PIKEVILLE, Ky. (WDKY) — University of Kentucky men’s basketball held its annual Blue-White Game on Saturday to raise funds for flood-ravaged eastern Kentucky but one man really claimed the night.
UK coach John Calipari posted a photo on Twitter, which has since gone viral, celebrating the effort and dedication of a Kentucky father spotted in the crowd.
“From what I’ve been told, after his shift, he raced to be with his son & watch our team,” Calipari wrote.
That man, Micheal McGuire, is an employee of Excel Mining and was at work until after 5 p.m., giving him less than an hour to make the game, which tipped off at 6 p.m. at Appalachian Wireless Arena in Pikeville, Kentucky.
“My husband choose the job he has to support our family so that I could be home to raise our wonderful children, there are many times he misses out on these events due to work. So any chance he can be there he is, no matter how tired or dirty,” Micheal’s wife, Mollie, wrote on Facebook Monday.
Eastern Kentucky was built on the backs of many coal miners, something Calipari noted in his first tweet.
“My family’s American dream started in a Clarksburg, WV coal mine, so this picture hits home,” he said.
The tweet was shared across Twitter racking up nearly 14,000 retweets and over 158,000 likes.
Calipari offered the McGuire family tickets to a future game at Rupp Arena, where they will be “treated like VIPs.”
