I   have a crush on a married man, I must confess - a platonic crush, I should add - and his name is Regis Philbin!

At the inception of the popular TV show, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, I immediately decided that I wanted to be a contestant. Sure, the odds were astronomical that I would even have a telephone call returned, let alone actually be a contestant on the show; but I figured I had nothing to lose.

And so, for 18 months, I faithfully played the Millionaire qualifying telephone game.

In March, while the rest of Freed-Hardeman University was on spring break, I received a call from contestant coordinator Dennis McMahon. He informed me that I had finally qualified to be a contestant on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? and would fly to New York for taping within five days. My sister and nieces were guests in my house and got the pleasure of seeing me run through the house screaming, "I'm going to be on Millionaire!"

Immediately, I called my mother, Ava, who is a role model for me as a Christian woman. Charles, my father, has been a preacher for 40 years, and my mother has stood firmly by his side through all of these years.

Some very rough and challenging times have occurred within our family - my oldest brother is severely mentally retarded, and we have had several traumas with him through the years. A couple of family members have suffered with severe depression, and my mother has been the nursemaid to them. We have never had much money with four children in the family, and Dad was gone for periods of time doing mission work overseas.

Throughout everything, Mother has been the heart of our family, keeping everything and everyone together and not losing faith. She had only flown once before and had never done anything remotely "cool"; so when it came time to invite someone to accompany me to New York City, she was my first choice. I was thrilled that she said yes!

Tuesday afternoon, March 20, we landed in New York. We started to call ourselves "Lucy and Ethel" because we stuck out like sore thumbs. The adventure had begun!

The Millionaire show paid for everything - plane, nice hotel, meals, even a $50 a day allowance for spending money. We were treated like queens by everyone we met, particularly the Millionaire staff at the studio.

We found ourselves at ABC studios at 7 o'clock Wednesday morning. Upon entering the room where we would be sequestered the rest of the day, we got to meet with Gina McGuire, the associate producer who was assigned to me. Gina interviewed us for the express purpose of coming up with interesting tidbits to feed Regis - if we were lucky enough to make it that far.

Then we ate a buffet-style breakfast and met some of the other contestants and their companions. Immediately, my mother and I befriended a young fellow contestant, Kevin Rupe and his wife, Susan, from Oklahoma City. Kevin was in the hotseat before me and won $64,000. They are some of the nicest people we met during our time on the show.

After breakfast, we went onto the set. The set is interesting because it is not as nice-looking in person as it appears on television. The floor is plexiglass and is rather scratched up, the audience seats are padded bleachers, and the contestant game monitors are fragile and, we were warned, could be easily broken.

Because two tapings were scheduled for that day, two groups of contestants were there for practice. Each group had a chance to answer five fastest-finger questions. This was an enormous help because we got to practice on the monitor we would actually use during the show and become familiar with the buttons.

This was when we first saw Kevin Olmstead, who later won $2.18 million. He was a part of the first taping and was held over into our taping. Kevin appeared to be a shy, brilliant and very nice young man. I was pleased to see him win the big money.

After lunch, the people from the first taping were sent to makeup and wardrobe. The rest of us were sent back to our sequestered lounge where we visited each other and catnapped.

Once the taping for the first show began, we were escorted backstage to the green room to watch the show. This was very helpful because it gave us a chance to see how things worked and helped keep us more at ease.

We had a long time to observe because each taping for a one-hour show takes about 21_2 to 3 hours! This is because a great deal of stopping and starting and setting up of camera shots, etc, is required. Mother and I found it very interesting just to see how they put everything together.

Eventually, we found ourselves in our show outfits, with makeup on and wired for sound. Time for our taping!

We were quietly ushered backstage to await our individual introductions to the audience. Since I was assigned the first seat, I was the first out. Since I am quite the ham, I did the queen's wave and blew kisses to the crowd. They ate it up! Probably because of this and because of the fact that I was the lone female in the group, the audience seemed to really be behind me. Four of my closest girlfriends had flown in from Nashville, Tenn., and North Carolina for moral support and were watching backstage in the green room. Knowing that so many were in my corner was wonderful.

About two hours later, after watching Kevin Olmstead win the biggest cash prize in game show history, we were in the final minutes of the taping; and one more chance remained to get in the hotseat. I glanced at my mom and shrugged. It didn't look good.

"Put the following states in order of their land area, from smallest to largest," Regis said. "North Carolina, California, Colorado, Connecticut." I put them in order as fast as I could and hoped for the best.

Regis called my name, "Donna White!" Unbelievable! I was shocked because geography was not the topic in which I expected to be the fastest finger - in fact, when my friends backstage heard the question, they thought I didn't have a chance.

Somehow, I made my way up to Regis and gave him a hug. Up in the hotseat I went, not knowing how my life would forever be changed.

Some celebrities are disappointing after you meet them. I am glad to say that Regis Philbin is as nice in person as he seems on his TV shows. We had several interactions with each other off-camera, and he was always quick with a smile and a reassuring wink. Regis truly wants the guests to be comfortable and to do their best. He was excited for me, the lone woman, to make it into the hotseat.

After the $300 question, one of my fears was realized. I did not want to get stumped early on and have to waste a lifeline. "What is a common phrase one would say when someone goes to great lengths to tell a story?" I thought the answer would be "the whole enchilada." After seeing A, B and C, I calmly waited for enchilada to come up as answer D. It didn't happen. Minor panic, but I tried to keep my cool.

Scanning the possibilities, I could not be sure; so I had to ask the audience. They gave the answer, "the whole megillah!!" I was thinking, "What kind of phrase is that?"

Since I am from the South, I can assure people from other regions that this is not a phrase most of us have ever heard. However, I went with what the audience told me and was pleased it was correct. Whew!

At the commercial break, Regis leaned over to me and said, "I didn't know it either! I've never heard 'the whole magillah!' You did the right thing, kiddo." He smiled, and I immediately felt better. Regis is a New Yorker and he didn't know it, so there!

After using the 50/50 lifeline at the $32,000 question and answering correctly, the first day's taping ended. What a day! That I would receive at least $32,000 was guaranteed, and I was getting to come back the next day and finish! It was too fantastic! It had to be happening to somebody else.

The next day, right before taping, Regis appeared beside me. "What did you and your mother do last night? Did you go see a Broadway show?" What a nice guy. He remembered that we talked about trying to buy tickets.

I told him that we were too exhausted and it had poured rain, so we ate at the hotel and stayed in. "Well, I hope you get to go sometime. Maybe you can win more money and come back." He smiled, and I wondered to myself if I could adopt him.

Back in the hotseat, the $64,000 question was "Zagreb is the capitol city of what country?" Normally, I would have frozen. My friends told me they thought I was a goner. But years ago, a congregation we had worked with in Illinois had supported missionaries in Zagreb, Yugoslavia. I knew that part of the former Yugoslavia was Croatia, so I was able to correctly deduce the answer. Regis and the audience were amazed at my vast knowledge, but I can only say thank God for missionaries!

For the $125,000 level, I found that being a fan of the "Godfather" films was very helpful. Before I knew it, the $250,000 question was before me. "What wild west figure later went on to become a sportswriter for a New York newspaper? Bat Masterson, Frank James, Jim Bridger, Pat Garrett?" My instinct was Bat Masterson, but I couldn't think of why he stood out. Plus, I had never heard of Jim Bridger.

Back at FHU, about 80 people in a conference room were waiting to be my phone-a-friend lifeline. Headed up by my friend, Steve Weaver, I had professors from all sorts of fields and assorted friends and staff people with all kinds of knowledge. Managed correctly by Steve, I felt certain that this lifeline would be most helpful. Regis had Steve on the phone in just a moment.

Disappointment. Steve didn't know for sure but guessed it was probably Bat Masterson. With just two or three seconds left, I was thinking, "This didn't work at all."

Just then Steve shouted something over the telephone. The audience heard, and some laughed. Regis looked at me and asked if I understood what Steve had said. I did not. Regis indicated that he didn't either.

"Cut! Stop tape!" someone shouted. Producers immediately swirled around us. "Donna, did you understand what Steve said at the end?" "No, I did not," I replied. The director got onto someone in the audience, apparently for making noise during the last part of taping.

Someone came out from the control room to explain what was going on. She took a microphone and spoke to the whole audience. "Since Donna could not hear what Steve said at the end because of the laughter, we stopped tape. She has a right to know what he said, so we rewound the audio; and what he said was, 'Bat Masterson. 100 percent sure, Donna!' " I started smiling because Steve promised he would only say "100 percent sure" if it was a certainty.

A further delay of about five minutes ensued while the crew reset the camera shot and rewound the videotape so that Regis and I could start over. During this time, the FHU people in the phone-a-friend room were in agony because they thought that I was having trouble deciding on an answer. I was not; it just took time for production to resume.

As soon as I answered, "Bat Masterson," Regis informed me that I was correct and had won $250,000. The FHU people went nuts. The studio audience went nuts. I just calmly smiled, still feeling as if this was not really happening. It was a dream. Looking at the show when it actually aired, you cannot even tell that a problem occurred, due to the magic of editing.

After passing on the $500,000 question, it was time to get out of the hotseat. Regis handed me a prop check for $250,000. He then hugged me and gave me a kiss on the cheek.

I turned around, and there was Mother with her arms outstretched. We hugged and kissed on national television and walked offstage, arm-in-arm. A crowd of about 20-30 Millionaire staff people were waiting to hug and congratulate me. Most of them were women who were really hoping that I would go all the way. At that time, I was one of only three women to make it that far.

Then my friends, Jennifer, Suzanne, Kathy and Karen, mobbed me. We posed for pictures for Maria, the official show photographer. We were immediately swept backstage where we had to remain sequestered for the rest of the taping. Forms had to be signed. Members of the staff had to brief me on such things as taxes and Uncle Sam. I was elated but still in shock.

Word spread like wildfire through the FHU and church grapevines. I got lots of e-mail and congratulatory telephone calls and cards. But for five weeks, I had to remain mum on the outcome until the show aired.

Finally, on April 10 and 12, the world got to see what happened to me on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?. Several hundred of us gathered in Loyd Auditorium on FHU's campus to watch the show on the movie projection screen. We had a ball!

Since then, I have been recognized by all sorts of people in all kinds of weird places and have gotten a kick out of how nice and supportive everyone is about the show. Little kids have had me sign autographs and pose with them in pictures. My dad has gotten all kinds of mileage out of the fact that his name was never mentioned on-air. Poor Daddy! Strangers have stopped me in stores and on the street to offer their congratulations. Everyone has been so sweet.

After taxes, I will not have a quarter of a million dollars, but I am thankful for every penny and for this blessing. I do not believe that God intends for this money to be hoarded or used selfishly. Some will be put away for the future, but other portions will go to the church, to FHU and to friends and family. Already, some FHU students on mission trips have benefitted from Millionaire. Who knew a game show could be such a blessing?! o

Donna C. White is dean of campus life at Freed-Hardeman University and formerly assistant dean of students at Lipscomb University. Born in Oklahoma City, she now lives in Henderson, Tenn., where she worships with the Estes Church of Christ. One of her hobbies is trivia!

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