--- title: Kid Who Won ESPN’s March Madness Bracket Donates Xbox Prize to Make-A-Wish description: He got one Xbox for himself and another to donate canonical: https://time.com/3817126/espn-bracker-winner-donates-xbox/ author: Sports Illustrated article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-04-10T13:53:12.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:48:30.289Z og:title: Kid Who Won ESPN's March Madness Bracket Donates Xbox Prize to Make-A-Wish og:description: He got one Xbox for himself and another to donate og:url: https://time.com/3817126/espn-bracker-winner-donates-xbox/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Kid Who Won ESPN's March Madness Bracket Donates Xbox Prize to Make-A-Wish twitter:description: He got one Xbox for himself and another to donate twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Kid Who Won ESPN's March Madness Bracket Donates Xbox Prize to Make-A-Wish > Sponsored content. 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ## Video: Georgetown vs. Princeton: The Game That Saved March Madness [Watch (HLS stream): Georgetown vs. Princeton: The Game That Saved March Madness](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/z2mnNZ9m.m3u8) (9:34)  _Published 2014-03-19. No. 16 seed Princeton's near-upset of No. 1 seed Georgetown in a 1989 first-round game made sure Cinderella would always get invited to the ball._ by [Molly Geary / Sports Illustrated](https://time.com/author/sports-illustrated/) ## Molly Geary / Sports Illustrated Apr 10, 2015 1:53 PM UTC by [Molly Geary / Sports Illustrated](https://time.com/author/sports-illustrated/) ## Molly Geary / Sports Illustrated Apr 10, 2015 1:53 PM UTC We told you earlier this week about Sam Holtz, the 12-year-old who [tied for the best bracket](http://www.si.com/extra-mustard/2015/04/07/march-madness-bracket-challenge-espn-winner-kid) in this year’s ESPN Tournament Challenge out of 11.57 million entries. It turns out that even though he had his dad’s permission to enter the contest, he wasn’t eligible for the drawing for a $20,000 Best Buy gift card and a trip to Maui since he was not 18 or older. Best Buy was gracious enough to award Holtz a $1,000 gift card anyway, and he did what many kids his age would do: purchase himself an Xbox One, according [to the _Chicago Tribune_](http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/lake-zurich/sports/ct-lzc-lake-zurich-sam-holtz-ncaa-best-buy-tl-0409-20150409-story.html). Holtz still had money on the gift card left over, and instead of using it on himself, he decided to buy another Xbox One and donate it to the Make-A-Wish Foundation, which grants wishes to children with life-threatening illnesses. He explained his decision [to the _Tribune_](http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/lake-zurich/sports/ct-lzc-lake-zurich-sam-holtz-ncaa-best-buy-tl-0409-20150409-story.html): --- > “” --- It’s a terrific gesture by Holtz, who’s got to still be riding high after pulling off the impressive bracket feat. ​\[[CollegeBasketballTalk](http://collegebasketballtalk.nbcsports.com/2015/04/09/12-year-old-bracket-contest-winner-makes-good-use-of-1000-gift-card-from-best-buy/)\] _This_ [_article_](http://www.si.com/extra-mustard/2015/04/09/march-madness-bracket-contest-espn-kid-winner) _originally appeared on_ [_SI.com_](http://www.si.com)_._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3817126/espn-bracker-winner-donates-xbox/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3817126/espn-bracker-winner-donates-xbox/"},"headline":"Kid Who Won ESPN's March Madness Bracket Donates Xbox Prize to Make-A-Wish","datePublished":"2015-04-10T13:53:12.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:48:30.289Z","description":"He got one Xbox for himself and another to donate","url":"https://time.com/3817126/espn-bracker-winner-donates-xbox/","keywords":["Newsfeed","society","Appreciation","ESPN","xbox","March Madness"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Molly Geary / Sports Illustrated"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3817126/espn-bracker-winner-donates-xbox/","name":"Kid Who Won ESPN's March Madness Bracket Donates Xbox Prize to Make-A-Wish"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Georgetown vs. Princeton: The Game That Saved March Madness","description":"No. 16 seed Princeton's near-upset of No. 1 seed Georgetown in a 1989 first-round game made sure Cinderella would always get invited to the ball.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/z2mnNZ9m/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-03-19T23:01:36.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/z2mnNZ9m.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3817126/espn-bracker-winner-donates-xbox/","duration":"PT9M34S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3817126/espn-bracker-winner-donates-xbox/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```