UPDATE (01-26-2010) The Kansas City Star finally decided to do a story on the shot made by Joe Branstrom, but as often is the case, refused to mention WDAF-TV FOX 4's Rob Low because he is looked upon as a competitor.
01-27-2010 The CBS "Early Show" tried to get Branstrom to duplicate his half-court shot, but unlike with the FOX4 piece he missed both attempts. http://www.kctv5.com/video/22356062/ KCTV5 later reported an anonymous donor has agreed to provide Branstrom with tickets, lodging and transportation to Indianapolis for the Final Four in April.
FEEDBACK (01-27-2010)
UPDATED STAR STORY:
"Here is the Star story with Fox 4 mentioned. I seriously doubt their intent was to leave them out of the earlier story. Yeah Low making the shot made it more fun but the teacher was the bigger story and what started the craze. http://www.kansascity.com/637/story/1710430.html ---John (photogwingsfan@yahoo.com)
(Story originally stolen from tonyskansascity.com) 01-26-2010 FOX 4'S ROB LOW'S SHOT AN INSTANT INTERNET SENSATION It was simply a story "tease" by WDAF-FOX4 reporter Rob Low, but it will likely blossom into an Internet sensation for years to come. It all began with a superb prank done on a staffer at CollegeHumor.com. (LINK) when fans at a University of Maryland game pretended like a fan had made a blindfolded half-court shot. And then high school students at Olathe Northwest tried to duplicate the prank with their girls basketball coach, Joel Branstrom (who played for the University of Kansas). However, Branstrom actually made the blind-folded half-court shot (LINK) much to the amazement of everyone. (Branstrom even made a half-court shot as part of Low's FOX 4 piece.) Enter Rob Low, FOX 4 reporter since 2004, who was doing a report on the Olathe Northwest event for FOX4. His story teaser (above) involved him tossing a ball half-court---with his back to the rim---and it went in!! On the first take!! We have updated the video to show the reactions of all involved in the feat. (He discusses the event below) The rest, as they say, is video history...
ROB LOW DISCUSSES "THE SHOT" "Talk about what will go down as one of my favorite stories of all time! The shot was definitely on my first attempt. "I wish the station had put a longer version of my shot on the website (note, the station will be putting on a longer version), so that you hear me asking the photographer if he got it on tape when I realized the shot actually went in. "The only witness besides my photographer was Megan Blevins, the senior girls basketball player we interviewed in the piece. She told me she tried not to yell when my shot went in because she didn't want to ruin the take, but her facial expression was great. "I had no idea the shot went in till she said "Oh my God, you made that shot!!" and my photographer just mumbled "make that part of the story." (You have to understand my photographer is the most expressionless person you've ever met. We call David Stonebraker "Stony" and "stone" is pretty much his facial expression most of the time. I had to ask him if he actually saw it go in and if he caught it on tape). "Two of the photographers back at the station still don't believe me and think we somehow doctored the footage. But Stony and I are two of the least technical people around. "I have to confess I've emailed the clip to all my basketball buddies at the Jewish Community Center, where I play 3 times a week. I'm famous for missing lay-ups so it's nice to show them one crazy shot that actually went in on the first try.
"The story has done terrific on our website. More than 51,000 hits so far, and just the clip of my shot has received more than 7,000 hits. Our next most popular story, the Waldo Rapist, received just 2,000 hits...which would normally be our number one ranking on a given day." ---Rob Low
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