A couple of short, stubby candles cast a warm light on Frank Winegar's boyish face. A severe thunderstorm has knocked out the electricity in eastern Bloomington, leaving Winegar and his roommates in a dark living room.\nBut thanks to a glossy photo of a shirtless, grinning Winegar in a popular women's magazine, the fifth-year senior has pointed a national spotlight on himself and his roommates in the local band Kirkwood.\nWinegar, 22, is featured in the November, "All-About Men" issue of Cosmopolitan magazine as Mr. Indiana on the pages containing 51 other mostly 20-something college students, part-time models and construction workers who won a national contest promoting single, "All-American" men.\nWinegar says he entered the contest to promote the band. So far, his scheme seems to be working. Winegar also has used his business savvy to rejuvenate one of the campus' largest fraternities and elevate his academics.\nWith the title, Winegar gets his own Cosmopolitan e-mail address that has been bombarded with letters from women from such places as California, Montana and Canada. The week after the magazine came out, hits on Kirkwood's Web site jumped from 40 hits a week to 140 a day.\n"Around here, if people notice it, they don't say anything, which is fine with me because I didn't do it for an ego boost," Winegar says. "I knew that once I got it I wanted it to be a big plug for the band."\nWinegar's girlfriend of more than a year, sophomore Stephanie Gadient, says she doesn't mind all the attention. Sure, it's sparked some jealousy, but she says she also feels pride because Indiana's hottest guy belongs to her. She met him last fall at a party at his fraternity, Sigma Pi, when she came across his black Labrador puppy, Sophie. \nFrank Winegar's mother, Deborah, saw an advertisement for Cosmopolitan's contest last May and persuaded her son to enter. She snapped photos of 5-foot-11, shirtless Winegar in front of trees in their backyard in South Bend with a disposable camera bought at Wal-Mart.\nGadient and Deborah Winegar co-authored the comment about Frank Winegar being a "kick-ass guy" that appears with the photo. \nWinegar says he was one of few winners to not be in possession of glossy portfolios and business cards at the Los Angeles photo shoot. Despite a poison oak outbreak that swelled his face, Winegar's profile was chosen as one of few single-page displays in the magazine. He says the photo director at the shoot told him he could find work with Abercrombie and Fitch or American Eagle.\nAs for modeling, "I would pursue music first, but it wouldn't hurt on the side," Winegar says.
Then came the stage\nRecently, Winegar filmed an episode for the "Ananda Lewis Show" in New York with 15 Cosmopolitan hunks addressing the topic, "What Guys Say and What They Really Mean." Audience members guessed the actual meanings of messages the men held up on cue cards.\nWinegar held up a sign reading "What's Wrong?" Actual meaning: "Quit whining."\nThrough all the TV, magazine and Internet attention, Winegar has remained modest, Gadient and roommates say. While Gadient says she has told dozens of people about her boyfriend's fame, he only has told his mother.\n"He'd probably choke me dead because of some of the things I've said," Frank's mother Deborah Winegar jokes. "As a guy, he wants to make the grade and quietly go about his business. I was shocked he allowed me and Stephanie to mail in the pictures, but he wanted publicity for the band." \nThe marketing comes at a fine time -- Kirkwood's debut album will be released early this month. But Winegar has played percussion since he was 12 -- his first drum sticks consisted of broken-off TV antennas he drummed against the air, mimicking musicians on MTV. He says he never had a music lesson.\nAside from promoting his band, Winegar also endorsed membership to a fraternity he presided over for two years. He was president of Sigma Pi his sophomore and junior years -- one of few to serve the position for consecutive years and one of even fewer to serve as a sophomore. \nWinegar was elected to the position based on his maturity, focus on goals and business sense, says Kirkwood lead singer and guitarist Brad Schaupeter, a senior.\n"If you want a maturity point on Frank, he laid the groundwork for a house that was struggling to a house that's outstanding in terms of numbers, winning intramurals last season and other things," Schaupeter says. "We did it on executive council as a team, but Frank was a leader throughout."
Brains and brawn\nWinegar also has succeeded as a student. He came to IU as a pre-med student, but has since entered the Kelley School of Business, picking up majors in marketing and computer science. He graduated in the top 10 of his senior class at Clay High School in South Bend. As a child, he memorized phone numbers that his mother would have to refer to in her Rolodex, Deborah Winegar says.\nGirls and an aura of celebrity attached themselves to him at a young age. A child acting scout who discovered Alyssa Milano also chose Winegar in the seventh grade to travel to New York, Deborah Winegar says. She wouldn't let him go because he would have had to go alone.\nBut Winegar later coped with moving about as he hopped between three high schools. His family moved from his birthplace of Asheville, N.C., to Raleigh, N.C., then to Lexington, Ky., and finally to South Bend as his father changed engineering jobs.\n"He said it takes two weeks before anyone will sit with you," Deborah says. "You observe who you want to associate with. I guess he had it down to an art." \nJoining sports teams at his new schools helped Winegar quickly make friends and fit in. He succeeded most on tennis teams, which he captained, and also played, intramural basketball and softball at IU.\nOn the athletic field, on TV and in a magazine, Winegar has generated plenty of attention and entered the spotlight. To his bandmates, it's about time Winegar arose from behind the drum set.\n"Usually when we play shows, the three of us are up front and he's in the back," says bassist and vocalist Keven Leonard. "This gives him some well-deserved recognition"
