Each of Sam Houston State’s NCAA Division I sports teams will be participating in the NABC “Miles for Myles” program, Bearkat director of athletics Bobby Williams and head men’s basketball coach Bob Marlin announced Thursday at Johnson Coliseum.
“Miles for Myles” is an initiative designed to perpetuate the legacy of leadership of the late NCAA president Myles Brand and to carry on with his valiant fight against pancreatic cancer.
Designed by the National Association of Basketball Coaches, which has been joined by the WBCA, NCAA and NACDA as partners, “Miles for Myles” provides an opportunity for the collegiate athletic community to demonstrate its solidarity and to raise awareness and contribute funds for cancer research, specifically in the area of pancreatic cancer.
“Myles Brand was an outstanding leader, someone who really cared about student athletes and their academics,” Williams said. “Myles engaged our coaches and student athletes, was a great listener and built a platform for the future.”
Marlin’s men’s basketball team will be the first of the Bearkats’ 16 programs to hold a “Miles for Myles” event. The team will be taking pledges of three dollars for each mile team members run in the challenge.
“Myles Brand had a keen interest in men’s basketball and was instrumental in helping the game grow,” Marlin said. “The NABC is taking the lead in this initiative with runs or walks for cancer research by college basketball programs across the country on Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 7 and 8.”
The men’s basketball team will make their “Miles for Myles” run on Saturday, Nov. 7. Sam Houston’s other sports programs will run or walk in similar events between Nov. 7 and Dec. 4.
All proceeds will benefit Coaches vs. Cancer (a partnership between the NABC and American Cancer Society), the Kay Yow/WBCA Cancer Fund and the Myles Brand Chair in Cancer Research at the Indiana University School of Medicine.