing every shot from the 3-point line, the race gives you reliable champions to root for.
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Biggie Bagel, Cuppy Coffee and Dashing Donut will never, ever lose their spirit or their will to win.
(Top photo: Jon Greenberg / The Athletic)
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