Micheal McGuire drove from his coal mining job to the Kentucky scrimmage to take his 3-year-old son to his first basketball game.
RELATED: UK’s Calipari reacts to stunning loss to K-State https://bit.ly/3TGfiJP
All Micheal McGuire knew was he had to drive 30 minutes Saturday evening to get from his job at a coal mine to the annual Kentucky basketball Blue-White scrimmage with his son. He and his family didn’t expect a photo of the pair to go viral days later.
It was McGuire’s son’s first exposure to the Wildcats, but it won’t be his last. The photo drew national attention after UK coach John Calipari posted the image on his Twitter and Instagram pages, with a caption offering tickets to the family to be “treated as VIPs” on a trip this season to Rupp Arena. “My family’s American dream started in a Clarksburg, WV coal mine, so this picture hits home,” Calipari wrote.
The game took place in Pikeville, a small city in the Bluegrass State’s eastern region near Kentucky’s borders with Virginia and West Virginia. McGuire’s wife Mollie said her husband averages about 50 hours a week on the job with Excel Mining, a preparation plant that operates out of Pike County in eastern Kentucky, including frequent Saturday shifts to go along with his normal Monday-through-Friday schedule.
» Subscribe to USA TODAY: http://bit.ly/1xa3XAh
» Watch more on this and other topics from USA TODAY: https://bit.ly/3QYKjbc
» USA TODAY delivers current local and national news, sports, entertainment, finance, technology, and more through award-winning journalism, photos, videos and VR.
#Kentucky #Basketball #CoalMiner