A few of the reporters, including myself, thought it was a bit odd that a man with a company no one had heard of and no history of donation philanthropy, would suddenly be giving such a massive gift. Ten million is a lot of dollars, no matter how rich you are. I remember one of the radio guys sitting next to me at the press conference used his phone to Google Bigelow's company (Nykel Bam International, LLC) and could not find anything, which we also found unusual*, to say the least.

*There were explanations for this, which were also somewhat unusual.

That afternoon I interviewed Bigelow about the money and his company and the fellow philanthropists who he said were making his donation possible. It's too much to re-hash here, but you can catch up by reading this column.

In the weeks since, rumors have floated around town that the whole thing was some sort of prank or scheme or lie, either by Bigelow or Fresno State. The Bee did its best to find out the truth about Bigelow, focusing on whether he even had the financial capability of delivering on such a pledge. Truthfully, we didn't find out much. Several rumors turned out to be just what they were, rumors. He'd had several businesses, some failures, some moderately successful. But his current business and story have proven to be impossible to check and Fresno State has provided absolutely no help in that area.

I interviewed Bigelow for the follow-up story and he was upset that the Fresno Bee was going to report he'd gotten a DUI in early 2008. I get why he was upset. I really do. Here he is trying to do something good for Fresno State, something he feels is good for the community, and it was ultimately resulting in the local newspaper going public with a negative aspect of his life. I understand. But I also understand why the Bee printed it, and that reason centers entirely around Bigelow's court fines going to collections. Two of them, in fact. How does someone with the connections and access that Alphonso Bigelow claims to have, let something as serious as court fines go to collections? He said that he had no idea that his court fines went to collections because he doesn't pay his own bills, which seems odd, but alas, not entirely beyond possibility.

That was the thing about Bigelow's entire story up to that point. It was filled with improbabilities, but not impossibilities. It seemed about the only way to really know if Bigelow would really deliver would be to see if he really delivered. The first payment was supposed to be made on Friday, July 10. Bigelow had pleaded with me -- pleaded with the Bee, through me, technically -- to just let him deliver, prove that he was a man of his word. He said that I could go with him to deliver the first check, that he would pick me up and we would ride in his car together. He was that confident.

Unfortunately, I was flying out of town to attend my brother's wedding on the day he was supposed to deliver the check. He said it would be no problem, that we'd do it in the morning before my afternoon flight. A couple days before, he said he could do even better. We'd deliver the check on Thursday, July 9. Well, when Thursday arrived, he didn't have time, or wasn't back in town, I forget which. And when Friday morning came, he said he couldn't do it then either. His idea was that he would drop off the check in the evening and then call me to give an interview about the drop-off. When I suggested that it would help his credibility to have a Bee reporter there, he decided that was a good idea, but also that his lawyer should be there. (He was still antsy about the Bee, following the whole reporting of his DUI thing.) Unfortunately, he said his lawyer was out of town and so the first payment of the $10 million pledge was postponed until the following Monday.

To me, the entire reason for having a reporter go along was to build credibility, show a doubting public it was wrong. Not to mention the skeptical media. Here would be proof. The first check! Hurray! So reporter George Hostetter met Bigelow at the Bulldog Foundation office on Monday afternoon and here is the story about what happened.

If you haven't already read it, Hostetter wasn't allowed to see the check. The hand-off of the envelope with the check in it -- according to Bigelow -- happened when Bigelow first walked up to the building and Hostetter was behind him. Hostetter said he never saw it. No one would give a dollar amount except for Bigelow, who would only say that the check was for six-figures. Fresno State officials said they respect their donors' privacies and don't reveal dollar amounts. If Bigelow wanted to show the check, he could have. Bigelow told me that evening in a phone interview that Fresno State had asked him not to reveal the amount because it might spark jealousy and hard feelings among other donors.

So they were both hiding behind the other, to some extent. I understand that donations are a delicate issue. Fresno State doesn't want potential to donors to wonder, "Am I going to be scrutinized? Is the local media going to check to see if I actually make the payments? Are they going to print how much the payments are?" Donors are like car buyers or first dates. You want them to feel as comfortable as possible. But on the other hand, this entire thing could have been done anonymously. Bigelow had that option. He has said Fresno State pressured him to go public, but when it comes down to it, the guy with the money makes the decisions. The Bulldogs aren't turning away $10 million because someone refused to have a press conference.

The frustrating part to me, as a journalist and as a occasional tax-payer, is the way Fresno State is handling the situation. The people in charge wanted the big news conference. They wanted headlines. They wanted the TV cameras showing smiling Bulldog Foundation members. They wanted the momentum of the announcement and the feel-good story circulating in the community, churning confidence and good will.

But now they just want all the media to go away. The story is over. They don't want anyone asking more questions. They don't want anyone checking on the parts of Bigelow's story that seem unusual. They surely don't want anyone checking to see if Bigelow actually makes the payments or how much those payments are for. Several different Fresno State people have told me they think our pursuing of the Bigelow story is out of line because we don't do this kind of research into other donors, such as Chukchansi Casino or Save Mart or the Duncans or the Ricchuitis or Sid Craig.

I'm almost embarrassed to acknowledge that argument here, but why would we pursue a story about where Chukchansi's money comes from? Could it be the several thousand people pushing slot machine buttons there on any given day? It doesn't even make sense. The Duncans? The Ricchuitis? There's evidence that they have money. They've given before. Those families don't make pledges, they write checks. Sid Craig? Seriously, you wonder why we don't go digging into the past of the late Sid Craig to find out if he has the financial wherewithal to make a Fresno State donation? We were there! We were buying the weight-loss stuff from his wife Jenny!

And the fact that Fresno State made the announcement prior to receiving anything from Bigelow -- not to mention the fact that no one can explain why, other than to say that's the way it's sometimes done -- only makes it seem more suspicious. And as for not wanting to irritate other donors by revealing the dollar figures, no one was shy when they were handing out the press release with "$10 million" on it. How would announcing the first payment amount be any different? It's a smaller figure, right?

Every story is not the same. Every story doesn't deserve the same attention. This one is unusual and unvarifiable, and while I'm sympathetic to what Bigelow has gone through, he did choose to become a public figure when he agreed to the news conference, when he and his family went on stage on the Fresno State campus. If he didn't realize that was going to happen, then he was misinformed.

From the beginning, Fresno State officials have made sure to let media members know that this is just a pledge. I've been told Bigelow isn't obligated to pay anything. I've been told pledges go unfulfilled all the time. I've been told that it wouldn't be Fresno State's fault or embarrassment if Bigelow didn't pay a penny of his $10 million pledge. I would certainly disagree and I think most reasonable citizens of this city would too. Because frankly, it doesn't matter much money is pledged to Fresno State athletics. They want to know how much is actually delivered. They want field turf and they want better facilities and they want those facilities to produce better football players and better football teams.

After the first check delivery, it's obvious that either Fresno State or Alphonso Bigelow, or maybe both, is only interested in revealing promises. Not what really matters.