Lino Lakes Man Wins $10K In St. Paul Saints March Madness Contest
ST. PAUL, Minn. (WCCO) – It was bound to happen sooner or later.
A No. 16 seed finally beat a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. When the University of Maryland-Baltimore County beat Virginia last Friday night, it was the St. Paul Saints who had to pay up.
They put out this tweet early last week, saying if you gave it a retweet and a 16 beats a 1, you could win $10,000.
"I certainly went into it thinking there wasn't going to be a pay out," said Derek Scharrer, executive vice president and general manager.
The Saints did this obviously knowing the odds were in their favor. There had never been a Cinderella story like this in the NCAA tournament before. In fact, 16 seeds were 0-135 against No. 1 seeds.
That changed on Friday night, and so did the Saints Twitter feed. There were 6,000 retweets before the tournament. By the end of that improbable upset, there were 16,000.
When those Twitter handles were randomly scrambled and a name was drawn, one lucky Saints fan got a nice little pay day.
"I still thought it was a joke, somehow," said winner Curt McKay.
McKay is a Lino Lakes father of two. His bracket was busted long ago, but now he has a Cinderella story of his own.
"My wife and daughters are still in shock. It's going to help pay for my youngest daughter's wedding this summer. And I just got laid off from work so it's coming at the perfect time," said McKay.
The Saints are trying to get the head coach from UMBC to give McKay an official $10,000 check on May 26. That's "Dog Day" at CHS Field, and UMBC's mascot happens to be the Retrievers.
