LAKEVILLE, Minn. — Conceived in the heart of Lakeville, born among the regulars at Babe’s Hometown Bar, exists a hometown football pool.
“We think we started about 10 or 11 years ago,” Jane Gray says. “We call it ‘King of the Hill.’”
Jane birthed the little NFL pool that’s grown to 90 participants who each pay $10 to play.
The rules are simple.
“You pick a team to win,” Jane says, “and if that team wins you move on — but you can never pick them again."
Simple appeals to Cathy Reppe.
“I've been in it a few years,” she says, “and I usually got my oldest grandson — I get him in it.”
Cathy’s grandson, Jackson, is 21.
Jackson’s little brother, Christian, is 7.
At the start of this year’s NFL season, for the first time, Cathy decided Christian shouldn’t be excluded from the football pool. So, she threw in an extra $10.
“It was the last minute. I said, ‘You know what, I'm going to put Christian in, too.’”
Christian loves sports. His room is a shrine to the Wild, Twins, Timberwolves, and the Green Bay Packers. The latter can be blamed on his grandpa, Cathy’s late husband Kurt, a diehard Packers fan whose influence spread first to Jackson, and then to Christian.
But now both grandsons were in the football pool, with Christian as the youngest participant ever.
Eighty-nine adults, and a second-grader.
The first week, Christian chose the Saints.
His grandmother should have.
“I got knocked out the first week,” Cathy laughs.
The second week, Christian chose the Chargers and won again.
“I think I saw their record,” he later said. “I picked the right records.”
Most of the adults in the pool did not choose so well.
“The first week we had lost 41 and the second week we had lost 34,” Jane says.
Week three, Christian picked the Bills — and won again.
Christian’s mother, Maria Amundson, wasn’t participating in the pool herself but quickly gained interest.
“Every week he made it further, his eyes got wider, and his smile got bigger, and then we found out there were seven people left — five people left — and I'm like, 'Whoa.'”
Then, week four, Christian’s mom nearly blew it.
“I put him to bed, and I forgot to ask him who he wanted,” she says.
Maria picked the Texans for her son.
By the next day, she was doubting her choice.
“I saw they were losing with about a minute left, and I thought, 'Oh, no.'”
The Texans scored a touchdown to win — with 18 seconds left.
“And I thought, 'Oh boy, I'm never picking again,'” Maria laughs.
At Babe's bar, the news was starting to spread.
“I'm down to these older gentlemen,” Jane says. “He hasn't won yet, but I said, 'You're getting beat by a second-grader.'”
"Yet" proved to be the operative word.
In week five, Christian picked the Chiefs.
Cathy saw the text from Jane on her phone the next morning.
It read, “Your grandson Christian won $900."
“It was amazing!” she says, still beaming more than a month later.
The 7-year-old had beaten all 89 adults.
“I've never had to have the winner be driven by his mom to get the money,” Jane laughs.
Jane and her husband Tom were among the losers.
“I got to admit it was a little tough on the ego when I found out I did lose to second-grader,” Tom says sheepishly.
Tom and his friends wondered, “‘What does a second-grader do with $900?’”
A few blocks away, Christian sits in his bedroom showing some visitors, at their request, a wallet stuffed with bills.
Christian’s mom let him keep $200. The rest, she put away for later.
“Yeah, it's a lot,” Christian says.
“He did want to bring some money to church to put in an offering,” Maria says.
Christian tried to give Jane a $50 tip.
The organizer of the football pool wasn’t accepting. “I said, 'Nope, that's yours.'”
Christian’s attempts to share didn’t end there.
“He wants to give a hundred to his brother,” Christian’s mother says. “His brother said, 'No.'”
Christian got the same response when he tried to pay his grandmother back the $10 she spent on his entry fee.
“Keep it,” Cathy told him.
She also had a suggestion.
“I said, “You know what? We'll put you in again next year.'”
Cathy says her grandson responded, “Grandma, I think I'm fine. We have enough money now.”
Christian did spend $40 of his winnings on more sports memorabilia for his room. This time, tiny figurines of NFL players called Teeny Mates.
They are all he wants.
“He's a special little boy,” Maria says of her son.
Lakeville's adults may have given birth to the $900 pool, but it took a second-grader to know happiness just doesn’t cost that much.
Boyd Huppert is always looking for great stories to share in the Land of 10,000 Stories! Send us your suggestions by filling out this form.