Indiana University Athletics
Sampson Speaks At Benefit For Military Children
6/14/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
June 14, 2006
ELKHART, Ind. - Indiana University head coach Kelvin Sampson was along with 12 nationally-known collegiate coaches at Fort Carson's Kids Tickets for Tots Golf and Barbecue on June 13. The event is designed to bring military children a short recreational outlet from their concerns of war and the safety of their mother or father serving our country military in the Global War On Terrorism (GWOT).
The event is designed to raise money to send kids of Fort Carson, an Army post located southwest of Colorado Springs, Colorado, to Air Force Academy football and basketball games. Fort Carson is the fourth-largest Army facility in the world and is recognized as one of the world's premier locations to lead, train and maintain while preparing soldiers to win on the battlefield. The base is the largest employer in the state of Colorado, with 17,025 military personnel - an estimated 60-percent of which are married. There are currently 4,000 Fort Carson soldiers in Iraq, and in October 2006, that number will increase to 10,000 soldiers serving overseas.
In 2005, New York Knick Director of Scouting Jeff Nix and Air Force head basketball coach Jeff Bzdelik started the event by purchasing season tickets to Air Force basketball games. Bzdelik then forwarded them to General Mixon at Fort Carson to distribute to the children on his base. The overwhelming response from General Mixon and the families at Fort Carson inspired him to do more to assist the children of soldiers serving overseas in the military and the war on terrorism.
The minimum goal with the event was to fill a school bus with children from Fort Carson to attend every Air Force football and basketball game in 2006-07. Nix feels the goal has been reached, which will have a positive affect on approximately 1,000 children.
"Our goal was to raise enough money to send a busload of kids to football and basketball games,which would cost $10,000-12,000" Nix said. "With this event all said and done, we will be well above that number and it is a great credit to coach Sampson and the other coaches. It is unbelievable and we wouldn't have been able to do it without all these guys. Especially for coach Sampson and coach Izzo, who were able to bring first-hand accounts after returning from Operation Hardwood II. It was a really great night."
Nix began working this year with The Home Front Cares (THFC), who will then purchase the tickets and give them to General Mixon at Fort Carson for distribution to the families. THFC is an all-volunteer not-for-profit corporation that provides support for the Pikes Peak Region's military families of all services who have been impacted by deployment in harm's way.
Sampson and Bzdelik joined the likes of Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo, IPFW head coach Dane Fife, Notre Dame head coach Mike Brey, Marquette head coach Tom Crean, Wake Forest head coach Skip Prosser, Western Michigan head coach Steve Hawkins, ESPN analyst Digger Phelps, IU assistant coach Ray McCallum and many others.
Nix knows the event's success would not have been possible without the help of Sampson and his colleagues.
"This event could not have been held without Kelvin," Nix said. "His commitment to help children, especially those of our soldiers, is as great as any person I have been associated with. As always, he represented himself and IU with class and dignity."
Throughout his career, Sampson has been involved in numerous community organizations. The June 13 visit to Elkhart enabled the first-year Hoosier head coach to share his first-hand experiences in Kuwait while also visiting with IU fans.
"This was truly a great experience," Sampson said. "I can't say enough good things about Operation Hardwood and give enough thanks to the troops we spent time with. These soldiers I was around during that time were tremendous and it was a life-changing experience."
