By John Anderson, The Daily News
Corky Spangler finished work at SUNY Geneseo and jumped in his little Dodge Neon to head back to Angelica where he lived. Recently divorced, the nearly one-hour drive gives you plenty of time to think. He thought, “How am I going to provide for my two daughters?”
Corky, known professionally as Kirk Spangler, had filed for bankruptcy, lost his house and had to move in with his mother, Grace, who lived alone in Angelica since her husband, Bruce, had died.
Suddenly, the Dodge Neon breaks down in Mt. Morris.
Grace had to load Corky’s daughters, Brooke and Rhyan, into her car and go pick him up.
He dragged a trailer to Belfast and in the rain, wind and snow, put a skirt around it so the pipes would not freeze. He didn’t have money for furniture, but he had enough for beds.
“Rhyan came out and said, “Dad, the toilets are all black.”
The trailer had shifted, so the girls grabbed flashlights and held them as Dad saw the gap in the sewer line. The glue on the PVC pipe didn’t hold and it would not move.
“So I kicked it,” said Spangler.
Sure enough, raw sewage sprayed all over him.
Rhyan said, “Brooke, let’s get inside.”
That was almost the end for Kirk Spangler.
“I was ready to cash it in ... I really was,” he said.
Spangler cleaned up and went inside. His mind was racing. The girls were sleeping.
“I walked in the trailer and we had running water and heat ... then I saw my girls sleeping,” he said, as his voice begins to crack. “I had my girls’ back, we were in our own home, this was the start of a new life.”
On Monday night, the nation watched Kirk and Brooke Spangler on the NBC game show, “The Wall” as they won a show-record $1.4 million.
Their phones rang non-stop on Tuesday, texts kept coming in as frequent as Facebook friend requests. One text was from Chris Hardwick, the host of the show, who produces it along with LeBron James, Maverick Carter and Andrew Glassman. Hardwick is a well-known actor and comedian. He wasn’t joking when he said “the ratings went through the roof, over seven million people watched.”
If those numbers are impressive, so is the number 10. That’s how many months passed between the day the show was taped and the day it aired.
Corky had to go back to work at Geneseo, where he is the associate director of facilities. he also had to go back to his job as a Section V official, a referee of soccer and basketball as well as a softball umpire.
“From the time I woke up and shaved, to driving home from work or refereeing a game, all I could think of was the show,” he said. “People needled me every day, asking what happened, and I wouldn’t tell them.”
Instead, Corky kept the same routine, going to lunch on Main Street or at Wegmans in Geneseo and blowing the whistle at basketball games, filling out his voucher to be reimbursed.
Meanwhile, Brooke was not in such a bright spotlight as a pharmacist in Virginia where no one really knew she was on the show and she doesn’t work in the public eye as much.
However, in Geneseo, Corky has 136 employees working three shifts. He is in at 6 a.m. and can been seen doing grounds work, custodial jobs, taking care of waste on campus or at a residence hall in the middle of the night when there is a water main break.
Somehow, Corky Spangler kept quiet for 10 months.
He also put on one emotional performance in front of seven million people, when he answered three of six questions correctly then had to make a decision. He was placed away from his daughter in an isolation chamber and had to decide if he wanted $35,000 of guaranteed money or see how his daughter fared while on the show. She could have lost everything. The reality was, they were going home with $95,000 (because he answered three questions correctly) or the $1.4 million Brooke had won.
“What I said on the show was correct, I thought maybe I answered one question right, so that’s $55,000 at the most, but I had a check for $35,000 in my hand,” he said.
Corky Spangler is a competitor even though he is now an official.
He was one of the best soccer and baseball players in the area. In high school, he threw four no-hitters and had tryouts with the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Philadelphia Phillies. At each tryout, they said he was too short and let him finish out the day at third base.
In his 30s and 40s, he played a variation of town team soccer for the Angelica Sledge and year-in and year-out, they would beat teams from Geneseo to Olean with college kids lining the rosters.
Now, he had 120 seconds, a commercial break, to decide to take the $35,000 or rip it up and find out how much Brooke won.
What people did not know, Brooke has debt. She is 27 and left school with a payment of $390,000.
“I remember seeing my first payment slip for $4,000 and had to change my repayment plan,” said Brooke. “People thought, ‘Oh, you’re a pharmacist, you are set.’ But I was going to eat mac and cheese until I paid it off when I turned 50.”
Corky also thought about Rhyan (Caminske) and her husband, Carl, who gave him a grandchild, Cannon, who will be 5 months old this month.
“I knew no matter what, I’m going back to work at Geneseo, I’m in my 25th year, I know the job like the back of my hand, I like my job, I only have to work two more years, until I’m 62,” Corky said. “We talked before the show and the girls wanted me to rip it up no matter what the amount was. But once it was in my hands, I started weighing my options very heavily. I just wanted to give the $35,000 to Brooke for getting us on the show. The $35,000 was enough to change our life.”
Meanwhile, Brooke was thinking about her dad making the decision.
Kirk “Corky” Spangler, the cool dad.
“Oh yeah, I had the cool dad, I used to think it was weird everyone wanted to hang out with me because I had a cool dad,” said Brooke. “He was such a good athlete, especially baseball. He never had a nice car or clothes because he had to buy us used cars that ran and buy us clothes.”
Brooke then thought about Grace Spangler.
“It makes me so emotional, she was so amazing. It was hard for my dad. He was upset having to move in with her. But it was awesome for my sister and I. We would get off the bus, have dinner, listen to stories in the living room, we had our best years with her. Moving in with his mom was tough, having to borrow money was tough, but for us, it was awesome, she was my rock, supporting my dad and my dad became our rock,” she said.
As Brooke’s mind wandered to sitting on her grandmother’s lap, the commercial break was over.
“At that moment, they said they want to hear from both of you. They said keep a straight face. Don’t react,” said Brooke.
Corky sounded like he signed the contract for $35,000 on the show, but then said, “I tore it up.”
Brooke remembered, “I had to keep a straight face. I took the biggest gulp and thought, “Don’t freak out right now.” It was intense. When I was listening to him talking about the money, I was sure he signed it and my stomach dropped. But he is such a good talker, I am a good talker, my sister is a good talker, we have good talking genes.”
On television Monday night, Corky ripped it up. The father and daughter dropped to their knees and cried.
Meanwhile, 40 people at his house cheered. At the Angelica House and Hotel, another 100 screamed. The Spanglers showed up.
“Everyone was cheering, turning us left and right for photos,” said Brooke. “I could not believe the support. The whole town was there. We could not walk, everyone was screaming.”
As for the winnings, after taxes, they will split the money and start a college fund for Cannon. That was an easy, joint decision. On the show, they said they have never left the states to travel. That will change, too.
Bills will be paid off and Corky will still work at the college and eat lunch at the same places in Geneseo.
But Corky said he will never forget those darkest days of his life, when his daughters were 9 and 10.
He said a quote helped him through each day, “You’re only as happy as your saddest child.”
TV show or not, you made your daughters smile.
(John Anderson is the managing editor of The Daily News. He can be reached at janderson@batavianews.com. To see the entire episode, visit https://www.nbc.com/the-wall/video/kirk-and-brooke/3661897)
