Kentucky sending team bus to bring coal miner and family to Duquesne game

Two weeks ago, the picture of Eastern Kentucky coal miner Micheal McGuire and his son at the Blue/White Game in Pikeville touched the hearts of millions and prompted John Calipari to invite the family to Rupp Arena. Originally, McGuire and his wife Mollie chose the Kansas game for their VIP experience at Rupp, but after tonight’s season-opener win over Howard, John Calipari said they’ll be in the house for Friday night’s game vs. Duquesne. In fact, Kentucky’s sending the team bus to Pikeville to pick them up and he hopes Micheal can be the Y.

“Micheal and Mollie are coming to the Duquesne game,” Calipari said on his postgame radio show. “And so hopefully we’ll get the McGuires from Pikeville. They’re going to have the team bus. Bringing them in on the team bus. And they’re staying overnight. And the team bus is kind of full. I think there are 14 of them coming. We’re gonna have mom, dad, sister, brother, all of them. I said, ‘Bring everybody.’ So hopefully we’ll try to get Micheal to do the Y.”

Calipari on the story going viral

Even before Calipari tweeted about it, the picture was getting a lot of attention online. After he connected with the McGuires, it broke the internet, which Calipari said speaks volumes about the types of stories people want to hear vs. what dominates the news.

“I gotta ask all of you, what chord did that thing hit? It was worldwide. Was it a regular hard-working good father, a good story instead of attacking each other? I don’t know. I’ll say this again. I got the picture at coffee. I didn’t know who sent it. I sent it to TJ [Beisner], I said, find out who this is. I want to invite him and his family to a game. That was it. I didn’t think — and all of a sudden it exploded. What in the world? And in our state, you think about it, hard-working people. Being a coal miner, it’s well-paid but it’s hard work.”

“And it touches me Tom because you guys know, my family, my grandfather worked in the coal mines in Clarksburg, West Virginia,” Calipari added.”So, when I see that, it hits home. Hard-working, a good father. A good family. So, when we introduce them, let’s have an eruption in here that people go nuts because their family — Mollie hit me tonight, she just texted me and said, ‘Did you get the song did they write about us? Somebody wrote a song about us.’ I said, ‘No, send it. I’d like to hear it.'”

I would too, so if anyone has it, please pass it along.