2009 PeyBack Bowl
Peyton Manning hosted the 7th annual PeyBack Bowl on Monday, August 24 at Woodland Bowl in Indianapolis. The event raised over $335,000; funds that will be used by the PeyBack Foundation to benefit children at risk. The PeyBack Bowl partners local and national celebrities with corporate sponsors for an evening of bowling featuring great prizes for the top teams and individual bowlers and a sports memorabilia auction with numerous one-of-a-kind items.
Celebrities in attendance included former NFL running backs Jerome Bettis and Eddie George, NASCAR driver Sam Hornish, Jr., IRL driver Tony Kanaan, Desparate Housewives star James Denton, former NFL great Archie Manning, ESPN analysts Merril Hoge, Kirk Herbstreit and Chris Mortensen, NBA athletes Greg Oden, Shane Batier, Mike Conley, Jr., and Jeff Teague, Colts Head Coach Jim Caldwell, Indiana Pacers Head Coach Jim O’Brien, several Pacers players, including Troy Murphy, Roy Hibbert, and Mike Dunleavy, and many Colts players, including Dwight Freeney, Reggie Wayne, and Dallas Clark.
Also in attendance to accept the annual PeyBack Award from Peyton was Jim Kelly, NFL Hall of Famer and founder of the Kelly for Kids Foundation and Hunter’s Hope Foundation. The PeyBack Award is presented each year by the PeyBack Foundation to someone involved in professional football who exhibits character, integrity, honor, and who has given back to the game and society. Past winners include Gale Sayers, Marshall Faulk, Derrick Brooks, Roger Staubach, and Dan Marino.
The event included a dinner buffet provided by Ruth’s Chris Steak House and beverages courtesy of Zink Distributing. Prizes were courtesy of Sony, Reis-Nichols, and MasterCard. Sport Graphics was the official printer of the PeyBack Bowl.
The silent auction was filled with various unique items, including a Tiger Woods autographed pin flag, Albert Pujols autographed jersey, Peyton Manning school visit, ESPY Awards Show tickets, Cal Ripken, Jr. autographed bat, Larry Bird autographed Celtics jersey plus floor seats for a Pacers game, a trip to the Cove Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas, and a New York City Food & Wine Festival Package including airfare and hotel accommodations for four nights.
The live auction included a Colts Home Game Package with sideline seats to the Colts vs. Seattle Seahawks game plus pre-game field passes, club lounge passes, hotel accommodations at Conrad Indianapolis, dinner at Ruth’s Chris, and breakfast at the Capital Grille plus a private meet and greet with Peyton Manning the night before the game. Also included in the live auction were a private dinner for 10 hosted by Peyton and Ashley Manning at St. Elmo Steak House and a Colts Away Game Package featuring a private Flight Options airplane for six to Nashville, Tennessee for the Colts vs. Titans game with six tickets to the game plus pre-game field visit passes and limousine service from the airport to the stadium and back.
The winning 2009 PeyBack Bowl team with a combined two-game total of 1668 was Sprint. Bob Kevoian, bowling for the WFBQ team, was the highest celebrity bowler with a two-game score of 380. Chuck Markey with Markey’s Rental & Staging was the highest sponsor bowler with a two-game score of 456.