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Dan Marino partied well into the night, Joe Montana closed down the restaurant and Chris Berman left town with his suit jacket soaked in beer.

These are just a few of the stories Blair Worb is able to tell from his years involved with the biggest sports dinner in Winnipeg.

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The Rady Jewish Community Centre holds a fundraising banquet every year – they used to call it the “Y” sports dinner – and brings big-league names to town as the headline speakers.

Thursday they announced NFL quarterback Eli Manning, a two-time Super Bowl MVP, is this year’s attraction, nine years after his brother, Peyton, was here.

The Mannings are part of a star-studded guest list that includes Dan Marino, Joe Montana, Drew Brees and Magic Johnson – and that’s just over the last decade.

How do they do it?

I caught up with Worb, involved with the event for 25 years, to find out.

“When you have a net worth of 100 mil, why do you need to come to Winnipeg?” he said, putting my question another way. “They are in huge demand, especially the ones that are still playing actively in their careers. The money they charge is obscene, but they don’t need it.