Ever since Michael saw John Carpenter become the first million dollar winner on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? in 1999, it became his childhood dream to go on a game show. With word games like Hangman coming pretty naturally to him, he figured Wheel of Fortune was his best opportunity to get his moment on the small screen.

“I could never make it past the second round of quizzing with Jeopardy, my family wasn’t considered the typical American family for Family Feud and I was denied by other short-lived game shows. I went to the Wheelmobile event in Cleveland when I was 18, and they never called me up on stage. In February 2020, I got tickets to be a part of the Wheel of Fortune studio audience, and then from there the rest is history.”

Michael assumed his opponents would be at the highest difficulty possible and did everything in his power to prepare himself for his time on the show. After studying all the failures and errors that previous contestants made, doing over 300 crossword puzzles, improving his buzzer speed by watching drag races and timing the lights, he felt as though he was finally prepared to make his mark on the Wheel of Fortune stage.

“It felt great to represent the United States Navy in uniform, the city of San Diego, my hometown of Cleveland, the University of Cincinnati, and of course the best professional business fraternity Delta Sigma Pi. I knew I only had one shot to trail blaze a legacy as a contestant. Even though I didn't land on the million dollar wedge, or the $100,000 envelope in the bonus round – remembering that seven year old kid, who was selected as a contestant 22 years later and won $68,300 and a trip to Washington D.C. was my million dollar moment.”

Michael is currently on active duty in the United States Navy as an electrician’s mate, responsible for the electrical power onboard navy vessels out in San Diego. He is an alumnus of the University of Cincinnati where he joined Alpha Theta Chapter. Attracted to the Fraternity by the sincerity of the members and Delta Sigma Pi’s purpose, Michael happily recalls his membership.

“I had an awesome Deltasig experience. I always enjoyed traveling with my brothers to LEAD events and meeting other brothers from other schools. It was crazy to even meet other brothers since I’ve been in the military.”

Congratulations and good job, Michael!