Thomas Jefferson University student completes mission of seeing all 50 states' license plates

Elliot Jarosz is winding down his collegiate tennis career and ending a similarly lengthened hunt for license plates.

"First car I saw was a plate from Maine, actually," 23-year-old Jarosz said.

After moving from Sweden to attend Thomas Jefferson University, Jarosz learned about a road trip pastime that's popular in the U.S.: the license plate game. 

"It began in 2022," Jarosz said. "I was actually down in Miami visiting some family relatives, and they introduced me to this game, that it's a thing. And as a person, I like challenges."

Aside from balancing a full schedule of classes and tennis practice, Jarosz set out on a mission to see every single state's license plate during his four years in the country. He'd keep an eye out for plates and track each one through the notes app on his phone while on the road with his tennis team for matches.

"Finding maybe the 30th or 35th states in the beginning was very, it went very fast," Jarosz said.

"I just thought it was a fabulous idea, as an international student, to get to know all the 50 states," head coach Fred Perrin said.

Then, it slowed down. North Dakota came in at 49 on March 17, 2025, but it took nearly an exact year for the last and final state to be spotted. It happened during a team dinner on a spring break trip in Florida on March 11, 2026.

"We just see our friend Antonio," Jarosz said. "He was running by the door, and we're like, 'Why is he running?' And then he opens the door and shouts, 'Wyoming! Wyoming.' At first, I think he's just making a prank on me. I was like, 'Don't do this to me. You know how much I want to find it.' And I actually come out there and I was the happiest kid. I was smiling."

Jarosz was so excited by the discovery that he took a picture with the car and spoke with the family who owned it. 

"I was so happy," Jarosz said. "I even said, 'I love you for that,' because it was a good moment."

Since Wyoming is the least populated state in the country, coach Fred Perrin knew the odds were stacked against Jarosz. 

"This last, trip, we had the whole team looking," Perrin said. "There's only 850,000 people in Wyoming. If he didn't see it by the time he graduates, at some point in his life, he was going to fly from Sweden to Wyoming just to complete the task."

The four-year side quest brought the team together and led to a new tradition.

"It did feel like a wonderful team bonding experience," Perrin said. "And that's where I really think moving forward as the head coach is adding this little wrinkle. I'll create something here in the office that we'll put up. It could be called the Elliot Project."

"I was so happy that all my teammates got so involved to help me find that," Jarosz said. "It felt like we all connected more in the end here on this trip."