Lowell’s 2011 Pink Arrow Pride Game
Trish Hoffman and I first experienced Lowell’s Pink Arrow Pride game in 2010 in Lowell, Michigan. Friday night the Lowell Red…errr…Pink Arrows will take the field against Chicago’s Hubbard High School in Pink Arrow Pride VII.
With all due respect to all of the other wonderful high school football games with causes out there – Lowell’s is THE BEST!
It all began with a phone call from Lowell head football coach Noel Dean to Teresa Beachum. Coach Dean, who’s one of the top coaches in Michigan, called Teresa after seeing Brett Favre’s wife Deanna wearing a pink jersey during an NFL game. Deanna is a breast cancer survivor.
Coach Dean, Beachum, Teresa’s husband and an awesome bunch of community volunteers sprung into action and in 2008 the Pink Arrow Pride game was born. Trish and I attended PAP III & IV and still cannot believe how caring and giving this community is.
Our first video in 2010 brought national attention to the game. In fact, in 2011, NBC’s Today Show arrived with a producer telling us that it was because of our video that she first discovered this incredible football game/community passion that has now raised over a million dollars and resulted in the building of a Gilda’s Club and assistance to cancer survivors in the community.
One of the most incredible scenes occurs before the game when a community en masse and dressed in pink t-shirts enters the stadium and takes a victory lap around the stadium track.
Pink Arrow Pride IV t-shirt
During the game itself the players wear pink jerseys with names of loved ones affected by cancer on their back and the Red Arrow logo on the players’ helmets is traded-out for pink ones.
Tickets for the game come in the form of pink t-shirts that are sold to fans, who wear them in the stadium – it’s the cost of admission.
Honoring my grandparents on a Pink Arrow Pride t-shirt
I’m proud to say that my Pink Arrow Pride t-shirt is in honor of my grandparents, who while they were alive were cancer survivors for a long time.
We’ll have more on the game tomorrow, plus you can listen to tonight’s High School Football America radio show to listen to a Throwback Thursday interview I did with Teresa Beachum before Pink Arrow Pride IV.
