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3's a charm: Seneca Valley grad scores big

Wisconsin Badgers fans display Thringers they received while attending the April 4 basketball semifinal game against the Kentucky Wildcats.
Idea is reinvention of foam finger

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — A Seneca Valley High School graduate recently made his mark on the NCAA men's basketball championship, but not as a player.

Brian Todd of Cranberry Township is one of four students at Butler University whose business class project not only turned a profit, but made a sale to the NCAA and appeared on national television.

Todd, along with fellow Butler sophomores Brian Straughn, Adam Pallini and Cole Dalton, came up with the idea for the “Thringer” for their Real Business Experience class.

He is a 2013 graduate of Seneca Valley, while his classmates are from other areas of the country.

The Thringer is a spin on the ubiquitous foam finger.

But instead of holding up an index finger, it is an oversized hand with three fingers raised, a sign often made by basketball players after hitting a three-point shot.

“It's a trend I noticed. It seemed to be a big thing recently. You see guys throwing up that sign and doing stuff with it, so we decided to combine the two ideas,” Todd said.

The students started a company, called Freelance Foam, and found a U.S.-based manufacturer who could make the shape they wanted.

Their first sale was to the Butler athletics department, which bought 250 Thringers and gave them out to students at the Dec. 8 men's basketball game against Kennesaw State, which Butler won, 93-51.

The student section, known as “The Dawgpound,” liked the Thringers, and one even made an appearance the following day on an Indianapolis TV newscast.

Real Business Experience is a class every business student at Butler University in Indianapolis must take. In small groups, students must not only create a business plan, but they also must set it up.Jim McKneight, an instructor who is a faculty adviser to the group, said students in the class often go on to get internships, scholarships or even job offers from their projects.However, the national exposure the group got through the Final Four was uncommon.“Freelance Foam gathered more regional, and some national, coverage due to the Final Four being in Indy, and that was unusual, but great,” he said in an e-mail.Through the university, the students pitched their product before a board of potential investors, including JoAn Scott of the NCAA who liked the idea.With NCAA headquarters as well as this year's Final Four located in Indianapolis, the students were able to cut a deal with Scott and the NCAA to distribute 3,000 Thringers to fans of the Final Four teams.

During the two semifinal games and championship game, fans holding the Thringers appeared on national television multiple times.Todd said the future of the company is unclear as the students continue to work toward their degrees. They did not pursue patent or trademark protection for the product because professors advised them it would not be worth the required money.But the lessons they learned from the whole experience will be invaluable, he said.“I've gotten a ton of experience talking to businesses and being a spokesperson for the team, it's definitely been positive,” he said.As a marketing and finance major, Todd said he wants to get into marketing or sales after college.Dave Todd, Brian's father, said he could see him running a company one day.Last summer he had an internship at Levin Furniture and seems to be a good salesman, he said.“I think he will go as far as he pushes himself. He has a lot of drive and he enjoys it,” he said.

From left: Brian Todd, Brian Straughn, Cole Dalton, and Adam Pallini, the Butler University students who made the Thringer.

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