Practice makes perfect for Niskayuna native in football-throwing contest

PHOTOGRAPHER: Kathleen Moore

A Niskayuna native hoping to raise money for grad school won $100,000 by throwing footballs through a hole last weekend.

But don’t think it was a matter of luck.

Jeremy Mehta, 20, a junior majoring in physics, didn’t leave anything to chance. And neither did his friends — a small army mustered to help him make the most of his shot at grad school tuition.

His uncle built a mock-up of the huge Dr Pepper can that he would throw into, complete with a 2-foot-wide hole.

His mother hauled the thing all the way to Mehta’s college, SUNY-Brockport. The school let him set it up and borrow footballs for practice.

The contest required him to throw as many balls as possible through the hole in 30 seconds, but he could only get 10 balls. So his friends lined up and grabbed each football as it fell, then tossed them, assembly-line fashion, back to him.

He spent one to two hours a day, every day, practicing. He even strapped the mock-up to his car and drove it back home for Thanksgiving so he wouldn’t miss a day of practice.

“It turned a three-and-a-half-hour drive into a five-hour drive,” he recalled. “And it was raining and the rain poured in. But it was totally worth it.”

On Wednesday, the Dr Pepper company flew Mehta and his guest, his twin brother Collin, to Oregon. On Thursday, Mehta and four other semifinalists squared off with the footballs, and Mehta shot 17 through the hole. A woman was his closest contender, with 13 balls.

The two of them went on to throw during halftime of the Pac-12 championship game at Autzen Stadium in Eugene between the host Oregon Ducks and UCLA Bruins.

(Elsewhere, three other pairs of finalists were throwing at three other conference championships.)

He and his brother had great seats, he said, but he didn’t spend much time enjoying them.

After watching the first quarter of the game, he went down to the sidelines to practice.

“Getting used to the sound, the cold air, throwing with my brother,” he said, adding that the pressure of a huge football crowd was hard to ignore.

“I’m not used to that. I’m not from a big school,” he said.

Then they were called on to the field to throw.

“The guy blew the whistle. From there it was kind of a blur,” Mehta said. “I didn’t even look to see if the ball got in, I just kept throwing.”

In 30 seconds, he got 15 balls through the hole. His opponent had only 10.

He was so stunned that he had to be told he won.

“It was unreal at first. It was kind of a shock factor,” he said. “It became more real as people congratulated me.”

Grad school is next on his agenda. The junior plans to apply to physics research universities and hopes to specialize in optics.

His parents were so thrilled that they gave away Dr Pepper all weekend, his mother said.

Mehta got into the competition almost by accident — he stumbled upon a table with free cans of Dr Pepper in his student union.

Mehta was thirsty. He asked for a can.

They told him he’d have to first record a video saying why he’d like to win $100,000 in tuition money.

He had about 10 seconds to think, he said. Then he picked up a Dr Pepper can in one hand and one of his physics books with the other.

“Hey guys, you know what I love? Dr Pepper,” he said, gesturing with the can. Then he held his physics book in front of the camera.

“You know what else I love? Physics,” he said, citing various problems that physics could solve. “I think with my education in physics, and help from the Dr Pepper tuition giveaway program, I believe I can solve a lot of these problems.”