Friday, February 15, 2008
There are some people who complain about Kansas fans at basketball games wearing shirts in all sorts of colors other than the traditional crimson and blue.
However, Sunday afternoon there will be a different hue to Allen Fieldhouse and it will start with the players themselves.
For its 2 p.m. game against Nebraska, the Kansas women’s basketball team will don pink jerseys in support of the “Think Pink” initiative by the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association to raise awareness and funds for the fight against breast cancer.
In its second year, this initiative has the support of more than 900 schools and Jayhawk coach Bonnie Henrickson is thrilled to be a part of it.
“I’m very, very excited about our opportunity to help in the community,” Henrickson said. “Obviously it’s a national event but it’s grass roots here. All of the money will be donated to the LMH (Lawrence Memorial Hospital) breast cancer center.
“To a person in Allen Fieldhouse, we’ve all been impacted somehow and it’s a chance for us to create awareness and create funds towards research to find a cure for the disease.”
The entire Athletics Department has worked hard to make this a truly special event for all of those involved.
“We consider it very important to participate in this,” Associate Athletics Director Jim Marchiony said. “It’s an illness that somehow affects almost everybody in someway.”
Along with the jerseys, which Henrickson says look great, the first 5,000 fans in attendance will receive free pink t-shirts.
“We’re asking everyone to wear them when they get them so we can pink it out in Allen Fieldhouse on Sunday,” Henrickson said.
More importantly, for every fan in attendance, the department will donate one dollar to the LMH breast cancer center.
“We came up with that as a department,” Marchiony said. “It’s something that we can do that will hopefully encourage others to contribute to the cause as well.”
In August, the Alvamar Golf and Country Club hosted the annual Bonnie Henrickson fund-raising golf tournament, and a portion of those proceeds were designated to go to the same cause. During a timeout on Sunday, a check with those funds will be presented to the hospital.
The “Think Pink” theme has also bounced beyond the court and into City Hall.
On Feb. 12, Mayor Sue Hack proclaimed Feb. 17 to be “Think Pink Day,” in Lawrence.
“Anything that I can do or that the community can do to further that along I think is really important,” Hack said. “It was amazing to note on the proclamation that deaths from breast cancer have actually declined. I think it’d be hard to find any other cancers where the death rate has declined, and that’s due to early detection and education (about breast cancer).
“It’s not the death sentence that it used to be.”
The actual event may only be a basketball game, but everything that surrounds it means so much more to everyone involved and those affected by breast cancer.
“This is the perfect example of athletics doing something good for society,” Marchiony said.
“It’s a great pairing of the university and the city of Lawrence and the more we can do that the better it is for all of us,” Hack said.
— Edited by Jared Duncan
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