Local Siena fan wins free beer for a year, loses wedding ring
ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) -- Joe Rice, a local Siena fan was at Thursday night’s Siena basketball game at the MVP Arena and won the halftime competition. His celebratory victory moves made the national airwaves via a newsclip on ESPN. But not everything went well for the victor, that night.
“I always tell my family that one day I'm going to do something to make all of us famous,” said Joe.
He tells NEWS10’s Reporter, James De La Fuente just how he did it. “The competition was making a layup, free throw in two, three pointers in less than 30 seconds. I went four for four. So, I only needed 11 of those 30 seconds to finish it.
NEWS10’s De La Fuente asked, “11 seconds. And what did you get for all that?”
To which Joe said, “You get free beer for a year.”
But it’s what happened next that had NEWS10’s De La Fuente and the family searching the floor of the arena. “I did lose my wedding ring in the process while I was out there celebrating. I noticed it as soon as I left the court. I went over to sign paperwork for the free beer for a year and I looked down and I kind of had that holy “$*%#” moment. So, I was like, oh man. Like, what am I going to do? My wife's going to kill me,” stated Joe.
“He texted me and said I lost my wedding ring. But this was after I already saw the video of the celebration and saw that he won the contest. So, I was okay with it,” explained Joe’s wife, Jessica.
Their two boys, J J and Jaxson both looking high and low. “I looked under chairs and I looked on the rug,” said Jaxson Rice.
His brother J J explained, “I was trying to look where he was last. And maybe, like what he did to lose it. So basically, after he was done, like with the game or something, he went up there and he gave everybody like high fives and maybe like someone hit the ring off his hand.”
The family left the arena after no luck. NEWS10’s De La Fuente then asked, “Do you feel so epic now?”
To which Joe said, “Well, I mean, yeah, I guess it makes it still epic. The fact that I lost my wedding ring. But it was just epic in the fact that I took my shirt off and, you know, got a little crazy out there on the court. So, yeah.”
And it gets wilder. Joe called the station just before airtime to tell us, “I got a call from Maggie down at the MVP Arena, and they found the ring. It’s been exciting and I’m just glad to get the ring back. Glad everything kinda worked out.” Joe said he’s going to go down and pick up the ring Monday.