Not even a bomb threat could derail the “Survivor” train that is Gorham High School physics teacher Bob Crowley.
Nearly 1,000 students and fans gathered at Shaw Gymnasium on Wednesday morning for the “Mr. Crowley Wins Survivor” celebration. It was previously scheduled for the high school gymnasium but school officials moved the ceremony to the Municipal Center at the last minute after receiving the threat, said Superintendent Ted Sharp.
Crowley spent 30 minutes answering questions from the audience, telling jokes and reliving tales from his 39 days he spent during the summer on “Survivor: Gabon – Earth’s Last Eden,” which he won after beating out 17 other contestants for the $1 million grand prize.
“This is amazing,” Crowley said. “In May I was known as ‘hey you.’ Now I’m ‘Survivor Bob.'”
Students were curious about other competitors, asking if Kenny Hoang was really as cocky as he appeared on the show and if Randy Bailey really didn’t like most of the season’s contestants.
Crowley answered each question candidly.
“I have caller ID that pops up on the television and the name Randall Bailey popped up and I asked Peg (his wife) who that was,” Crowley told the audience, explaining a recent incident. “She said it was Randy from the show, and I told her to check the back door and front door to make sure he wasn’t outside trying to blow the place up.”
But Bailey called to say he didn’t have any hard feelings about Crowley tricking him with a fake immunity idol.
As for Hoang: “He really didn’t like that I beat him,” Crowley said.
One person asked if Crowley had an agent since winning the show.
“I do,” Crowley told the crowd. “I have a secret agent.”
Crowley revealed to the audience that each contestant received $10,000 for appearing on the show and flying out to Los Angeles for Sunday’s live reunion broadcast. No one received the money until Sunday night.
After speaking for 30 minutes, fans and students stormed Crowley for autographs and photo opportunities.
“I know Bob Crowley, he’s my physics teacher, ” said 17-year-old Samantha Martin, who was wearing a white “I Know Bob Crowley” T-shirt. “I think it’s very cool to be a part of something like this because he’s genuinely a good man.”
Martin, along with fellow classmate Curtis Martinez, had to take Crowley’s physics test on Monday, but they had a little something up their sleeves for their teacher, Martinez said.
“We took the test, but we wrote $1.1 million down for all the answers,” he said.
Crowley said he wasn’t mad, but insisted the students’ will be taking the test again.
Since winning the show, Crowley has done 53 television interviews and did 8-minute radio interviews on Tuesday, 10 minutes apart, from 7:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., Crowley said.
“I got about four hours of sleep in the first 48 hours since winning the show,” he said. “It’s overwhelming and it’s so new to me because I’m not used to it.”
He told the crowd that he is in talks with Olympic Swimming gold medalist Michael Phelps to appear in Speedo commercials.
“We’ll be standing there and I’ll say ‘Do you want to look like me, or swim like him?” Crowley joked to the crowd. “No, I’m just kidding.”
Crowley said he’s going to have fun with the fame and plans to invite the other 17 cast members to his home this summer for a traditional Maine lobster bake.
He has also kept in contact with some people on the show, especially Sugar Kiper, who was instrumental in helping him win the game.
“We really weren’t supposed to be in contact with anyone during the airing of the show,” Crowley told the crowd, “but Sugar did send me a sympathy card after my dad passed away in September.”
While Crowley and the school celebrated his victory, the students got a little surprise of their own. After the celebration, Sharp announced that school was canceled for the day because of a bomb threat.
“It will take the dogs a few hours to sweep the school, so it made more sense,” he said. “You also don’t want to put anyone’s life in danger, and you just can’t take a chance.”
Survivor winner Bob Crowley, a physics teacher at Gorham High School, answer audience questions Wednesday during the school
Survivor winner Bob Crowley, a physics teacher at Gorham High School, answer audience questions Wednesday during the school
Survivor winner Bob Crowley, a physics teacher at Gorham High School, poses for a photo with his student and senior Samantha Martin, after answering questions Wednesday during the school
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