Mr Diversity T.J. Pratt crowned Mr USU 2010
When the judge announced TJ Pratt’s name as this year’s winner in the 2010 Mr. USU competition, Pratt sank to his knees and tears streamed down his face.
Pratt, a sophomore in music education, said he already started to become emotional when he won a handful of other awards including the formal-wear, question and answer and people’s choice awards. When his name was announced, the crowd stood up and cheered and he came back onstage trying to hide wet eyes, he said.
Before the Mr. USU title was announced, Pratt said “butterflies were speed-racing” in his stomach. He said when he looks back at his time at USU this moment will be dear to him.
“I will remember the brothership with the other guys,” Pratt said. “There is just something powerful that happens when men come together in agreement. We all came together in the spirit of joy, laughter and unity, and I will miss that.”
Pratt, referred to as Mr. Diversity, along with nine other contestants, competed in front of a large audience in the Kent Concert Hall, Wednesday. Each USU college was represented with a contestant and one contestant represented USU’s Greek community. The group of nominated contestants started the show by performing a choreographed dance to a Disney song from Aladdin titled “One Jump Ahead.” Everything was Aladdin-themed down to the Jafar costume worn by Keenan Nuehring, ASUSU administrative assistant and one of the hosts of the event.
“When we were all trying to learn this Aladdin dance we grew closer together as brothers in those moments,” Pratt said.
Multiple awards were given along with the Mr. USU title. A panel of six judges including Joyce Albrecht, USU President Stan Albrecht’s wife, and ASUSU President Tyler Tolson scored the contestants in each category from 1 to 10 and added their scores to determine the winner. However, audience members were also involved in the judging, and were responsible for the People’s Choice Award determined via text message.
Mr. Congeniality was awarded to Topher Haskall, this year’s Mr. Natural Resources. Contestants were also awarded for excelling in the individual performance categories. Andy Rawlings, Mr. Education, won the talent portion and Zane Christensen, Mr. Agriculture won the swimwear competition. Pratt was honored with the remainder of the awards.
“I definitely think TJ deserved to win,” said Ben Williams, this year’s Mr. Business. “He really got out there and showed his personality. Consistently, in Mr. USU the person with the biggest personality wins.”
Pratt had the crowd in an uproar when he came out to complete his talent act in a long floral dress while dancing to an excerpt of the dance performed in Beyonce’s music video “All the Single Ladies.”
Other acts included an impersonation of YouTube celebrity Antoine Dodson’s “Bed Intruder Song” performed by Erik Mikkelson, this year’s Mr. Greek.
Rawlings, winner of the talent portion, taking his cue from a viral online video, set out to prove that most, if not all, pop music could be played using four chords on the guitar. He strummed and sang using these four chords to songs by Lady Gaga and the band U2 as well as other popular music artist hits
Williams said when he agreed to be a contestant in Mr. USU, he knew it would be time intensive for a while.
“Me and my partner had been choreographing that routine for about two months and I’d say we put a good 50 to 60 hours into it,” he said.
Not only did the contestants need to invest time to create their individual performance, they needed to attend Tuesday and Thursday dress rehearsals for six weeks.
Kenny Stuart, a co-chair of the event with Trent Morrison, said she felt the event went exactly has planned and was an improvement from last year because the technical aspects of the show were well organized. For this reason, the show did not go on as long as it has in the past. She said this success, paired with the 10 individuals who kept the crowd entertained, made it a night to remember.
“Our contestants make or break the show and every single one of them added so much to the show,” Stuart said. “I think the judges did a good job, but honestly, I think any one of them could have claimed the title of Mr. USU, because all of them were that great.”
–catherine.meidell@aggiemail.usu.edu