• by Tanya Gazdik , December 29, 2017

It’s college football bowl season, and Goodyear is once again taking its sponsorship of the Cotton Bowl up a notch.

The tire manufacturer has created tire-based sculptures of the two participating teams' mascots for the second consecutive year. 

The Ohio State University's Brutus and University of Southern California's Tommy Trojan were constructed from more than 400 Goodyear-branded tires, took 375 hours to make, stand more than six feet tall and weigh 250-300 pounds.

Goodyear unveiled the tire mascot sculptures on Dec. 27 in Dallas in advance of the 82nd Cotton Bowl Classic. The “Blimpworthy” pieces of artwork are meant to honor the hard work, determination and grit of both teams, according to Goodyear.

The mascots made of tires will serve as the centerpiece for many of the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic festivities leading up to the game, which is tonight. Each sculpture will be donated by Goodyear to the universities and permanently installed at their respective campuses after the game.

"We received a tremendous response from college football fans last year when we introduced the Wisconsin Badger and the Western Michigan Bronco and we are pleased to again celebrate college football in a way that only Goodyear can," said Seth Klugherz, Goodyear's director of North America marketing, in a release.

Like last year, Goodyear commissioned tire artist Blake McFarland to make the sculptures. McFarland is a professional baseball player in the Toronto Blue Jays organization while maintaining his interest in creating unique art.

Goodyear has been the title sponsor of the Cotton Bowl for the past four years. The tiremaker invented aerial coverage in 1955 over the Rose Bowl with the Goodyear Blimp.