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Epsilon Xi's Charity Bowl Raises $120K
Daily Mississippian
University of Mississsippi
April 7, 2003, Monday
U. Mississippi Charity Bowl raises $ 120K
By Michael Atkins, Daily Mississippian
Friday night's Sigma Nu Charity Bowl ended with a 7-6 victory by the
Kappa Alpha fraternity, but the night's true winner was University of
Mississippi alumnus and Oxford, Miss., resident David "Tillar"
Prewitt.
The 14th annual philanthropic event, which aims to raise money for
paralysis research, benefited Prewitt, who suffered spinal injuries
in a car accident shortly after moving back to Oxford from Houston
last year.
"I love the event," Prewitt said. "I came to the one last year, which
was one of the last things I did before my accident.
"I found out about six weeks ago that I would be the recipient. I am
really flabbergasted by all of this; it is unbelievable," Prewitt
said.
Prewitt, alumnus member of the Epsilon Xi chapter of Sigma Nu at Ole
Miss, received a check for $ 120,000 during the halftime ceremony
Friday night. The money will assist Prewitt with medical bills, as
well as provide a springboard for efforts to establish a College
Charity Bowl Foundation, in turn creating similar philanthropic
events at schools nationwide.
"(Prewitt) has been a great alumnus of Sigma Nu and of Ole Miss,"
Vice President of Sigma Nu John Herzog said. "It is wonderful this
year that we know the person, and the recipient is one of our own,
being a Sigma Nu and a student at Ole Miss."
Prewitt sustained injuries in a car accident on Interstate 55 while
on his way from Houston to Oxford last April. He had been working at
various banking companies in Texas and had just accepted a job at the
university's Small Business Development Center.
After the incident, Prewitt spent nine months and one day in the hospital.
Friday's $ 120,000 is the most money ever raised at any one Charity
Bowl. Total donations have added up to more than $ 650,000 since the
first charity bowl, done in honor of former Ole Miss football player
Chucky Mullins in 1990. Herzog said the event has grown dramatically
since then and donations have consistently risen as well.
"Since 1990, Sigma Nu has been doing this event to raise money for
somebody who has suffered paralysis," Herzog said. "Last year, we had
Christopher Reeve, and we have just had a great tradition going."
Also in attendance for the game was U.S. Representative Roger Wicker,
who graduated with Prewitt in 1973.
"I have seen people here that I have not seen in years," Prewitt
said. "A lot of people came out of the woodwork to come to this
thing."
(C) 2002 Daily Mississippian
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