When Philadelphia Eagles running back Corey Clement was attending Glassboro High School in New Jersey, he admired the BMW of his high school guidance counselor.
Mary Beth Ragozzino promised him that if he ever made it into the professional league, she would give him the car. This weekend, she delivered on that promise.
Ragozzino met up with Clement, 23, over the weekend and handed him the keys to the black 1995 M5 sedan, reported NJ.com.
Mary Beth Ragozzino (right), a guidance counselor at Glassboro High School in New Jersey, promised Corey Clement (left) as a freshman that she would give her BMW car if he made the NFL
Ragozzino met up with Clement, 23, over the weekend and handed him the keys to the black 1995 M5 sedan (pictured)
‘He’d say: ‘I want that car’, and I’d say: ‘Alright, work hard’,’ Ragozzino told NJ.com. ‘When I came home and told my husband that Corey loved this car, he said make that promise to him’ (Pictured, Clement in October 2017)
Ragozzino was Clement’s guidance counselor in the fourth, fifth and sixth grades and worked in his high school in Glassboro, New Jersey, although she wasn’t his counselor then.
‘He’d say: ‘I want that car’, and I’d say: ‘Alright, work hard’,’ Ragozzino told NJ.com.
‘When I came home and told my husband that Corey loved this car, he said make that promise to him.’
That’s when she made the bet with Clement that if he made it into the NFL, he could have the car.
Clement set the South Jersey record for rushing yards at 6,245 and attended the University of Wisconsin before being signed by the Philadelphia Eagles after the draft.
The rookie has rushed for 259 yards on 58 carries and four touchdowns in 11 games this season. The Eagles have a 10-1 record and currently sit at the top of the National Football Conference.
In fact, he had forgotten all about the bet until recently.
‘She actually reminded me recently she still has her bet,’ Clement said. ‘I went to go get it from her. And here I am with one of her old cars.
Clement (pictured, November 2017) set the South Jersey record for rushing yards at 6,245 and attended the University of Wisconsin before being signed by the Philadelphia Eagles after the draft. The rookie has rushed for 259 yards on 58 carries and four touchdowns in 11 games this season
‘I spotted the car when I was a freshman in high school. I didn’t have a car myself. I finally got the opportunity to find out whose car it was…and here we are today. She held up on her promise,’ Clement said (Ragozzino and Clement pictured third and second from right)
Clement said he had forgotten all about the bet until recently when Ragozzino reached out to give him the car (Pictured, Clement inside the BMW)
Ragozzino says Clements’s success is a story to tell other students (Pictured, Glassboro High School)
‘I spotted the car when I was a freshman in high school. I didn’t have a car myself. I finally got the opportunity to find out whose car it was…and here we are today. She held up on her promise.’
Over the weekend, Clement was all smiles as he took pictures with his old counselor and posed with his dream car of nine years.
Ragozzino says Clements’s success is a story to tell other students.
She said: ‘Students who worked hard and do great things, we use them as examples’ to teach other students, she said. ‘He’s the hot one right now. Stayed out of trouble, worked hard, did well in school.’