The Big Picture

The next in this series is a little more recent, last week I stumbled across this article trying to find out when Purdue was going to play. (They lost to Connecticut unfortunately.) This was a better article. From The New York Times on March 26, 2009.

I follow some sports. Mainly the Colts, sometimes college hoops. Sometimes, and usually they have to have a very strong tie to the dear state of Indiana. That being said, I was an enormous fan of the book, The Last Amateurs, by John Feinstein. This was recommended to me by a cousin and I must say I was initially skeptical of her endorsement, but then I couldn't put it down. . .

So that was a long drawn out way of saying that I will from time to time read articles about college ball.

This is a great filler article about Syracuse's coach Jim Boeheim, who for the past ten years has been hosting a "Basket Ball," a huge Coaches vs. Cancer gala event. Evidently he has in one way or another been responsible for raising $4.5 million for the central New York American Cancer Society chapter. It has now become a friendly competition with a group of coaches who 'compete' to raise the most money.

I think this is great for many reasons. But what caught my attention from this article were the opening paragraphs.

Tears were in Jim Boeheim’s eyes that night. “How can we ever top this?” he asked his wife, Juli.

The night Boeheim broke down was in April 2000, after Syracuse held its first “Basket Ball” gala to raise money for Coaches vs. Cancer. Juli had organized the event, Jim had put his name behind it, and they both had recruited nearly everyone they knew to buy seats and get involved. The Boeheims, novice party planners, were nervous about the turnout until about 650 people arrived and moved Jim to tears.

Isn't it great when you read about someone just jumping in with blind faith and pulling it off? It gives me goosebumps!