Isaiah J. Downing-Imagn Images
BYU star Richie Saunders has turned plenty of heads with his accomplishments on the court, but he’s also garnered a ton of attention thanks to his ties to one of the men responsible for the invention of tater tots. Now, he’s become the latest college athlete to leverage a fairly quirky trait into an NIL deal.
Richie Saunders had only started a handful of games ahead of his third season at BYU, but he burst into the national spotlight during a junior campaign where he’s been the team’s leading scorer by averaging 16.3 points per game while helping his squad earn the right to play Alabama in the Sweet Sixteen on Thursday.
As is the case with most guys who play basketball at BYU, Saunders was born and raised in Utah and hails from a Mormon family—one that boasts two members who made a fortune thanks to frozen foods as the co-founders of Ore-Idea.
Saunders is the great-grandson of F. Nephi Grigg, who co-founded Ore-Ida with his brother Golden (and Richie’s great uncle) in the 1950s; they initially made a name for themselves by growing corn in Oregon before turning their attention to potatoes after buying a plant near the Idaho border (hence the company’s name) and ended up doing very well for themselves after pivoting.
The Griggs Bros. eventually tried to figure out how to repurpose small chunks of potatoes that would normally be thrown away before dreaming up a solution in the form of the Tater Tots that Ore-Ida first began selling in 1956 to introduce the world to the beloved crispy treats.
Saunders’ connection to tater tots via his great-grandfather emerged during his breakout season at BYU, and his teammates (along with Cougars fans) have embraced it as a rallying cry during the team’s best season in a decade.
Things have also come full circle for the 23-year-old forward who cashed in courtesy of the company his relatives sold to what is now Kraft Heinz in 1965, as Ore-Ida has given him an NIL deal while promising to release a limited-edition bag of “Richie’s Tater Shots” if BYU can win its first national championship.
Heir Richie’s got it in the bag! If his team wins the tourney, we’ll drop this limited edition bag of Tater Shots. Keep cooking king! pic.twitter.com/fI4HMZTDhJ
— Ore-Richie (@OreIdaPotatoes) March 26, 2025
Well played.