Corn Dogs and Basketball AN AMERICAN TRADITION
A Smooth Drive to Arizona in an Old Van Greg’s Victory Story
It’s no coincidence that National Corn Dog Day is March 20 — the third Saturday of the month. This day is traditionally the first Saturday of March Madness,
When Victory Auto opened the Ham Lake store, it was only a mile away from Greg Pajak’s family home. That was incredibly convenient because they’d been taking their cars to Victory Auto since our very first shops opened. When it comes to auto repair, Greg never walks blind into an auto shop. “We always try to seek out someone, like a neighbor,” he told us. When Greg and his family moved to Minnesota in 1995, it just so happened that the Pajak family kids were attending a school in Blaine, alongside the Matt family kids! Jeff Matt became acquainted with Greg and told him he was opening an auto shop — Victory’s first store. “Getting to know Jeff’s character, [you realize] he’s very thorough with your vehicle,” Greg recalls. “We knew we could trust him from the get-go.” Jeff never recommended any work that didn’t have to be done right away, unless it was a safety issue. Victory offers Greg and his family peace of mind — the Pajaks love road-tripping. Because our stores are NAPA (National Automotive Parts Association) partnered, they can get their parts replaced for free at any NAPA-partnered shop. And as Greg’s children grew old enough to drive, they eventually began to drive their own cars to out-of-state colleges. If something went wrong, their kids could take their vehicle into any NAPA shop in their area. Victory “feels like family,” Greg says. When Greg wanted to drive his 2002 van to Arizona, it already had 200,000 miles on it. His kids worried that it wouldn’t make it. Greg took it into Victory to make sure, and the technicians assured him it was safe. Sure enough, the van drove without any problems! That impressed technicians in Arizona most of all. When Greg took the van into a shop in Arizona, just to double-check it before driving home, the technicians said Greg’s car had the cleanest fluids they’d ever seen. It became clear that getting his recommended services performed at Victory prolonged the life of his car.
otherwise known as the NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Championship. But wait. What do corn dogs and a basketball tournament have to do with one another?
Turns out, National Corn Dog Day has everything to do with March Madness. The “holiday” began in March 1992 when two Corvallis, Oregon, high school students needed a snack while watching a basketball game. They got some corn dogs and called it good. But somehow, this simple snack and sport pairing turned into something huge. In fact, eating corn dogs while watching March Madness caught on like wildfire — and the teens didn’t even have Instagram to promote it! Though it’s not clear how, it spread across Oregon and eventually the rest of the country. It’s likely that people just heard about it from friends and family and thought it was a great idea. The corn dog, like basketball, is an American creation. In the 1920s, the creators toyed around with the idea of fried foods on a stick. They battered and fried everything from cheese to bananas, but it was the battered sausages that really stood out, and the corn dog was born. By the 1940s, the convenient creation had popped up at state fairs and drive-in restaurants all over the country. In 2012, in honor of the original Corn Dog Day, the then-governor of Oregon issued an official proclamation naming March 17 National Corn Dog Day in the state. Several companies jumped on the bandwagon as well, including Foster Farms (a maker of frozen corn dogs, among many other meat products) and the Pabst Brewing Company. While it’s not an “official” national day recognized by the U.S. Congress, it’s celebrated with thousands of events every March. And it’s grown beyond its U.S. roots. An article printed in The Oregonian in 2009 revealed that National Corn Dog Day parties have been celebrated on nearly every continent — including Antarctica!
Greg is glad to have discovered us and that our expanding locations make it easy to refer us to his friends and family. Thank you so much for sharing your kind words with us, Greg. You and your family’s support mean the world to us. See you again soon!
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