Big Blue Nation continues to show why it’s the best fanbase in college sports.
On Sunday, UK held its “Teaming Up For Texas” telethon, where fans helped generate $1 million (with matching funds) to assist victims of Hurricane Harvey. 100% of the money raised will now go to the American Red Cross to aid in the relief efforts in Texas and to benefit victims of the hurricane.
“I’m just so proud of the people of Kentucky,” Calipari said. “I grew up in Western Pennsylvania and Ellen grew up in Osceola, Missouri. These are people that we just feel so comfortable around, and I know there were $25 donations, there were $50, there were $100, and you know they really were like, ‘I don’t have this $25, but I’m going to do it.’ There were people that gave $10,000 to have dinner (with us). Great. They could afford it. But it was more about how many (donated).
“And the other thing is, when you’re doing this kind of event, you have to have matching dollars. You cannot do numbers that really make a difference unless people help. Joe and Kelly Craft, they called right away, ‘Hey, how can we help?’ I said we’re going to need matching funds. How about Mark (Stoops) and Matthew Mitchell and their families giving $25,000 each? How about our golf coaches (Brian Craig and Golda Borst) throwing in money? It was everybody doing their part to make this happen.”
Here’s a behind-the-scenes look at how it all unfolded Sunday:
We take you behind the scenes of an incredible afternoon raising money for victims of Hurricane Harvey. pic.twitter.com/SLk5IH6Vd4
— Kentucky Basketball (@KentuckyMBB) September 4, 2017