‘Prom Time’ memories: Palmer on
Live! with Kelly, Richardson on espnW

It’s time for big hair, limos, long dresses and tuxedos.

We’re not talking about the the ESPYs or even this weekend’s NFL Draft — though there is a tie-in.

We’re talking about Prom Season. Once again, the traditional high school soirees have been making headlines lately.

As espnW has chronicled, Alabama running back Trent Richardson — likely a high first-round pick tonight in tonight’s NFL Draft (ESPN, 7:30 p.m. and ESPN Radio) — accompanied Courtney Alvis to her prom.

Richardson’s story isn’t the first time ESPN has featured prom moments: Check out these ESPYS commercials from 2011.

It wasn’t even the sole time ESPN talked about Prom last week. Our Jesse Palmer took viewers on his own walk down memory lane when he co-hosted Live! With Kelly on Tuesday.

“We [high school friends] all decided we were going to dress the same for prom, with sweet plastic canes that we probably broke by the end of the night,” Palmer told every boy’s dream prom date, Kelly Ripa. “We had a lot of hair gel that day, and a choreographed dance.”

The year was 1996, but he faced a situation many high school football standouts find themselves in: He was enrolled in college (the University of Florida) by the time his senior prom arrived in the Spring.

“I was on the Internet with my buddies trying to figure out which girls were single that I could actually take,” he recalled on the show. “Her name was Sonya, [a] beautiful, beautiful girl. Way out of my league. I think she was just doing me a favor. Just trying to help me out.”

Sixteen years later, Jesse found himself in a tuxedo with another girl way out of his league [see above].

Some guys have all the luck.