On Feb. 4, it was announced that NSU President and CEO, George Hanbury, accepted a Super Bowl wager challenged by Marc B. Hahn, President and CEO of Kansas City University (KCU), on the outcome of the 2021 Super Bowl, with both president’s cheering for their respective state NFL teams: NSU for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and KCU for the Kansas City Chiefs.
As both universities have an established College of Osteopathic Medicine program, Hahn and Hanbury thought it would be fun to highlight their programs through this friendly competition.
“He gave me a challenge that he recognized we have a brand new regional campus in Tampa Bay and as such. He challenged me as the president of NSU with the now Dr. Kiran C. Patel college of osteopathic medicine and I accepted,” explained Hanbury.
The wager involved $100 worth of Kansas City barbecue from Jack Stack Barbecue or Joe’s Stone Crab claws sent to the president of the winning NFL team along with a sweatshirt of the winning university for the opposing president to wear.
On Feb. 7, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers won the Super Bowl, and President Hanbury claimed the victory in this friendly Super Bowl challenge. Since then, Hanbury has received a $100 gift card from Jack Stack Barbecue, and as a sign of respect to KCU, Hanbury sent a gift card of the same amount to Hahn along with an NSU sweatshirt that Hahn will wear for a week.
According to President Hanbury, challenges like this to other university presidents are something that he would like to see continue in the future with NSU athletic and academic teams.
“[A challenge like this creates] good comradery and some good fun, but more importantly, if it’s something that I initiate, I would love to involve our own athletic programs to challenge, especially in national championship and division championship levels, our opponents. I think this is something we can talk about with our athletic director or with any other NSU teams that compete, like our debate club or our chess club, for instance. Any kind of competition with our school competing for a national or division title against other institutions, I think these types of challenges to other presidents would be a good thing for us to start, whether at the university or at an NSU University School level,” said Hanbury.
Joe Donzelli, associate director of media relations for NSU, explained that opportunities like this challenge allows for NSU to build their reputation to a larger community.
“There are people in Kansas City that know about NSU now that didn’t know about us before the wager. If we could do more of these in different markets, including the South Florida market, it will give us a chance to show exactly what NSU brings to the table, what is the NSU edge and what we are offering students here that other universities aren’t,” said Donzelli.
