By Liz Coffin-KarlinContributing Writer
Matt Liebman, a history and physical education teacher at Evanston Township High School, received an unexpected call from Cosmopolitan Magazine last Memorial Day Weekend.
“At first I thought they were trying to sell me magazines,” he said.
But he soon found out that he had been selected as the Illinois representative for Cosmopolitan Magazine’s Man Hunt 2006.
Cosmopolitan annually holds a “state-by-state showcase of some of the sexiest single dudes in the nation.” In early October, the magazine released this year’s bachelor list and opened online voting for bachelor of the year.
Anne Liebman, Matt’s sister and a senior at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, entered him in the contest last spring. She has been reading Cosmopolitan for several years and noticed the annual contest.
“I thought it would be really cool for Matt,” Anne said. “He hasn’t had anything huge like this happen to him before.”
In June, all 50 bachelors attended a photo shoot, which also allowed them to get to know the other contestants.
The magazine with the special “Cosmo Men” section was released the week of October 16, and the bachelors spent the beginning of that week in New York City. While there, the men were featured on national media such as the Today Show.
The events culminated on Oct. 17 with a red carpet party at the Pink Elephant Club in New York, during which the bachelors participated in a runway show and the winner of the national contest was announced.
The representative from Colorado won the contest, but Matt was not overly disappointed.
“Although we tried to spread the word and get people to vote, forty-nine other guys were trying to do the same thing, trying to network people,” Anne said. “Those aren’t very good odds.”
Matt, a native of De Pere, Wis., and a UW-Madison graduate, said that it was not until he called his sister to tell her the news that he “started to register that it was a big deal.”
Although Matt’s association with the magazine has finished, Cosmopolitan did put the contestants in contact with modeling and acting agencies. Since the contest began he has received mail he did not expect, including contacts with modeling agencies, letters from people he had known in the past but had not recently spoken to and risque pictures from fans.
For now Matt is busy completing a history certification while he teaches both secondary history and physical education.
Matt said he feels that the contest opened up many opportunities for him. He was interested in modeling before the contest, and he said he thinks the experience may open that door for him.
Although Matt enjoyed his time posing and walking down the runway, he doesn’t feel that it fundamentally changed him.
“I’m the same Matt,” he said. “It was just a great experience. You just ride the wave and see where it lands.”
Reach Liz Coffin-Karlin at [email protected].
