Joel Branstrom's 15 minutes of fame are stretching into hours, even days.
It started with ESPN’s morning show "First Take" filming a segment on Tuesday with the Olathe Northwest High School biology teacher and girls basketball coach in the school's gymnasium. That's where a blindfolded Branstrom hit a half-court shot last Friday and foiled a student-orchestrated prank during a pep assembly.
That single basket has made Branstrom, a walk-on with the Kansas basketball team during 1995-1997, this week's national media darling. In addition to ESPN, Branstrom was interviewed later Tuesday by "Inside Edition," after clips on YouTube and Deadspin had generated nearly 70,000 views by Tuesday evening.
Branstrom was told Friday that he would win NCAA Final Four basketball tickets if he hit the shot. But the prank called for the student body to cheer loudly after Branstrom missed the shot, in an attempt to dupe the popular teacher and coach into thinking he had won the nonexistent tickets.
To the shock of everyone, Branstrom then proceeded to make the 47-foot shot, with students from the school's e-Communication 21st Century program filming every second.
Read the complete story at kansascity.com