NFL Owner Buys FIRST

[George1902]

<Edit>Thank you for the kind words, everyone! I hope I made your April Fool's Day a little more memorable.

Thank you to to Dave and Andy for being good sports, too! (Those were real quotes, folks.)

Let's do this again sometime. Say, 364 days from now? =-]</Edit>

Um... Andy? Dave? You seem to be up to speed already... Care to clue the rest of us in?

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INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- FIRST, an organization focused on promoting engineering to high school students, was purchased today by Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay. FIRST, which stands for "For the Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology," was previously owned by its founder Dean Kamen. Kamen recieved relative fame for his inventions the iBot, a wheelchair that can climb stairs, and the self-balancing scooter called the Segway HT. Terms of the sale were undisclosed.

Sources close to Irsay say he already has plans for his new pet project: he will move FIRST's headquarters from it's current home in Manchester, NH to Indianapolis, the home of Irsay's other hobby, the Colts.

What will the move mean to FIRST? Only good things says Dave Lavery, a NASA engineer and creator of FIRST's 2004 robotics competition "FIRST Frenzy." "Moving FIRST to Indianapolis makes a lot of sense," Lavery explains. "Placing the organization in a more central locale will ease some of the communications, shipping, and staff issues that hamper many east coast companies."

"I can't believe it!" exclaims Andy Baker, a FIRST mentor and winner of FIRST's 2003 Mentor of the Year Award. "This is bigger than the Colts moving out of Baltimore at midnight."

But in spite of the change, both men are looking towards the future. "Indy is going wild!" says Baker. "Now, Payton Manning and Reggie Miller want to start FIRST teams! This is great! Tony George has already asked us to hold a Regional at the start/finish line of the Brickyard. This is excellent!" Lavery says that the move "will also allow Dean Kamen to fully concentrate on his core businesses with Deka, Segway and the newly founded WaterMass Project."

Neither Irsay nor Kamen were available for comment.

The FIRST Robotics Compeition is made up of more than 800 teams participating nationwide and internationally, in 23 Regional events and a Championship event.

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On the Net:
FIRST: www.usfirst.org
Copyright 2004 Associated Press. All rights reserved.