Kentucky Wildcats Basketball: A different take on the Louisville game
By Editorial Staff
Let me be the first person to tell you, I absolutely hate Louisville. I’ve been on the campus, I’ve been insulted by rude fans, I’ve had my hat literally taken off of my head and forced into my chest and told “not to wear that in here” on their campus. I was the last person to think that some kind of joy, or some kind of good story could come out of the Kentucky Wildcats playing the Louisville Cardinals in basketball at Rupp Arena this past Saturday, but something wonderful came out of the game that I attended last Saturday.
Let me start with a back story about how I got my tickets to the game, it all starts with my friend, Brandon Halcomb who goes to Berea College located in Berea Kentucky. My friend Brandon is a huge UK fan, probably just as big as I am. He’s a freshman and has never really been to a UK game, a REAL UK game. I get a message from Brandon Wednesday night, asking if I could drive him to the Louisville game if he got tickets, because I know Lexington well, and his mom wouldn’t let him drive. I told him I would love to, but didn’t have tickets. Little did I know all of that would change in the next 24 hours.
My friend then began to scour the internet looking for tickets to the game, putting his story that he was a broke college student with only 500 dollars of Christmas money to give for prime seats, for the most part nobody was buying, until he got a call from a ticket broker that put him in contact with a doctor, who shall remain nameless, who wasn’t able to go to the game so was selling his tickets to the game for 1,600. The lady working with the doctor for the tickets told Brandon if they weren’t sold, he liked Brandon’s story and would take the deal.
So three hours later, Brandon was being sent tickets via Fed-Ex overnight that was all but on the floor for the Kentucky-Louisville game, with two of the highest ranked Kentucky teams in the history of the rivalry, and he called me to tell me the good news, I was ecstatic.
Now this isn’t a story to brag about how low I was, but it was about the joy and delight I heard in Brandon’s voice, because of how much this family has been through (I’ll get to that in a minute), made my day, and I realized that there was a lot more to this game, than just the rivalry on the court.
The tickets arrived promptly the next day, and the doctor had called Brandon’s mom to make sure that everything was in order, she said yes, and thanked him so much because of what Brandon had been through last year, and the family in general. Some of it includes, their house burning down, moving, moving again and moving schools, but more important, Brandon was diagnosed with stage three cancer last summer. Brandon was told that he would have to seek help immediately. Brandon went the route of prayer, and in three days, was completely cured.
Upon hearing the same story, in I’m sure a longer version than I told, the doctor said the following, “Well, something has been on my heart and this story has proven that I’m doing the right thing, I’m going to send the money back, and send some tickets I’m not going to use with other games” safe to say Brandon and his mother was in tears over the tickets because of how much joy that UK brings Brandon, and the fact that the doctor said he could have them for free, and that God had blessed him, and that the game was on him.
I shared with my fellow writers here on WBN, and I thought I’d share it with all of my readers because I just wanted to show everyone that something good can come of a UK. Vs. Louisville matchup, and there is still good people in the world, especially this doctor who treated Brandon to a game that he will remember forever.