A Chapmanville native won the big prize on "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" Friday afternoon.

Sam Murray, a 1983 graduate of Chapmanville High School and currently a bartender in Philadelphia, became the 13th millionaire in the history of the U.S. Millionaire franchise - and the third millionaire on the syndicated version of the show with host Meredith Vieira.

Murray walked away with the top prize on the Million Dollar Tournament of Ten during the tournament's finale episode that aired at 12:30 p.m. on WSAZ Channel 3.

In an interview with The Logan Banner, Murray was asked how it felt to be a millionaire. He responded with a chuckle, "It feels pretty good!"

Murray beat out nine other players in the tournament, which featured the top 10 contestants of the season, who were invited back to each look at a $1 million question from Nov. 9-20.

As the 8th seed in the tournament, Murray correctly answered his $1 million question on the third day of the tournament on Nov. 11. He then sat through seven more episodes of the tournament as each person seeded higher than him, looked at their own $1 million question. Each of them had the chance to take the $1 million prize away from Murray if they correctly answered their question. Each player ultimately decided to not risk losing their previous winnings with an incorrect answer and decided to walk away with the money that they had won on their original episode.

"I wished them all well," Murray said. "If they had beaten me, I still had $50,000. If I win — good; if they win — good too. But I was really glad that I won."

The finale episode came down to two people — Murray and the top-seeded player, Jehan Shamsid-Deen, a non-profit program officer from Concord, NC. Shamsid-Deen is the top winner on Millionaire this season, having pocketed $250,000 on her original appearance on October 12. With a quarter of a million dollars at stake, Shamsid-Deen came into the tournament with the most to lose — but as the top seed, also had the competitive advantage of knowing that no one else in the tournament would be able to take the top prize away from her, should she correctly answer her $1 million question.

Shamsid-Deen faced the following $1 million question on Friday's show:

For $1,000,000 - Category, 'Extremely Rare' — "A rare example of a word that rhymes with "orange," the Blorenge is a what? A: River in Ireland, B: Forest in Scotland, C: Mountain in Wales, D: Desert in Australia."

Right away, Shamsid-Deen ruled out "D," "Desert in Australia" and narrowed it down to "A," "B," or "C," which as she noted, are "all located in the Great Britain area." Shamsid-Deen said that she used to live in Great Britain and confessed, "I should have done more traveling!" She kept going back to "C," and when Meredith asked if she was going to go for it, Shamsid-Deen quoted the famous Kenny Rogers song, "You got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em, know when to walk away and when to run ..." She then said, "$250,000 is a lot of money — I like Sam — I didn't want him to get the money (laughing) - but I like Sam. I'm going to walk away."

After Shamsid-Deen walked away, Vieira revealed the correct answer, which was "C." She became the sixth Tournament player to know the correct answer — but ultimately decide to walk away.

"That was really nerve wracking," Murray said. "When that last question came up, the question about Blorenge, I knew it right away. I thought 'she's going to get it.'"

Once Murray was revealed as the tournament winner, the celebratory confetti dropped from the ceiling and Murray ran around the set, giving 'high-fives' to the audience. Meredith asked him what the money meant to him and he responded, "You don't know what it means to me. I've done a million things in my life. I've been all over and I've just wanted to be able to go back to school. I really like helping sick people and I really want to go back and get my nursing degree. I feel like it's my calling."

Murray said he plans to begin nursing school in the spring of 2010.

When Vieira asked Murray if he had one "fun thing" that he would want to do with the money, he responded, "Jehan was talking about going skydiving. So I'll go skydiving with you!"

Murray said he plans on coming home to Chapmanville and Logan County after the first of the year.

"I know half the people in Logan County, and the same here in Philadelphia," Murray said. "As a bartender, I have heard every West Virginia joke you can think of."

Murray said he wanted people in Chapmanville to know that he didn't forget them.

"A lot of people are upset that I didn't mention Chapmanville. That show is edited and a lot of things I said were probably edited out," Murray said. "I mentioned them on the show and in the paper up here. Chapmanville is my heart ... I love Chapmanville."