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AMERICAN CENTURY CHAMPIONSHIP

July 13, 2019

Stateline, Nevada

THE MODERATOR: We're here for our Gene Upshaw scholarship presentation. We say this every year, but it's really true, this is one of the nicest things we do all week long. It's fun to do this. This is the 11th Annual Gene Upshaw Scholarship Award.

First, from NBC Sports Gary Quinn, Vice President of Programming and Owned Properties. Great to have you here. Corinna Osborne, General Manager of Edgewood Tahoe. And Terri Upshaw, always a pleasure. Front row, on the left, we have the family of our winner, Peter, Claire and Jan.

Just so everybody knows, our lucky winner here, our deserving winner, Ben, is handling an internship in Scotland. He's not here today. That's why that screen's behind the three guests up front. We'll be showing a video that we captured of Ben before he left for Scotland before his internship. Tell us about the history of the Gene Upshaw Scholarship Award.

GARY QUINN: Thank you everybody for being here today. This is a very hectic week, as you can imagine, celebrating the 30th anniversary of the event. But something that is the best part of the week for me, being able to see Terri again. It's hard to believe that Gene's been gone for 11 years. But I started out as an intern working on this event in 1995.

And for whatever reason, Gene put his arm around me from the first day and just said, Hey, anything I can do to help you; this event has a lot of potential, I'm here to help. I'll help recruit NFL players.

But he was so kind, and his leadership, the values of respect that he had from all the other players that he helped lead, obviously, unbelievably accomplished Hall of Fame player, but he was a Hall of Fame person in my eyes.

And when he passed suddenly, the first thought was he's from this area, it makes all the sense in the world to have students, younger people who would never know who he was, have to go back and do research on the life and the values that he represented, the respect, the leadership, the hard work, the accomplishment.

And that's the best part for me over the last 11 years are reading the essays that the students have to go back and look at his career and what he represented, because in this crazy world, Gene is what represented what was right. And I think that the Harrison family, I am just blown away.

Scott, obviously, a few years ago. You look at their transcripts, and I'm, like, my eyes are going -- are there any Bs here? It was As all the way through. And I mean just amazing. But I had said to Peter and Claire, I'm like could you write a parenting textbook, because they are just -- these kids -- and I'm sure Jan's next. So we'll see you in a couple of years.

But just you guys, I know I have a son and a daughter of similar age, and I know it's always great. You can never hear it enough when people come up and say, hey, you've really got good kids. And all we can do is put them on the right path. You guys have done that in spades. And you should be really, really proud.

This is a celebratory week for us, but I love being able to look back and revisit things with Terri and see her and talk about her family. It's just a wonderful thing. I just want to congratulate you guys heartily on that.

Q. Gary, back then you had approached Edgewood to see if they would be interested in getting involved with the scholarship and Edgewood jumped on board right away. Corinna, would you like to tell us some of the history there, why Edgewood is involved?
CORINNA OSBORNE: Absolutely. Edgewood, we have a long legacy and commitment to our community to really make sure that we have a stewardship approach to things. And our philanthropic approach and platform has always been education. It's near and dear to our heart as a company and as ownership.

And when we were approached to be part of this special scholarship, of course, this is what we do, and it's our way of giving back to the community.

And when I read Ben's essay, it was absolutely incredible, and what was very inspiring is that he looked at Gene as that inspirational leader, and I think for any kid that can identify with the leadership of that caliber is extremely important, because we do need more of that in our community and our society.

So he certainly took that near and dear to heart when he was doing his research on Gene. Kudos to Ben on his amazing academic achievements. Like you said, it was really amazing to look at.

And he also, Ben, had a passion for hard work, and he identified with Gene on that front as well. Good luck to Ben on his adventures, and we as Edgewood are very honored to be a part of this every year with the Upshaw family to be able to give that amazing scholarship to somebody who will be that inspiring leader in the future. Congratulations to your son.

Q. Corinna, I was neglecting to mention that Whittell High School's golf team always played out at Edgewood. So there was that long-term relationship as well. Edgewood has been involved on the California and Nevada side, but this one has been special over the years.
CORINNA OSBORNE: Absolutely. As a company, it's very important, we have a longstanding history in this community, with family members being here over 100 years and we want to continue their efforts. And it's near and dear to our hearts.

Q. Terri, wonderful to have you. You've made the trip every year for 11 years now. Every year we talk about Gene. We all miss Gene obviously, because he meant so much to all of us. He was such a good guy. Tell us a little bit about it.
TERRI UPSHAW: Thank you. You would think after 11 years I don't get emotional. But just listening to everybody talk about Gene -- I'm sorry -- it's just really -- it warms my heart. I know the man I married. I know the man I lived with day in, day out. And for other people to be able to see who Gene was, it warms my heart. Gene had an image. He was the Raiders. They had their image. It's the shield. It's the black; the whole silver and black.

And Gene is the tough negotiator for the NFL Players Association and fighting for the rights of players. He had a certain image out there.

But when you really got to know Gene, he was just the kindest, most generous, "how can I help" human being. Very humble. Never forgot his humble beginnings. And I think Gary, with the tournament celebrating the 30th anniversary here, Gene coming over here and wanting to help build this event, helping you in any way that he can, that was Gene inside and out in so many different ways.

I could tell you stories for days about people at a grocery store, somebody needing their cart unloaded into the car or some lady needing help with something. Gene would drop everything and help.

When I read about your son, and now both boys, and your lovely daughter, and there's two more. They do have twins also. This is like crazy. But you all are doing the right thing also and teaching your children about being humble, being helpful, being a part of community, academics, community, all of it is so important. And, mom, I can see you right there.

It's remarkable. And you should be so proud. And as Gary said, we as parents, that's all we want to hear is that our kids are good kids. They have a tough road ahead. It's challenging out there. But having a good foundation, having good morals and good upbringing is truly remarkable, and it's evident with your children. So congratulations.

Edgewood, you always do a phenomenal job. It's a beautiful course. Your involvement in this community means so much to so many local people.

And all this is great this week and then it dies off, but you're still a pillar of community and support for so many people in this community.

GARY QUINN: We can rename it, after Jan wins, we can call it the Upshaw Harrison Scholarship.

TERRI UPSHAW: Exactly.

GARY QUINN: One thing to point out, Carol Chaplain and the LTVA have been a big part of this too. She should probably be up here.

CORINNA OSBORNE: She should.

GARY QUINN: But we couldn't handle any more good-looking women up here with my ugly duckling.

THE MODERATOR: Let's have her stand up.

[ Applause ].

GARY QUINN: Not only with the scholarship but the community has been a pillar of this event for 30 years. The volunteer base that they have, it's just outstanding. And this event wouldn't be what it is if it weren't for the community. And so Carol's been an unbelievable advocate for us and a steward to get us to this point. So she's shepherded this whole process on the scholarship too. So, thank you.

THE MODERATOR: We're going to show the video of our winner Ben.

BEN HARRISON: It's an honor to be named the Gene Upshaw scholarship winner. The thing for me, the thing I most value about the scholarship is how I'm compared to Gene Upshaw. What stands out to me about him is his hard work and giving back to the community.

My specific educational interests are mostly computer science, is probably the main one, because I've taken two AP classes throughout my high school career so far that relate to geoscience. One of them was kind of a backgrounds principles course. And the second one I took was actual coding with Java. And I did quite well on those, so it got me really interested in it.

I'm also quite into data science because I took AP statistics my sophomore year and I quite enjoyed that, actually.

I won't be here. Sorry to miss the big day. But I am going to Scotland two days from when we're shooting this video. There I will be doing internship for a month, four weeks, at a tax firm called Chiene and Tait. And it's unpaid, so I'll more just be learning from them and seeing how much I like it because, as I said, finance is a big interest of mine.

My plans for my senior year, I'm taking four AP courses. So I've got quite a heavy workload. I'm definitely going to be playing soccer in the fall. And then I'm thinking about ski team and track, subject to change, but I'll be doing a sport a season.

Then we also have a new principal at Whittell, and I'll be the student body executive president. So it will be cool to start working with him and introducing him to the school and just getting to learn the ropes.

My proudest achievement, I've been involved in a company called Diversity NOW!, and our goal is to get people from diverse backgrounds and get them jobs in prestigious firms and companies.

I've got three older brothers and my whole life I've felt pretty compared to them as the youngest of them. So I've always tried, as I mentioned in my scholarship essay, I've spent my entire life basically trying to keep up with them.

And as of right now, we've all grown up a bit and it's become less of a competition and we're always happy for each other, but we still do get compared to each other a lot as is natural with brothers.

My older brother Scott won it in his junior year. He was very honored. This scholarship, I'd like to thank the two entities giving me the money, NBC and Edgewood. Edgewood -- I moved to Tahoe 10 years ago and Edgewood's always been there. I learned to golf here.

Terri, I wanted to say thank you so much for this. The foundation really means a lot to me. With the $5,000 I'm winning from the scholarship, I'll be putting a lot into college fees, I know I'll be paying for my textbooks with it. It will be around $1,500, maybe more; those are expensive. And I think I will be buying a laptop for college, because I don't have a computer right now.

My parents have had a massive impact on me my entire life. They've pushed me to succeed academically, but they've also been very supportive of me. And I can honestly say I'm here right now because of their support and help.

Q. How proud are you guys; you've got two sons now that have achieved this award. That says quite a bit.
PETER HARRISON: We're proud, but there's a still long way to go. Life is a journey and things are good so far. But you've got to keep working and contribute, be a good person.

So college, lots of things, good and bad, can happen in college. So we hope they stay on track. And we're extremely grateful for the support of NBC and Edgewood. We're very honored. Ben's very honored. Actually, he would love to be here, really love to be here. We feel proud, but there's still a long way to go.

THE MODERATOR: Great job as parents, as you've heard. And congratulations once again. Thank you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297

AMERICAN CENTURY CHAMPIONSHIP

July 13, 2019

Corinna Osborne

Gary Quinn

Terri Upshaw

Ben Harrison