The Bridges jackpot

April 7, 2004

The largest documented win by city residents: In the record reached, the biggest lottery prize ever won by South Bend residents is the Hoosier Lotto jackpot of Wednesday, April 7, 2004. The Hoosier Lottery announced on Friday, April 9, that the single winning ticket from that drawing had been purchased in South Bend, and put the jackpot at $4 million. The winners were Kevin and Stephanie Bridges of South Bend. Kevin Bridges, a purchaser for Mohawk Flush Doors Inc. of South Bend, had held the ticket for several days before he told his wife — he waited until she returned home from a trip — and the couple's first stated priority was securing the future of their three children, a sixteen-year-old son and two-year-old twin daughters. On the Lottery's advice they held a press conference in Indianapolis, and they changed their home telephone number. Stephanie Bridges, a South Bend native who had gone to Clay High School and Oral Roberts University, was an advisor in the University of Notre Dame's Educational Talent Search program, where she had worked eleven years; she planned to keep working. Kevin Bridges planned to return to school full-time.

The figure, as the record gives it twice: The Lottery's release values the jackpot at $4 million. The Observer's profile of the couple, published April 23, 2004, values the ticket at $3.7 million. The two figures stand in the record side by side; this section prints both, attributed, and does not reconcile them.

Sources:

1. Hoosier Lottery news release (April 9, 2004), as carried by Lottery Post and USA Mega — the single winning ticket from the April 7, 2004 Hoosier Lotto drawing, the $4 million jackpot, purchased in South Bend.
2. The Observer (University of Notre Dame), "Couple wins lottery, then loses number," by Janice Flynn (April 23, 2004) — the Bridges profile: Mohawk Flush Doors, the Educational Talent Search advisorship, the three children, the press conference, the changed number, and the $3.7 million figure.