UT-Austin Football Player Launches Vodka Company With Hopes Of Tackling Competition

AUSTIN, TX — Here's something to toast about: A former University of Texas at Austin football player has launched a line of grapefruit-based vodkas called Noble Wolf.

The Longhorn, Bryce Cottrell, got the idea while on an airplane headed to Iowa State last season, KVUE reported. He was watching the HBO show Entourage that had as a plot line the launch of a character launching as similar business.

"And I saw Turtle started Avion, and I said if he could do it, why couldn't I?" he told the news station, referring to the television program.

And so, high up in the air, the idea for Noble Wolf Vodka was born. But then, Cottrell realized, the launch would take more than just an idea. He needed a business plan, someone to help with the brewing and inherent chemistry, a bottling company.

He started with Craigslist, putting an ad out for a chemist. He got one response and the two men met at a burger joint where Cottrell generously picked up the tab.

"I bought him a burger at Five Guys," the Longhorn told the news station. "I said hey I want to create the first ever vodka distilled from grapefruit. He comes back four days later and said okay 'here you go.' "

Cottrell offered the chemist a piece of the company in return, but he politely declined the offer. Cottrell ended up giving him $80, and the chemist helped him find a distillery in return.

The end result of his brainchild is the unique grapefruit-based vodka, its makeup distinguishing it from others in an extremely competitive market.

"Unlike the countless number of contemporary and traditionally grain-based vodkas that are assertively being marketed today, the Noble Wolf brand is the first premium grade alcoholic spirit to be uniquely and attentively produced from 100 percent pure and natural Florida grapefruits," the website for the vodka reads.

The Austin-based company furthers that homegrown feel by supporting the local community in using locally sourced ingredients whenever possible. the website notes.

It's testament to Cottrell's drive that the company was launched at all, as he was still juggling classes and football games in his senior year at the time. But he managed to pull it off, not driven by profit motive alone but as a way of paying homage to his businessman father, he told KVUE. The athlete's late father, Comer Cottrell, was a noted entrepreneur who created the Curly Kit line of hair care products tailored for a black consumer base, the younger Cottrell said.

That motivation is a noble one, and alerts to the genesis of Cottrell's motivation: "It's kind of like a noble thing in our family to do in our family to own a business," the young entrepreneur told the news station. ":And my dad ended up passing away four years ago. So I just want to keep the family name going by just doing something, and I just want to make him proud."

We here at Patch will certainly drink to that.

>>> Read the full story at KVUE

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