July 14, 2010
Bronx, N.Y. - Continuing the series of looking back at the major stories from Fordham Athletics for the 2009-10 season, this edition takes a look at a specific moment during the year. For those who saw it live at Houlihan Park, people will remember and say, "Do You Remember the Fordham Flip?"
Through the course of over 150 years of Fordham Athletics, there have been rarified defining moments that will always be looked to throughout the course of the program's history. They can be Fordham being a part of the first televised football and basketball games to the women's swimming & diving team capturing their first Atlantic 10 championship. From the diamond, there was Hank Borowy's 1937 no-hitter against Rutgers to the softball's team first win over a top ten team in Georgia Tech.
There was the 1937 football team, led by the "Seven Blocks of Granite", defeating NYU at Yankee Stadium to complete an undefeated season or the 1994 Varsity Lightweight 4 winning a Division I National Championship in women's rowing. On the hardwood, it could be Jean Prioleau's buzzer beater in 1991 to win the Patriot League in men's basketball or the night women's basketball's J.J. Radice poured in a school record 40 points against Drexel in 1987. Even on the soccer pitch, people still talk about John Wolyniec's four-goal games against Marist and Detroit-Mercy or Kirstin Gellalty's six-goal, 13-point game against St. Peter's in 2001.
On April 20, 2010, another one of those fantastic Fordham moments came around in the most unlikely of fashions. It's simply known as the "Fordham Flip," making Fordham shortstop Brian Kownacki, a household name and an Internet sensation.
It was the yearly baseball game between Iona College and Fordham, set for a night time start at Houlihan Park. Three television crews had shown up to cover the game between the two local rivals, in addition to the Fordhamsports.com video web stream, which featured WFUV's Gregg Caserta, a senior at Fordham, on the call of the game and Andrew O'Connell, a Fordham sophomore, manning the camera.
As the game got underway, it was Ryan Maghini getting the start at shortstop for Fordham, as head coach Nick Restaino planned on giving starter Brian Kownacki the night off. By the fifth inning, Fordham trailed Iona by a 9-1 score, and the television crews had packed up in order to make their broadcast deadlines.
With one run in during the sixth inning and a chance to get back in the game, Restaino sent Kownacki into the game as a pinch-hitter, where he was hit by a pitch to keep the inning going, but the Rams were unable to score anything more in the frame, trailing 9-2.
After a another run in the seventh made it 9-3, the Rams got to the Iona bullpen and delivered a massive rally in the eighth, capped off by an incredible effort by Kownacki, that won't be soon forgotten. The rally began with Stephen McSherry reaching on an error and advancing to third on two wild pitches. Kownacki was then hit by a pitch for the second time in the game to put runners at first and third. After a pop out, Nick Martinez singled to right to score McSherry.
After another four runs came in to score to put the score at 9-8, Iona's Anthony Castellitto hit Angelo Ponte with a pitch, putting runners at first and second. That ended Castellitto's night, as Matt Petro came in from the Iona bullpen, while Matt DeSilva pinch ran for Ponte. McSherry, with his second plate appearance of the inning, drew a walk from Petro, loading the bases for Kownacki. Kownacki was then hit by a pitch for the third time to force in Michael Taddei for the tying run.
Chris Walker, who had popped out earlier in the eighth inning as a pinch-hitter, came up again and blasted a single to center for the go-ahead hit. DeSilva and McSherry scored easily, as Anthony Muccio misplayed the ball in center. Kownacki was waved around all the way from first with the low throw coming into Iona catcher James Beck, and beating Kownacki to the plate.
"About five feet from the catcher, I saw he had the ball already," said Kownacki in interviews following the game. "In college, you're not supposed to crash into the catcher when he has the ball. He was blocking the plate, so I couldn't slide either. I just instinctually jumped over him."
Kownacki would leap completely over the top of Beck without a tag, and landed with a handstand on home plate, capping off a nine-run rally, giving Fordham its first lead of the game at 12-9. The crowd in attendance went crazy, not just for the comeback effort by the Rams, but the amazing display of athleticism shown by Kownacki. Fordham pitcher Jordan Grangard then locked down the unlikely come-from-behind win in the ninth as Fordham won the game, 12-9.
The result of the game almost became secondary, as everyone in attendance was still buzzing about Kownacki going airborne over the catcher to score a run. Multiple fans came up to the press box to see the video on the web stream shown on Fordhamsports.com, and were still in shock as the play was replayed over and over.
Down on the field, Kownacki was asked about what he was thinking. Did he think he was Willie Mays Hayes in the movie Major League 2?
"No. I just didn't want to hurt guy," said Kownacki.
The Kownacki leap was then cut as a highlight for the website and sent into the ESPNEWS News Desk for possible inclusion in the top plays of the night. By the end of ESPN's Baseball Tonight's midnight broadcast, there was Kownacki's highlight on national TV, sneaking on as the final piece of the show, as John Kruk, Bobby Valentine and Aaron Boone were all in awe, saying they hadn't seen that before. ESPNEWS also ended their hourly broadcast with the clip, as ESPNEWS anchor and Fordham alum Michael Yam said, "That's how we do it at Fordham."
To finish the night, it was listed as #5 on ESPN's SportsCenter's Top Plays on the 1:00 AM broadcast.
The three showings of Kownacki's jump then created a surge of interest across news and sports broadcasts the following morning, as the live morning SportsCenter had re-ranked the top plays, moving Kownacki to the top play for that night. ESPN's First Take then called to interview Kownacki on their show, which was just the beginning of a week long media storm around the sophomore shortstop.
The First Take interview started with Jay Crawford saying, "Wow is all I can say. I think that might be in the running for a possible ESPY (award) later this year. It's in my top plays of the year."
Crawford asked Kownacki about the play and the jump as to whether he ever thought about doing that. Brian's response was, "Really just thought about it jokingly. I never thought of doing it in a game before."
Kownacki later said the reaction from family, friends and teammates was crazy, "I woke up with like 20 text messages about it with people saying I was on ESPN."
The "Kownacki Kraze" founds its way onto national television appearing on Live with Regis and Kelly, Fox 5's Good Day NY, ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live and Good Morning America, NBC's Today Show, MLB Network's MLB Tonight, and ESPN's Pardon the Interruption, Around the Horn, and SportsNation.
The reaction from those shows was much the same, as Fordham alum Tony Reali posted a grading question to PTI's Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon. Kornheiser said, "This is absolutely spectacular. It was unbelievably creative and clever. I give it an A+!" Wilbon concurred, "I love it. It was as artistic as it gets. It was great."
On Live with Regis and Kelly, Regis Philbin introduced the play as "one of the greatest scoring events in baseball."
On ESPN's SportsNation, the highlight was a part of a "What has more buzz?" segment, as the hosts pitted Kownacki against the Sex & the City movie sequel. Both hosts said the movie had more "buzz", while the voting on SportsNation went 96% in favor of Kownacki, as both hosts were stunned saying that they'd never seen that big of a margin before.
Kownacki was eventually brought on for live interviews on Inside Edition, FoxNews' America's Newsroom, the CBS Early Show (pictured right), the PIX Morning News, WFUV's One-on-One Sports Talk Show and MLB Radio Network's Talkin' Baseball with Fordham alum Ed Randall.
Inside Edition asked what was going through Kownacki's mind as he went over the Iona catcher.
"I just hoped for a graceful landing."
During his interview with FoxNews, it was brought up that earlier in the year Brian was in Sports Illustrated's "Leading Off" photo section. The photo was taken during Fordham's win over nationally ranked Miami (Fla.).
"Honestly, I thought that was going to be the story I told the grandkids about that I snuck into Sports Illustrated. I think there's a new top story. My 15 minutes of fame."
For the Early Show, the broadcast was actually done from Dayton, Ohio, as the baseball team had left for a three-game series against the Dayton Flyers, where they asked about the experience after the fact.
"I never thought this would happen in a million years. I thought it would just air on ESPN and that would be the end of it. It's been a dream come true."
The highlight had become a "viral video", as it was viewed more than five million times on
Yahoo! and close to four million times on
YouTube. The first version on
YouTube, which was posted by the
SportingNews, has been viewed close to two million times and become one of the most viewed clips ever on
YouTube. It was the lead search on
Yahoo! and
Google, and the hype became so big that someone created a
Facebook group named "
Brian Kownacki Can Fly".
According to Kownacki, he has received a multitude of friend requests on Facebook since that day, and had people from other countries giving their opinion about the play.
"I remember two postings. One was from a girl in like Sweden, saying she had seen the play, while I got another posting from someone who was in China, saying that had seen the play as well on Chinese television."
The highlight was dubbed the "Fordham Flip", and the craze around it continued to grow. MLB Network named the highlight the Play of the Week and April's Offensive Play of the Month, while the Harlem Globetrotters even gave Kownacki a "Trotter Tribute" award for a "Globetrottersque play."
Kownacki was still in the mix for more accolades for his spectacular effort, as he traveled to the ESPY Awards in Los Angeles on July 14th, where "the Flip" was one of four nominees for the Best Play of the Year. Kownacki ended up second in the popular vote to a Brett Favre game-winning touchdown pass.
Not too bad for a player who was suppose to have the day off.
