Touching story: St. Louis’ No. 1 fan will not be bribed by Butler
Feb 13, 2013, 2:25 PM EDT
About a month ago, we wrote about a nine-year old from Missouri named Joshua Brown.
Joshua has a brain tumor, and through the Friends of Jaclyn program, he’s become close with the St. Louis basketball team.
He goes to the games, he hangs out with the players, and he’s been adopted by the team as a source of inspiration.
It really is a great story, and in a day and age where college athletes have become icons and investment properties for NBA teams, it’s refreshing to hear a story about a group of kids simply being there to bond with a fan that needs a pick-me-up.
Well, we weren’t the only ones to be touched by that story. From Tom Timmermann:
You may recall Joshua Brown, the 9-year-old brain tumor patient who I wrote about a few weeks back. I was talking to his parents before a recent game and they said that they recently got a box in the mail with small gifts from Butler – a little toy bulldog, a shirt, things like that – and a note that said they know that his favorite team is SLU, but if he was going to have a second-favorite team to root for other times, could it be Butler? Alas, the best they can hope for is third. After SLU, Josh’s favorite team is Wake Forest, where SLU director of basketball operations Mike Lepore went to school. (Lepore has spend a lot of time with Josh.)
There are two things I love about this:
- What a classy move from Butler. Bravo.
- Kudos to Joshua for not allowing his fan allegiances to be bought. He’s got his favorite teams, and no amount of t-shirts and stuffed Bulldogs will change that. As a true sports fan, I can respect that. And hey, there’s nothing wrong with third, right Butler?
You can find Rob on twitter @RobDauster.
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