Bucknell student wins $10K after former Yankee Alex Rodriguez sinks half-court shot during contest
By Jessica MacAulay, CBS News Philadelphia Staff
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LEWISBURG, Pennsylvania (KYW) — A Bucknell University student had one of the best days of his life on Sunday, all thanks to former baseball star Alex Rodriguez.
Ambler native Owen Garwood is $10,000 richer after A-Rod showed he’s got some game and sunk a half-court shot during a halftime contest at the Bucknell vs. Army basketball game on Sunday at Sojka Pavilion.
On Sunday morning, Rodriguez spoke on a panel with his two business partners, Marc Lore (class of 1993) and Jordy Leiser (class of 2006) in Bucknell’s Hislop Auditorium. The three men are co-founders of Jump Platforms, a unified fan experience platform with ticketing and an app.
Garwood said he was one of three students randomly selected to team up with the business partners during the halftime contest. The sophomore economics major ended up being paired with none other than A-Rod.
CBS News Philadelphia anchor Natasha Brown spoke with Garwood on Monday, and he described the moment as “surreal” and “one of the best days of my life.”
A video posted by Bucknell Athletics captures a three-point shot contest between the business partners and the half-court magic.
“You can see in some of the clips, I’m sitting in the corner of the court with my hands folded just praying that he would make the shot,” Garwood said.
In the moments after Rodriguez sunk a three-pointer, Garwood asked the former baseball star to sign his friend’s baseball card.
“He said, ‘Yeah, I’ll sign it after I make the half-court shot.’ So, he kinda spoke it into existence in that sense,” Garwood said. “I thought that was really cool.”
In the video, A-Rod riles up the crowd from the court before sending one up. Fans then erupted into even more cheers once he made the miracle shot. Rodrguez then did a victory lap celebrating with Garwood and his friends in a big huddle.
Because Rodriguez hit the shot, Garwood won $10,000, which he said he’ll donate to either the former baseball player’s charity or the Kellan Ford Foundation, and then the rest to his parents to help with tuition.
As to what he said to A-Rod right afterward, the Bucknell student said while laughing, “I told him I love him, yeah, that’s pretty much what I said.”
And even though he won it big because of the former Yankees star, Garwood said nothing is going to sway him. He’ll always be a Phillies fan.
To make the victory even sweeter, Bucknell took home the win over Army 84-53.
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