Alabama Crimson Tide fan Roy Blank’s tears of joy when his son surprised him with tickets to the Bama-Notre Dame BCS title game matchup have been widely seen in a YouTube video.
Blank – in town with his son Daniel for Monday night’s big game at Sun Life Stadium – explained why he was so emotional as he spoke with the media on Miami Beach.
“It wasn’t so much the ticket that got me emotional, but when I saw it I knew immediately what Daniel had done for me, and that’s what really caused me to just break down right there,” he said.
He said his grandchildren had just opened their gifts on Christmas.
“I was already a little emotional, and just a couple minutes later, I pulled out that ticket, and well, it’s kind of obvious from the video, the volcano erupted. And I was extremely happy,” Blank said.
The endearing video shows him getting a great hat for Christmas.
“I was extremely happy with my hat here, that Daniel’s wife got me,” he said.
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Then Daniel Blank prompted his dad to look in the hat, asking him what size it was. That’s when he found the tickets and started crying.
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“We going to the game Pop!!!” the son exclaimed.
He said he thought he’d share his dad’s touching reaction with out-of-town family – but never expected thousands to view it on YouTube.
“I got the tickets on a Tuesday night and on Sunday I stuck the tickets in the hat for him to open as a present, and I recorded it, posted it to YouTube so I could share it on Facebook with family and friends, just wanted to share it, like I said, just with close family and friends,” Daniel Blank said. “The next thing we know, the whole world has seen it, so it’s really crazy.”
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Roy Blank said they are Bama season ticket holders but have never been to a bowl game, until now.
“So to get to come to a game of this magnitude between Alabama and Notre Dame, in this venue here in beautiful Miami, Florida, and Daniel and I together, it’s extremely special,” he said.
