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AMERICAN CENTURY CHAMPIONSHIP

July 15, 2011

STATELINE, NEVADA

THE MODERATOR: Good afternoon. Welcome. This is the Third Annual Gene Upshaw Scholarship Award that we've been able to present in the American Century Championship at Edgewood Tahoe.
Today's presentation, quite frankly, is one of the most meaningful of the week. Gene was a good personal friend to a lot of the folks here, meant a lot to a lot of people here, and obviously outside the area.
Our presenters today, I'd like to present: Mr. Gary Quinn from NBC Sports; Chuck Scharer, President and CEO of the Edgewood Companies; Terri Upshaw, and our scholarship award winner this year, Nina Jimenez.
Gary, why don't you start off us a little bit and give us a little bit of background on this program and how it got started.
GARY QUINN: Thank you for coming, everybody. This is to me the most important award and the most important press conference we do all week.
As Phil said, we lost Gene three years ago, and he was a tremendous friend to me, to everyone at this event.
He participated ten times, and you know the one thing I would look forward to the most when I got here during the event week was the handshake and pat on the back I would get from Gene and what can I do to help and what can I do to make the tournament better. And he kind of symbolizes why this event is so successful.
It's the celebrities that care enough to be really good to the people who attend here, our clients and our guests, and you couldn't ask for a nicer person when it came to this event.
And we wanted to make sure that from now until this tournament ends, and hopefully that's a thousand years from now, that Gene will always be remembered this week of our event and his name to be honored.
He obviously accomplished more than ten people could hope to in the 63 years of his life, both on the field as a Hall of Fame football player, and the great leader he became for the NFL Players Association.
And we were talking, Terri and I were talking to Nina before. I know that Gene would be very proud that Nina is getting this award, because, boy, if you see her transcript and essay, I'd have to take the SATs three times to get what she got. It's unbelievable.
I know her mom and dad and her family must be very proud of her. And I'm sure she's moving on to many, many great things. So we're happy for you, Nina, and very happy that you're always going to be associated with Gene and this award.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Gary. I'd like to introduce Chuck Scharer from Edgewood Companies. And Edgewood jumped in on this three years ago when NBC brought the idea up.
And Chuck has followed through with this every year because he knows how important it is to support some of the local students in the area.
So, Chuck.
CHUCK SHARER: I'd like to add my congratulations to Nina and her family as well. My daughter graduated from Whittell High School two years ago. So I've known Nina and her family for many years, and she's very deserving of this award.
And Edgewood Companies has had a long tradition of supporting education in the Lake Tahoe area. And our association with the Gene Upshaw scholarship program just allows us to continue that support.
And we're really proud to be part of this award, and we're delighted that Terri's here today and asked us to be a participant in this.
And on a personal note, to talk about Gene a little bit. I've been a lifelong Raider fan and current season ticket holder, and there was some real glory days when Gene was a part of the Raiders, and what an exemplary person he was on and off the field.
And for us to be associated with this award is a privilege for our company. And really a personal thrill for me, because Gene was one of my sports heros when I grew up. And I'm just really delighted to be here.
So congratulations, Nina, to you. I see your mom, Pam, up there, who I've known for years. And just thrilled to be part of this. This is the highlight of the week for our company and for me personally. So congratulations.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Chuck. And Terri, it's always a pleasure to have you here. This is the third year in a row now. It's so gracious of you to come down from Incline. And we really appreciate you being here. Thank you.
TERRI UPSHAW: Thank you. Thank you for having me. I'd like to say thank you to both of you for your kind words. You said it so well. Gene always looked forward to this event. Wasn't going to miss it for the world. Had a lot on his plate.
But this was a time to be with people who he embraced, they embraced him. He loved being out on the course, talking to the people, having fun. Not playing the best golf, but that didn't really matter. To him it didn't matter.
So thank you for your kind words. Nina, I am so impressed with your transcript, your college applications, your accomplishments for such a young woman. It's amazing to see.
Gene really believed in education, community, giving back to the community, and athletics, and you seem to have covered all those bases pretty well.
And I know it takes a lot of hard work. And some days aren't easy, but you just pick up the pieces and keep going. And congratulations. I'm very proud of you.
THE MODERATOR: All right. Thank you, Terri. Let's tell you a little bit about Nina. Gary mentioned some numbers that are kind of scary. A 4.34 GPA. I didn't know you could go that high.
SAT score of 2100. As far as All-State academic team for athletics, leadership and student council for the last three years. The hits go on and on, quite frankly. You have a wonderful future ahead of you, young lady. And the award recognizes attributes that Gene had among students here within the Lake Tahoe community reflected in those students.
And we would like to say to you, congratulations on this award. And you or even more importantly your folks will be receiving a check for $5,000 very shortly. So congratulations, and let's hear from you, Nina.
NINA JIMENEZ: All right. Wow, I just want to say thank you to the three of you for having me here.
I guess I can talk about Mr. Gene Upshaw. One thing that I admire about him -- I didn't know him -- it says a lot about a person when you can just read about what they did in their life and already have something to admire them for.
And the two things I admire him for most are dedication and his selfless attitude. As a team player, it's really easy when you have skill, a high skill level, to be a leader on the field. But it takes a lot of dedication to be a leader off the field. And that's one thing that I recognized immediately about Mr. Gene Upshaw, is that he was a leader off the field.
And selfless attitude. He definitely had that. And that's a quality that I work to attain. It's easy as an athlete to focus your life around sports. But to Gene Upshaw, his life was about more than just about sports. He committed himself to the community and the country.
I noticed he was involved in many organizations for health-related issues and also with the NFL union, he was a very big leader in that, and I admire that about Gene Upshaw.
THE MODERATOR: Questions?

Q. Nina, what do you plan to do now that you're moving on to that next step? Do you have big plans for the future? College, post-college, that sort of thing?
NINA JIMENEZ: I plan to study biomedical engineering. I'm not sure where I'm going to be next year.

Q. What does that mean? (Laughter).
NINA JIMENEZ: It's a huge, growing field. And it can range from creating new medical devices to researching new drugs to treat disease, to robotic surgery. It's a huge field that's growing.
And so I'm not exactly sure which part of the field I'll be working in, but that's what I hope to study.

Q. Where are you going to college?
NINA JIMENEZ: Well, my number one choice right now is Johns Hopkins University, but I'm not sure if that's where the future takes me. But there's a lot of great schools in the U.S. for biomedical engineering. So I'm hoping that one of them will take me on.

Q. This is a question for both you and Terri, is what's going on with the lockout today evidence that Gene was a great leader amongst the players and did so much for them?
TERRI UPSHAW: I'm not quite sure how to answer that. I really haven't followed all that much that's going on. Obviously we know where we're at at this point. I'm fully supporting Roger and DeMaurice Smith and hope they can come to an agreement and get this taken care of really soon.
Of course, I'm a little biassed with what I would think would have happened at this point. But that's a given. But I really think that they're going to get this together and we'll have football real soon. Let's keep our fingers crossed.
CHUCK SHARER: I hope so, because I have season tickets. (Laughter).
TERRI UPSHAW: What would we do on Sunday? (Laughter).

Q. Nina, how are you and your family going to go out and celebrate this little award now?
NINA JIMENEZ: You know, I'm not really sure. We haven't discussed that. I can imagine that I see that they're thankful for me every day so I don't expect anything from them.

Q. Mom and dad, do we have a comment here?
PAM JIMENEZ: We're just really proud of everything she's done and couldn't be happier with all the results. So we hope she'll continue.

Q. Nina, what accomplishments are you most proud of?
NINA JIMENEZ: You know, that's a question that puts me on the spot. I don't think I necessarily have specific accomplishments that I'm proud of, because I try not to pride myself in the things that I've done, because that's really not what it's about.
I think more important is the people that you meet along the way, and so, yeah, I don't think I have an accomplishment that I can raise above any other, because that's not what life's about, it's about the things that you learn from those accomplishments and the people that you meet and you make friends that way.
GARY QUINN: Can I bring her back to New Jersey so she can teach my son and daughter all this stuff?
THE MODERATOR: Thank you for being here today.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297

AMERICAN CENTURY CHAMPIONSHIP

July 15, 2011

Nina Jimenez

Gary Quinn

Chuck Sharer

Terri Upshaw