Southern Miss doctoral candidate, Fabersha Flynt, recently took center stage ahead of the largest annual sporting event in the U.S. and recounts some of her favorite memories of the special day.
The Pat Tillman scholar, who is pursuing a doctorate in higher education administration at USM, had the privilege of performing the ritual coin toss to begin Super Bowl LVII.
Leading up to the big game, Flynt decided that she needed to practice the art of the coin toss and even reached out to experts, such as the head official for the game and NFL All-Pro J.J. Watt, for advice.
“That Friday when we went out to the field to just kind of go through the run of the mill of what would happen on Sunday, I got a chance to meet with the ref, Carl Cheffers, and he just told me to relax, keep it cool, and gave me some pointers,” Flynt said on Good Things with Rebecca Turner. “I had some little Amazon poker chips that were about the size of the coin, so that’s what I used to play around and practice with.”
Though the USM doctoral candidate was unable to keep the actual coin that she tossed to determine which team received the first possession of the game, Flynt was given an official coin that she could take home.
“I did not get to keep that coin, but I do have my own official game coin that was given to me,” Flynt said.
Flynt said she as well as the other Pat Tillman scholars were given “red carpet treatment” throughout Super Bowl LVII.
One of her favorite memories of the day, though, was that she was able to ride in the same golf cart as Doug Williams, the first Black quarterback to ever win a Super Bowl, while exiting the stadium following the game.
The full interview with Flynt can be watched below.
