On March 13, 1998, Jordan Richison was in the fifth grade, jealous of his father getting to attend the first round of the NCAA Tournament in Oklahoma City.
Randy Richison went with his brother, Scott, an Ole Miss alum.
It didn't turn out well for Scott, who saw the final play of the Mississippi-Valparaiso game unfold right in front of them.
With 2.5 seconds left and Ole Miss up by two points, Valparaiso's Jamie Sykes threw a pass that went three-quarters of the court to Bill Jenkins, who quickly passed it to Bryce Drew for a 3-pointer.
Drew beat the buzzer on a play the team would later tell the media they called "Pacer," in what ranks as one of March Madness' most memorable moments.
Although he didn't attend the game, Jordan was given the ticket buy his father, and he somehow kept it for 27 years before writing this writer to tell him he had it.
"It wouldn't sell for much," Richison wrote. "But it's a really cool part of my personal collection."
Wait, what?
It wouldn't sell for much?
I've been looking for a Bryce Drew ticket for years. Only two have ever been graded by PSA.
As I wrote this week, tickets to the maddest moments of the NCAA Tournament are actually pretty rare. The most common ticket, that isn't the final, is Christian Laettner's shot in 1992, and there are only 28 graded by PSA.
I did some quick math, knowing I had to give Randy an offer to ensure the Drew ticket didn't go to auction.
Richison certainly didn't keep the ticket as if there was any type of value.
As a kid, he had it displayed, but as he grew older, it went into a dresser drawer designated for junk right below his underwear. He occasionally took the "junk" out — autographs on business cards of Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and Clint Hill, the famous Secret Service agent associated with John F. Kennedy's assassination in Dallas in 1963. And then the tickets — Samaje Perine's 427 rushing yards in one game and Kyler Murray's Oklahoma debut ticket.
Every March, he took the Drew ticket out in its plastic sleeve, along with the ticket from the VCU-Florida State game, the game he did attend and got Drew's autograph on after the team shocked Florida State in overtime to reach the Sweet 16.
I've had situations before when I have had a chance to get a ticket that's very rare. I make offers to keep them off eBay. I did it when a collector messaged me to say he had the ticket from the game in which Randy Johnson hit a bird with a pitch. I did it again when I was told someone had the Bobby Knight chair throwing ticket. Both offers took those tickets off the market, thankfully.
Figuring the Drew ticket was worth $750-$800 on the open market, I offered Richison $1,000, which he took.
Cross another extra rare ticket off the list!