RoughRiders to honor second-place finishers with 'Runner Up Night'

ByDarren Rovell ESPN logo
Tuesday, December 22, 2015

Less than 24 hours after the Miss Universe gaffe that temporarily awarded the crown to the woman who came in second place, a minor league team has announced it will hold a "Runner Up Night."

The Frisco RoughRiders, a Double-A affiliate of theTexas Rangers, announced Monday night that it has saved April 26, the second game of the second homestand of the season, as the day it will honor those who came up short.

The team said it will extend invitations to the runner up of the pageant, Miss Colombia, Ariadna Gutierrez Arevalo, who wore the crown for mere seconds before host Steve Harvey noted that he read the card incorrectly. The team will also invite Harvey, who profusely apologized for the mix-up.

The RoughRiders will also invite other second-place finishers, including the Buffalo Bills of the early '90s, who went to four straight Super Bowls without prevailing, as well as Darren McFadden, who twice came in second in the Heisman voting, in 2006 and 2007.

"McFadden will actually be close to us for training camp with the Cowboys," said Jason Dambach, the team's general manager.

The RoughRiders do not sell single tickets until March, but they wanted to get people thinking about next season when it was still months away. Until then, Dambach said he is working on a couple of ideas, including hosting a beauty pageant in the park.

Is he willing to give the team that loses the "W" that night?

Said Dambach: "I hadn't thought of that one."

After realizing his error, Harvey announced that Miss Colombia had actually been the runner-up and that Miss Philippines, Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach, had won. The crown was transferred as the show ended.