The original version of this story appeared in the 2021 College Football Playoff Semifinal at the 86th Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic Official Game Program

If Elizabeth Bentrup were to do a DNA test, the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic would probably show up in her results.
 
Bentrup is the granddaughter of Cotton Bowl Classic founder J. Curtis Sanford who staged the first game in 1937. Elizabeth's grandmother, Betty Sanford, was there at the beginning in 1936 when Mr. Sanford conceived the idea for a bowl game in North Texas.
 
Her father, John F. Crawford, served as Chairman of the Cotton Bowl Athletic Association from 1994-96. And, her mother, Betty Crawford, was appointed to the role of Life Director on the Board of Directors in 2016, a position she held until her passing earlier this year.
 
Not only is Bentrup a direct descendant of Cotton Bowl Classic royalty, she also inherited the hospitality gene. It's that trait which helps her play a key role as the coordinator of the drivers' pool during bowl week.
 
The drivers' pool is a cornerstone of the game's reputation built on unequaled hospitality. It consists of around 60 mostly college-age people who chauffeur Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic coaches, student-athletes, university presidents, athletic directors, and families around North Texas.
 
In brand-new vehicles provided by the Ewing Automotive Group, the drivers are on the front line of the bowl game's interaction with its guests.
 
The College Football Playoff Semifinal at the 86th Classic marks Bentrup's 23^rd year of making sure people get where they need to be.
 
"I love the logistics and operations of all of it," Bentrup said. "It's a lot of fun. It's all the good things."
 
The combination of college kids, brand-new cars, VIPs and North Texas traffic would overwhelm many people. Bentrup handles the stress with a mixture of smarts, charm and a can-do attitude.
 
"When things get crazy, Elizabeth handles it with grace and poise," said Rick Baker, President/Chief Executive Officer, Cotton Bowl Athletic Association. "She takes pride in her job and always looks for better ways to do things to improve everyone's experience. When all is said and done, the Cotton Bowl is in the memory business and Elizabeth is truly memorable."
 
The drivers are on call to take dignitaries to official functions, practices or a late-night excursion to pick up cold medicine.
 
Long before Uber and Lyft came along, the drivers' pool was started in 1967 when the Ewing family began donating the use of their dealerships' cars.
 
Bentrup, a former Cotton Bowl Classic driver herself, has taken the drivers' pool to a higher level of hospitality and coordination.
 
"I'm telling you, she's the greatest thing that ever happened to me as far as the Cotton Bowl goes," said Ewing Automotive Group President Fin Ewing III, a former CBAA Chairman and longtime Board member.
 
"She's just unbelievable. Every year you're going to have maybe a little fender bender or something, but we don't have issues like we used to. We don't have any at all. She's awesome."
 
Ewing recalls a story from the earlier days of the drivers' pool when one of his donated vehicles blew past him going 90 mph on a busy Dallas freeway.
 
"It almost took the paint off my car when it went by," Ewing chuckled.
 
Nowadays, Ewing says he doesn't worry about such shenanigans with Bentrup in charge.
 
"She's got control over 80 cars, and she can tell you where every dang one of them is," Ewing said. "And that's tremendous."
 
What makes Bentrup especially suited to coordinate the drivers' pool lies in her lineage to the game. Although her grandfather passed away in 1972, before she was born, Bentrup was greatly influenced by her grandmother, Elizabeth "Betty" Sanford.
 
Mrs. Sanford, known as The First Lady of the Cotton Bowl Classic, passed away in 2015 but left a legacy of making meaningful relationships.
 
"She was absolutely my best childhood friend and favorite person on the planet," Bentrup said. "We were very, very, very close.
 
"She was intentional about spending time with people, me included. And she was wonderful about making you feel special. She would look at you and say, 'I'm just so glad to be with you.' And it was so awesome."
 
That focus on relationships has been a key part of Bentrup's success with the drivers' pool. Since Bentrup began as a driver with the 2001 Classic, the pool has nearly tripled in size.
 
The camaraderie within the drivers' pool has also grown over the years. Individual drivers return year after year, some extending their runs beyond their college years.
 
"We have a group of about five of us former drivers that try to get together every three months or so and reminisce," said Sam Gadd, who now serves on the Cotton Bowl Classic Council. "It is definitely a sense of, 'Nobody else knows what it's like but us.'"
 
Bentrup was one of just four women drivers back in 2001. Now the gender split is more evenly divided, which has led to another development from the drivers' pool: weddings.
 
So far, there have been four marriages and another engagement that have come out of relationships that began in the drivers' pool.
 
"The Cotton Bowl talks a lot about how it's in the memory-making business," Bentrup said. "I love what the drivers' pool is about, and how it has to do with building relationships."
 
Clark and Maggie Wilson were Texas A&M students but had never met until they worked together in the drivers' pool. They were married in 2016.
 
Cotton Bowl Classic Council member John Stewart and his wife, Lauren, met when they were drivers.
 
"I asked her out on a date after we were done driving," said Stewart, who proposed on the 50-yard line of Cotton Bowl Stadium. "We started dating that spring semester and one thing led to another. We got married in 2007 and we've got five kids now."
 
Most drivers don't end up getting engaged, but Bentrup has a knack for engaging drivers and their assignment. For example, a trusted driver who loves college football might get assigned to one of the head coaches.
 
"She's always kind of rooting for you to have that experience," said former driver Cody Moorse, whose driving assignments included former Arkansas and Ole Miss head coach Houston Nutt, Arkansas athletics director and coaching legend Frank Broyles, broadcasting great Pat Summerall and NFL legend Jim Brown.
 
"Because she feels so passionately about the game, she wants you to fall in love with it, and fall in love with the atmosphere and the culture that the Goodyear Cotton Bowl prides itself on in the week leading up to the game. She really recognizes that."
 
It helps that Bentrup, a TCU graduate, is a devoted college football fan. She and her husband Alan have two sons: 13-year-old Sanford and 11-year old Walker. The couple have had cats named Sammy (as in Baugh) and Doak (as in Walker) in addition to dogs named Dutch (after former TCU coaching great Dutch Meyer) and Bear (as in Bryant).
 
"There is a deep, deep family connection to the Cotton Bowl," Moorse said. "The game has quite literally been in her blood. It's all she's ever known, and she's been going ever since she was a child."
 
Bentrup's older sister, Courtney, was the first female to join the drivers' pool. Another sister, Kristin, also drove for a time. Now, their sons, daughters, nieces and nephews have joined the team to make the drivers' pool a family affair for the Sanfords and Crawfords.
 
"No one takes more pride in the Goodyear Cotton Bowl than Elizabeth," said Baker. "She greets everyone who attends our game as if she is welcoming them into her home. Her smile is contagious, and no one represents 'Texas Hospitality' like she does."
 
Bentrup said she doesn't advertise her family connections to the Classic. There are plenty of people willing to do that for her, as she discovered when she showed up for her first drivers' pool orientation meeting as a college freshman.
 
"I was a little intimidated, because I didn't know anybody," Bentrup said. "I walked in the room and this guy has his feet propped up on a chair and looks at me, then looks at the wall. This was back in the Hyatt in the Sanford room, and there was a picture of J. Curtis Sanford on the wall. And he says, 'That's your grandfather, isn't it?'"
 
After a three-year stretch of being a driver, Bentrup transitioned into the role of driver coordinator while still a senior in college. Since she was going into the teaching field, she had time off during the holidays to work for the Cotton Bowl Classic. She recently moved back to North Texas from South Carolina and is a third-grade teacher at The Episcopal School of Dallas.
 
Although it's been a while since Bentrup was a driver herself, she occasionally gets behind the wheel when needed.
 
When she does drive, it's often memorable.
 
"We were at a party at Gilley's and one of the graduate assistant coaches lost a part of his thumb on the mechanical bull," Bentrup said. "So rather than try to find a driver, I grabbed keys from someone and drove him back to the Hilton Anatole [the team hotel] where the team doctor sewed his thumb back on.
 
"I tend not to drink at the events. So, if there's a real urgent need, I'll grab some keys and hop in a car and get it done. That's what we do."