Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Assigned Reading: Marquette’s Buzz Williams and his work with children

buzz

Throughout college basketball there are many great stories about the good deeds being done by coaches and players, with many using their stature to help those who are less fortunate. One such story is that of Marquette head coach Buzz Williams, who is using his status to help children.

When hired as the head coach at Marquette Williams created “Buzz’s Bunch,” an organization that serves children with special needs. Williams insisted on there being no limit on the size or reach of “Buzz’s Bunch,” and as a result many children and their families have been helped by the head coach and his program. Gregg Doyel of CBSSports.com told the story of Williams and his organization, with multiple stories of those who have benefitted from “Buzz’s Bunch.”

One such story is that of a little girl named Kelly, who ended up joining “Buzz’s Bunch” after meeting Williams and his team at Children’s Hospital in Milwaukee.

“Kelly’s a cancer survivor, and we were at Children’s Hospital for a cancer recheck,” Robbin Lyons said. “The elevators open, and all I see are knees. Buzz is there with his players, visiting with some kids, and these guys are so tall. Kelly is tiny, but she steps out [of the elevator] and puts her hands on her hips and says, ‘Hello boys.’ One of those had-to-be-there moments.

“Well, I run a Down syndrome foundation and we have a calendar and I was dropping it off with one of the nurses, and I told her that Kelly is Miss February. We hear this raspy voice: ‘I want to meet Miss February.’ It was Buzz. He knelt down to get eye level with Kelly and they had a 45-minute conversation. Eventually the whole team is waiting, everyone in the hospital is waiting, and Buzz is still talking with Kelly.”


If you have some time to check out Gregg Doyel’s story on Buzz Williams and “Buzz’s Bunch,” please be sure to do so. It’ll be the most fulfilling story you read today.

It can be read here.

Follow @raphiellej