We made our annual appearance Saturday night at one of Milwaukee’s most prestigious events, the Evening of Hope at the Grand Hyatt, the annual fund-raiser for the ALS Association’s Wisconsin Chapter. And, as always, it was everything we’d hoped it would be and then some.
Financially, it was a great success. A quick electronic bidding blast netted $50,000 in about 10 minutes. The silent auction generated over $100,000, resulting in a few snappy California reds becoming proud residents of the Palmer wine cellars. And the live auction was equally impressive.
Each year, a person or family recently affected by ALS is featured as a major part of the event. Saturday the honoree was Rich Panella. I must confess that I had never heard that name prior to Saturday evening. As it turns out, I certainly should have.
I come to find out that Rich Panella is somewhat of a legend in Wisconsin sports. Rich was head coach of the Cardinal Stritch women’s basketball team for 24 years. With tremendous success. Conference championships, national tournament bids, being named “Coach of the Year” in the conference 14 times.
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| Rich Panella at the helm. |
As we watched the video put together so brilliantly (as they are each year) by Dave Hanneken, we learned that Rich was much more than a coach. The development and success of his players, academically and personally, were his primary concerns. And based on the love and admiration his players and peers have for him, he did a great job at it.
And Rich has an amazing assortment of admirers, including a few the sports directors of our local TV and radio stations who took time to be interviewed for the video: Lance Allan of WTMJ-4, Tom Pipines of FOX-6 and Steve “the Homer” True of 540 ESPN radio. Turns out one of Rich’s best friends is Rick Majerus, a coaching legend in his own right. Impressive stuff.
And, as you may have already guessed, Rich was diagnosed with ALS In November 2009. This is a good example of how indiscriminate this horrific disease is. Rich was at the event Saturday night with his family to be recognized in a moving tribute. In fact the $50,000 fund-raiser held right after the video presentation was successful due to the kind person that Rich Panella is, someone to whom everyone else comes first.
Here’s a guy who has been elected to the Wisconsin Coaches Hall of Fame, has led collegiate teams, right here in Milwaukee, to nearly unprecedented success, and who has had the basketball court named after him at Stritch, and I’d bet most if not all of you never heard of him. And it took a diagnosis of ALS to get him acknowledged on the local sports scene. Tom Pipines and Lance Allan created terrific segments about Rich in October and November on channels 4 and 6. But I’d like to see more of this kind of thing. How about an “Under the Radar” type story at least weekly, featuring someone who’s made a difference to our student-athletes but whom we ordinarily wouldn’t have heard about? Someone like Rich.
As the Facebook page for last Fall’s Panella’s Pack Walk to Defeat ALS site says: “Coach Panella is a selfless ambassador of compassion and giving and [the] Milwaukee community continues to benefit enormously from the generosity of Coach and his family..”
I’m glad I got to hear about Rich Panella. Our thoughts and prayers are with Rich and his family.
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For those of you who actually read my weekly ramblings, first of all thank you. Also note that I’m taking a week off. We’re heading to Florida for some warm weather. If you could arrange to have spring here when we return, we’d appreciate it. See you in a couple of weeks.
