Iowa basketball coaches join forces for Coaches versus Cancer event

DES MOINES - Fran McCaffery doesn't take the opportunity lightly. He knows the good that can be done through the Coaches vs. Cancer organization and tries to take advantage of what he can do to make a difference.

The mission is also as personal as it gets for the Iowa men's basketball coach.

'I lost both of my parents to cancer and I never anticipated in a short period of time that my son (Patrick) would have cancer,” McCaffery said. 'There's so many different people that have struggled with this disease since I got started working to defeat cancer.”

McCaffery joined Iowa State assistant T.J. Otzelberger, Northern Iowa Coach Ben Jacobson and Drake Coach Ray Giacoletti for Friday's Coaches vs. Cancer Gala at the Community Choice Credit Union Convention Center. Otzelberger filled in for Iowa State's Fred Hoiberg, who is recovering from open-heart surgery two weeks ago.

The Coaches vs. Cancer initiative partners with the American Cancer Society. Coaches vs. Cancer events in Iowa have raised more than $2 million to provide education, support and access to treatment programs.

'If you have the opportunity to give back, if you have the opportunity to help someone in any way you can, you need to try to do it,” Jacobson said. 'I think for Dawn and I, that's the biggest thing. We have the ability to join with the other coaches and make a difference and help people.”

McCaffery was given the Coaches vs. Cancer 'Champion” award at this year's Final Four, which goes to a college coach for assisting in fundraising and education.

Each coach talked about how he's been affected by the disease and about the importance of awareness.

'I remember with (former UNI and ISU coach Greg) McDermott and his wife, Theresa, having breast cancer,” Otzelberger said. 'Obviously, it's a great cause and something that's personal to me with people that have been close.”

Jacobson said it wasn't until his involvement with Coaches vs. Cancer that he saw the impact he could have with his contemporaries. Losing his father-in-law to cancer makes it a personal endeavor for him, too.

'Everybody's got a story,” Jacobson said. 'The reason we come back and keep doing this is that at some point, whether it's a year from now or a couple years from now or whenever that might be, those stories go away.

'This is important.”