Syracuse announces details for Pearl Washington Day campaign

When they first announced that they’d be honoring Pearl Washington during the Georgetown game on December 17, Syracuse Athletics was light on details regarding what would be involved. They officially announced the full details on Wednesday for the game as well as an ongoing campaign to raise money for cancer research.

The big announcement was that SU is partnering with Kinney Drugs on a six-week program in which customers can purchase Pearl Washington 'mini-jerseys' for $1, sign their name or a message to it, and then have it be displayed in each Kinney Drugs location. 100 percent of the proceeds will be donated to pediatric cancer research through the Jim & Juli Boeheim Foundation.

Boeheim spoke at the event to talk about how important Pearl was to the community and how glad he is that he’s being honored.

As for the game itself, there will be a halftime ceremony honoring Pearl. A half-court shooting contest will be held to commemorate Pearl’s buzzer-beater against Boston College. There will also be in-game video highlights and chances to win the ‘Pearl’ warm-up shirts that the SU players wear during warmups. All fans who show up will also receive a commemorative Pearl Washington jersey pin and a magnet.

So, money will be raised for cancer research in Pearl’s honor, which is great. All of the other stuff, I mean, it’s fine. SU has a spotty history of honoring former players so we’ll take what we can get. I kinda wish it wasn’t being co-opted as part of a marketing sponsorship, which kinda cheapens things (kinda like when Steiner Sports put their logo all over Pearl’s GoFundMe campaign), but, again, raising money is better than not raising money.

One thing though...

“Kinney Drug got behind this and they’re the reason it’s going. Otherwise, it would have never gotten going.”

God, I hope that’s not true.