Just as the first Ali-Frazier bout drew the who’s who to Madison Square Garden in 1971, P.T. O’Malley’s welcomed the who’s who of Kelli Zink for the premiere of the ESPN reality show “Beg, Borrow & Deal.”

The crowd came in support of Zink, a 2002 MSU graduate, and to follow her journey across America with no money, no cell phones and virtually no hope.

Zink’s co-worker Tyler Blakslee, a bartender at P.T. O’Malley’s, 210 Abbott Road, said patrons were more focused on the show than their drinks at last week’s show debut.

“I was surprised, it was nice for us behind the bar,” he said. “No one was really ordering drinks while the show was on, so we got a chance to watch it too.

“Judging by nobody ordering drinks, everyone was pretty engrossed in it. I’d say that was a first.”

In May, during the middle of finals week, Zink teamed up with three other members of Team Cobi in New York’s Times Square to embark on what she said was the biggest test of her life.

“Beg, Borrow & Deal” pits two teams of four people in a trek across the country, starting in New York and ending in San Francisco. Each team must complete the journey using whatever negotiation skills they have picked up through life while completing 10 out of 40 possible sports-related tasks. The tasks include catching a 35-yard pass from an NFL quarterback and playing in a prison basketball game.

The show airs at 8 p.m. Tuesdays on ESPN.

Zink, who graduated with a journalism degree, said the show opened the door for a chance at a career in sports broadcasting.

“I thought it would be a really great try for me to get a start on my career,” she said. “I can’t afford to travel across the country, and I haven’t really seen a lot. So this is a cool way to do it for free.”

Always critical of run-of-the-mill reality television, Zink said she wanted to use herself to create a new role in a reality-TV world full of typecasts.

“I always look at these shows, and I think I could be so good on these because I can play the normal role,” she said. “You know they need a normal girl, they need the girl next door, down to earth.”

When taping began, Zink said she had a hard time wrapping up her classes and had to take her finals early.

“No one believed me, none of the professors or kids believed me all year,” she said. “Everyone said, ‘Yeah right, Zink, you’re an idiot, you’re not going to get on any kind of TV show.’ See, look, I wasn’t lying.”

Zink said the best aspect of the show was the chance to meet different athletes and travel to different stadiums. Viewers watched Zink and her teammates catch a pass from New York Giants quarterback Jesse Palmer, then hitch a ride with cornerback Jason Sehorn back to Manhattan.

“The worst part was definitely the rules,” she said. “Since it was the first time the show was filmed, the rules changed a lot because they didn’t know what was going on, so the rules got tougher and tougher.”

Julie VandenBerg, a 2002 graduate, and other members of the Alpha Phi sorority joined their sister Zink to watch the show’s premiere.

“I am really excited for her,” VandenBerg said. “I know she is a go-getter and this is something she has always wanted to do. Sports is her life.”

After the show wrapped up, Zink said she was overcome by the show of support from her friends.

“I always say I have two friends and a hundred acquaintances,” she said. “But these people aren’t acquaintances, they are friends, because when you need them, people show up for you.”

Zink’s boyfriend Jacob Gray, an education senior, also received television exposure as he helped his girlfriend make a trip from East Lansing to Chicago.

“I was just excited to see her,” he said. “It had been about a week, and I didn’t know if she was going to make it at the beginning and she ended up not being able to call me for a while.

“Beg, Borrow & Deal” host Rich Eisen said the show is different from many others in the reality-TV field.

“Nobody’s eating bugs on this show,” he said. “Nobody’s singing. Nobody is jumping into a vat of snakes.”

Eisen said he doesn’t know how many shows can match the angle ESPN took on the show.

“This is so original that it’s going to be tough to copy without looking as if it’s a direct rip-off,” he said. “Everything’s going to be a derivative of something. This is a derivative of a reality series where you watch how people interact with one another.”

Eisen met Zink in Times Square before the launch of the show and said her qualities will help her go far.

“She is fearless,” he said. “She is attractive and that combination in this game will get you places.”

Casey McNenly can be reached at mcnenlyc@msu.edu.