A 16-inch maple donut sounds like a sugar rush, but Brigham Young University fans call it a “Cougar Tail.” This iconic concession tops the charts in nationwide collegiate concessions, as it is the top-selling concession . During football games, around 5,000 of these donuts are sold to fans.
Fun fact about @BYU during a break in sessions. 5K of these 16-inch maple donut “Cougar Tails” are sold during football games. 😳 pic.twitter.com/q9YOumHOL6
— Tanya Halliday, PhD, RD (@NutritionNerd) June 16, 2022
BYU’s food has hit the headlines before. Whether it is the chocolate brownie milk in celebration of the campus winning the most sober award 21 years in a row or the creamery’s creative ice cream flavors, the campus’ sugary confections are iconic. Perhaps none as iconic as the Cougar Tail.
Cougar Tails were first invented in 2006 and originally did not sell well, the Daily Herald reported. But eventually, the sales boomed and BYU had to scramble to accommodate production of them. This donut is so popular that it has been trademarked, so impostors are off the table.
The Deseret News’ Sam Benson observed that if you stacked up all of the Cougar Tails sold during BYU football games, it would be taller than six Eiffel Towers.
fun fact you didn't know you needed: if you stack all the Cougar Tails consumed at each @byufootball game, it is taller than SIX Eiffel Towers https://t.co/JkWdQ3j4b8
— Samuel Benson (@sambbenson) June 16, 2022
Radio reporter David Boyle calculated that if you lined up all the Cougar Tails sold, you could go from the cougar statue outside BYU’s LaVell Edwards Stadium to doing a lap at the track and still make it to Brick Oven.
If you lined all those cougar tails up it’s enough to go from the Cougar statue outside the stadium, do one lap at the track and then continue on to Brick Oven for a post game pie. https://t.co/TJtJws0i7l
— David Boyle (@dboyle119) June 16, 2022
As if a 16-inch donut is not long enough, BYU once embarked on a mission to break the world record for longest maple donut. The school made a donut a quarter of a mile long. Dean Wright said, “On the morning of the event, our pastry chef will fit the 1,260 Cougar Tails together, end to end, to create one continuous Cougar Tail — a quarter of a mile long.”
Now with the highest sales of any speciality collegiate concession, the Cougar Tail has another award to its name.