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How a two-handed football toss changed lives and championship week forever

Every great sporting event -- actually, every great event period -- has its breakthrough, watershed moment. That instantaneous dividing line between the way they used to do stuff and the way we do it now. Like Oct. 22, 1879, when Thomas Edison brought the first incandescent light bulb to life. Or Sept. 5, 1906, when St. Louis University quarterback Bradbury Robinson threw football's first legal forward pass.

Then there is Dec. 4, 2010, when those first two moments came together and a light bulb revelation concerning a football toss forever changed a most-American of contests.

That's when a 20-year-old woman from Grand Rapids, Michigan, walked onto the field of the Georgia Dome and won the Dr Pepper Tuition Giveaway by pumping seven out of 10 footballs into a giant replica soda can .