BlackOut Cancer campaign will be the legacy SIU team
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The lasting legacy of the 2011 Saluki Football team won't be its win-loss record.
Led by senior safety Mike McElroy, this year's team will be remembered as the group that recognized a need in the community and went the extra mile to fulfill that need.
The BlackOut Cancer campaign that began last July has raised $129,785 in gifts and pledges through an on-line auction of the 80 player jerseys to be worn in Saturday's game against Eastern Illinois. One-hundred percent of the funds will be distributed throughout southern Illinois by the American Cancer Society.
"Looking back, I was excited that we had 150 bidders at the beginning of the summer," McElory said. "I had no idea it would become this big. I am thankful and excited that this community was able to come through like that."
More than 200 individuals or groups placed bids, though only the top 80 will receive jerseys. The winning bidders had the opportunity to select the name and number for their jersey.
"In my 25-plus years of coaching college football, I have not seen anything quite like this," said head football coach Dale Lennon. "The opportunity for fans to have the input to actually put the name on the back of the jersey, then that jersey actually being out there on the field during the game, and then they will own the jersey after the game, makes this very significant."
Mike McElroy spearheaded the Blackout Cancer campaign
The concept for the campaign began when McElroy petitioned the NCAA for a special waiver to hold the event. The athletic department then put its resources behind the ground-breaking project, which is the first of its kind at the college level.
"One of the things that you try to do with any football program or any athletic program is differentiate yourself from the competition," said Director of Athletics Mario Moccia. "At our level of football, if you can ever say you were the first in the nation to do something, that is pretty special."
McElroy said he expects to feel a whole range of emotions on Saturday, not just because of the BlackOut Cancer campaign, but because he'll be playing the final home game of his career.
"The fact that someone is paying a lot of money to have you be able to represent a love one on the back of your jersey, it's something that I don't know what it will feel like, but I am excited for it," he said. "It will also be an emotional game with it being Senior Day."
The season hasn't unfolded the way McElroy or his teammates had hoped, with the team record standing at 2-7 heading into the final two weeks of the season. Still, the accomplishment of combatting cancer is one the players take great pride in.
"Looking back 10 years from now, we'll realize we were a part of something that was very special," he said. "As for the season, we still have two game left and it's important for the future and the foundation of the program that we keep working hard and win these games."