Those of you who know me outside our weekly date in this column space know that for the past two years, I have worn the same open locket necklace nearly every day.
Inside that locket are three jade shavings from a bracelet worn daily by a close friend of mine who died of cancer three years ago and given to me by her mother. I wear the necklace as a reminder of how wonderful she was and how lucky I was to have known her.
Armed with this understanding, that so many people have been touched either directly or indirectly by this disease, I headed to Cameron Monday to determine what percentage of ticket sales from last night and tonight's 2K Sports Classic games go to the American Cancer Society through the Coaches vs. Cancer foundation.
But as it turns out, in hunting down the answer to this simple question, I was left instead with more questions about the charitable efforts of the men's basketball team.
Because for as much as head coach Mike Krzyzewski and his program give back to the community-and I believe they do give back, a lot-I was hard pressed to find anyone at Duke who had specific details on the basketball team's aggregate charitable donations.
I had to talk to 14 people both inside and outside the program to even begin to paint the complete picture of its philanthropic endeavors-yes, because Coach K does so much, but also because no one seems to have centralized any of this information, which struck me as odd, especially given Krzyzewski's emphasis on charity work.
I knew I was in for a day-long investigation when no one at Duke had any idea how much of its own ticket sales for the 2K Sports Classic was being given to charity. The closest thing I received to an answer came from Mike Flanagan, senior vice president of the Gazelle Group, the tournament's promoter. While he did not disclose the exact percentage rate of donation, he said depending on ticket sales, the tournament would raise between $500,000 and $1 million for Coaches vs. Cancer.
As for the rest of Duke's charitable endeavors, Senior Associate Athletic Director Mike Cragg, who oversees men's basketball and the Legacy Fund, told me the basketball program rarely writes checks to charities and instead opts to sell basketballs, posters and tickets to organizations that can later auction them off at higher prices to raise money for their causes.
"We have purposefully never put that in a dollar figure or a calculated figure," Cragg said. "We just have not organized in that fashion."
So exactly how many basketballs, posters and tickets have been put to good use over the years?
I couldn't tell you, mostly because no one from Duke could tell me.
I can, however, tell you a story about a particular set of tickets that might shed some light on the power of Mike Krzyzewski and Duke Basketball to do good.
When I struck out on the Duke side in trying to piece together this column (for the record, Director of Student-Athlete Development Leslie Barnes had tons of insight on great fundraisers held by non-revenue teams, but could not tell me more about men's basketball initiatives beyond team participation in the Read with the Blue Devils program or visits to the hospital) I put in a phone call to the people at the Jimmy V Foundation, knowing how important that cause is to Coach K and vice versa.
That's when John Leshney, senior vice president for development, told me the story of the $100,000 tickets.
At the 2007 Dick Vitale Gala, an annual event held to raise money for the Jimmy V Foundation, Coach K was honored and also emceed part of the live auction that was integral to the evening's fundraising efforts.
He had donated four tickets to that year's UNC game in Cameron, and someone paid $100,000 for them. One of the very next items up for bid was a set of tickets to a Louisville-Florida game. Krzyzewski teased the crowd that they were good tickets, but clearly could never bring in the kind of money that the Duke ones just did. Suddenly, the best friend of Rick Pitino, head coach of the Cardinals, rose from the crowd and matched the $100,000.
And just like that, Coach K had raised $200,000 for cancer research.
I believe what I just shared is only the very small tip of the very large iceberg of what Krzyzewski and the Blue Devils do for this community and for national charities. And I understand that charitable work and donations should stand on their own right and not be used as some PR statement.
But I also believe it would behoove the people around the basketball program to have a clearer idea of just how much it gives. Because if you're going to make philanthropy a cornerstone of your program's image, you should be more transparent in disclosing what is being done. Whether it's donating 2,000 autographed basketballs or 600 signed posters, share that. Keep track.
Just like a necklace on a friend passing you in the quad, any gift worth giving can also be a statement worth making.
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