Carolina
Dino Philyaw grew up in Dudley, North Carolina. His grandmother taught him to cook. His uncles taught him to grill. In eastern North Carolina, cooking a whole hog is a rite of passage. Wood burned down to coals, shoveled underneath, tended through the night.
He was also fast. The Cleveland Indians drafted him out of high school, and two days after graduation he was playing ball in Florida with a portable grill in his bag. It went everywhere he did.
Oregon
Football brought him west. He arrived at Oregon in 1993. The next season the Ducks went to the LA Coliseum, where they hadn't won since 1971, and Dino ran 27 times for 123 yards with a 49-yard touchdown. Oregon won 22 to 7. That year ended in a Pac-10 title and the 1995 Rose Bowl, the program's first in 37 years.
He ran track too. He clocked a 4.31 forty and raced the 100 meters at the Pac-10 Championships against Ato Boldon, a future four-time Olympic medalist.
New England drafted him in the sixth round. He spent two seasons with the Carolina Panthers, then returned kicks for the New Orleans Saints in 1999. Fifty-three returns, 1,165 yards.
The grill came along. As a rookie he was cooking in his hotel room in Foxborough.
How It Started
When football ended, Dino came home to Eugene and grilled for his own tailgates. Friends showed up. Then friends of friends. Then people started asking him to cook for their events.
Angela told him to make it a business. They opened Philyaw's Cookout & Catering in 2008.
Still Ducks
Dino has catered team meals for Oregon and cooked events on campus, including the NCAA Championships. Our tailgate menu is built for Autzen game days.
A former Duck, feeding Duck fans, a few miles from where he played.
Feeding the Line
Wildfire season, we go to the fire camps. Volume, before dawn, wherever the camp is that week. Crews have written it's the best food they've had on a fire.
