Creator of Ohio ‘Peach Bowl Girl’ TikTok shares message for her

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — The man who made a viral video featuring an Ohio State fan is sharing more about his social media experience with NBC4.

TikTok creator Hayden Sheppard posted a short clip of the Peach Bowl broadcast highlighting 19-year-old Catherine Gurd from New Albany. In the video, Gurd, dressed in Buckeye garb, holds her hands up to her mouth in a prayer position in the final moments of the game between Ohio State and Georgia. The caption on Sheppard’s post reads, “Somebody find me this girl from Ohio State… for the love of god.”

The post received millions of views and more than 2,000 comments.

“Ok maybe Ohio isn’t so bad after all,” related one TikTok viewer.

“I swear to God I was thinking the same thing when I was watching the game ?,” added another user.

While one person made the suggestion, “Should do [the video] to the song These Eyes…” in reference to Gurd’s pale blue eyes.

Gurd’s identity was confirmed just days later when the Xavier University lacrosse player posted her own viral TikToks. The first is captioned, “POV your 3 seconds on tv somehow makes you go viral.” Her second video poked fun at being referred to on social media as the “Peach Bowl Girl,” with the phrase, “When you kick off 2023 with a new name,” over a video of her widening her eyes.

In an interview with “Inside Edition,” Gurd talked about the few seconds on camera that propelled her to fame.

“I was distraught at that moment, I was just praying and like hoping that we would make the kick,” she revealed.

The entertainment news outlet also noted that Gurd’s brother is Buckeyes tight end Patrick Gurd. Sheppard, when asked about his experience posting a wildly popular TikTok was gracious to his subject.

“Catherine should probably get all the attention from this,” he wrote in a message to NBC4. “I knew the moment I posted it that it would go viral for pretty obvious reasons.”

He went on to detail his experience in the time after creating the video.

“I was flying back home from Texas for the holidays the day after and I remember it going up like 100k views every few minutes, and was really excited,” he said.

The TikTok maker also shared his feelings about the phenomenon of going viral and what he thought Gurd might be going through.

“I know how it feels to go viral from a post and it can almost be overwhelming at some times, having hundreds of people texting you and so on,” he said. “I just want her to know that it went viral for the obvious reason of her beauty and I’m happy that I could be of help, and I hope that it made her future a little brighter!”