ESPN College Football

Posted by ESPN.com's Heather Dinich

Just before 6:30 a.m. ET on Monday, 40-year-old Bob Yakos entered Wake Forest's BB&T Field armed with little more than a sleeping bag, a Gore-Tex suit, a "good pair of duck boots," and his knowledge of Wake Forest football.

It turned out that was all Yakos needed to last 74.5 hours in the wind, rain and temperatures that dropped below 30 degrees at night -- a small sacrifice to win 15 years worth of Wake Forest season football tickets.

Yakos isn't just a physician's assistant and father of three. No, he is the Last Fan Sitting, not to mention one heckuva dad.

Wake Forest began its Last Fan Sitting contest on Monday with 23 fans, but only nine survived until 9 a.m. Thursday. The finalists were each asked a series of trivia questions about Wake Forest football to determine the winner. Yakos answered four of five questions correctly in the third round.

Four seats in Section 7 now belong to Yakos, who is suddenly all-too familiar with the stadium seats. He said he probably got a total of eight to 10 hours of sleep in various increments during the contest.

"It is a little bit insane," he admitted. "I have three young boys and my oldest son has gone to a few games and it's been a lot of fun. I look forward to taking the others over the next 15 years as well. That's why I was out there, mostly for them and some other family."

These guys put the contestants on "Survivor" to shame.

They were each assigned a seat on the cold, metal bleachers, which also doubled as their bed. They were allowed whatever clothes they could pile on, plus one bag that weighed no more than 20 pounds. Every two hours, they got a 10-minute break. Every six hours, they got a 15-minute break.

Yakos, like the others, was afraid to sleep through their breaks.

"The first night was the worst," he said in a rather sleepy voice in a phone interview today. "It rained. A good portion of that night was really windy. That knocked a lot of people out because they got wet and it was really cold. That made everybody second-guess their idea of doing this, whether they wanted to quit. That narrowed the field quite a bit after the first night."

Not Yakos. This guy came prepared with that Gore-Tex suit. And while everyone else was getting soggy in their sneaks, his toes were toasty in the duck boots. And he knows Wake Forest football:

Q: Coach Jim Grobe just completed his eighth season with the Deacs, but prior to Wake Forest he coached at Ohio University. What is Ohio's mascot?

Yakos: Bobcat.

Q: Early in his career, Wake Forest defensive back coach Tim Billings worked primarily with special teams at Marshall University. One of his players at Marshall led Division I-AA in kickoff returns in 1996. Name this current NFL superstar.

Yakos: Randy Moss.

Q: Offensive coordinator Steed Lobotzke earned his degree from the Air Force Academy in what academic discipline.

Yakos: Economics.

Q: Who is the only member of the coaching staff (not including graduate assistants), that graduated from Wake Forest?

Yakos: Quarterbacks coach Tom Elrod.

Ding, ding ding! We have a winner!

The first-place prize was valued at $22,000.

Yakos isn't even a native of Winston-Salem, or even North Carolina for that matter. He's a Yankees fan from Cooperstown, N.Y. He graduated from the physician's assistant program at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, and got hooked on the Deacs because of coach Jim Grobe, who made a quick appearance on the first day of the contest before heading back out to recruit.

"Coach Grobe just runs an excellent program," Yakos said. "The priorities he sets for his team are a great example for everybody. If any of my sons were going to play football, I would hope they would play for a coach like him."

For the next 15 years, they'll at least be watching.