Welcome to the Big East
The Cancer Action Network brought five NCAA Men’s Basketball coaches to Capitol Hill Tuesday morning to help lobby for cancer legislation. And boy, is this a competitive crowd. They even try to outscore each other when it comes to their cancer.
University of Connecticut Coach Jim Calhoun gave a moving speech about his own cancer recovery but Syracuse University Head Coach Jim Boeheim, also a cancer survivor, brought out the laughs. “I’ll keep this brief,” he began, “Coach Calhoun talks too much.” Keeping alive their Big East rivalry, he went on to say that although they both had the same form of prostate cancer, Calhoun had to one-up him “this year, [by going] on to get cancer again.”
Calhoun said he took 14 days to recover. “I took 14 days, I think it took him 15,” he said. Laughing along with their peers were University of Maryland Coach Gary Williams, Temple University Coach Fran Dunphy and University of Alabama Coach Mark Gottfried. Thankfully for Calhoun and Boeheim, and the school’s die-hard basketball fans, both coaches are currently in good health.
