PIGSKIN PICKS
Shocking victory for Wai'anae electrician
| • | Pigskin Picks (chart) |
Advertiser Staff
Purdy Keohokapu, 60, will leave Sunday for Las Vegas, as a birthday gift for his grandson who is turning 21.
Upon his return, Keohokapu can make plans to return to the gambling mecca with his wife Barbara.
With Keohokapu making the selections and Barbara filling in the address, the electrician from Wai'anae won this week's Honolulu Advertiser Pigskin Picks contest.
Keohokapu finished with a 13-2 record and earns $500 from The Advertiser, a trip for two to Las Vegas, courtesy of Worry-Free Vacations and Non-Stop Travel, and two tickets to the 2003 Hula Bowl Maui game Feb. 1. His ballot was selected from three which had 13-2 records.
There were 7,431 entries, all of which become eligible for year-end prizes.
The grand prize is use of a new Honda Civic for one year, courtesy of Windward Honda. Runner-up prizes are a motorcycle, courtesy of Cycle City, and a Fujifilm Nexia 3100 zoom camera and other accessories, courtesy of Fuji Film Hawai'i.
Keohokapu wasn't expecting to win, especially after two of 15 picks (he picked Wyoming over Boise State and Green Bay over New Orleans) were wrong.
"I was telling myself, there's always next week," he said.
But he got a call at about 5:30 Monday morning from KSSK radio personality Larry Price.
"He said, 'You know why I'm calling?' I said, 'no.' I asked him what's going on?"
Keohokapu said he was so excited he and his co-workers listened to the taped broadcast of his conversation with Price.
Keohokapu says he's been playing Pigskin Picks "ever since they started." His wife would always chide him, "you not going to win."
But after winning, Keohokapu said Barbara told him, "You deserve it, you've been trying and trying and trying."
Keohokapu chooses by instinct, and sometimes picks his favorite teams instead of the favored ones.
A fan of the Dallas Cowboys, Notre Dame and the University of Hawai'i, he selected the Cowboys over Tennessee, the Fighting Irish over Michigan, and the Broncos over San Francisco.
