Auburn Coach Bruce Pearl keeps a promise he made to a young boy battling cancer and makes him team manager
When a 12 year old was diagnosed with cancer, Auburn head basketball coach Bruce Pearl sent him words of encouragement and made him a promise: beat cancer, come to Auburn, and you can be the team manager. And the freshman has done just that. CBS’s Steve Hartman tells the story.
You can’t hear him over the crowd – and that may be a good thing – as Auburn University coach Bruce Pearl sneers and snarls his way through yet another basketball game. Sam Cunningham says, “You see him on the court being tough and stuff to all the players, but there’s a whole, totally different side of Bruce outside of basketball – which is a nice, loving and caring person.”
Auburn freshman Sam Cunningham’s unique perspective comes from his greatest struggle.
When he was 12, Sam was diagnosed with Leukemia. And not long after, someone asked coach Pearl to record a video for him. Bruce Pearl’s video plays and he says, “You’re gonna beat this, son. Cancer picked the wrong hombre – picked the wrong dude to mess with, OK.”
“It was just real funny to me, ‘Cancer picked the wrong hombre. It picked the wrong dude to mess with.’ And that quote is what I kept with me when I got in my darkest days in the hospital and stuff,” Cunningham says.
Through all his complications. Through his relapse…Through the days that felt like they would be his last…Sam kept watching that video – over and over. Eventually coach Pearl delivered the same lines in person, and they became friends. And then one day Bruce gave him another, even more inspiring, message. Bruce said, “I tell you what, you’re going to get better, you’ll come to Auburn, and you’re going to be my assistant. And he takes me at my word!”
Today he is the team manager – and so happy be here. In fact, Sam says coach Pearl’s encouragement may have saved his life. “That truly healed me. I didn’t think I’d really get to this point from all the complications I had. So that was pretty amazing. I’m just a miracle to be here right now, ” Cunningham says.
This month, college coaches across the country will be praying for a national championship. But here at Auburn, this coach will be asking for something far more consequential.
Pearl is emotional and says, “In my prayers it’s, ‘God don’t let this thing relapse. Take me. Let Sam live.'” Basketball seasons come and go – but great coaching lasts forever.
