Jim Boeheim keeps a small orange date book with all of his obligations. His ever-optimistic assistant Mike Hopkins seemed to think after practice one day I could actually take shots of its pages. That, Hopkins said, would be a great way to show people how busy the Syracuse men’s basketball head coach is with various fund-raisers and community service events.

Well, that would be pretty solid proof, but I didn’t think it was necessary to delve inside the private planner of Mr. Syracuse Basketball. Figured that would be a ‘no’ anyway. I don’t need to actually see the inside of Boeheim’s little orange book to know the coach spends time raising money each week to fight disease.

Boeheim’s best friend Tony Santelli said the coach championed various causes following the deaths of his parents. Boeheim’s mother died at 58 of leukemia in 1977 and his father of cancer at 68 in 1986. In 2001, Boeheim overcame his own cancer battle, surviving prostate cancer.

While it’s written every year around this time, Boeheim continually deserves credit for his determined attitude to do all he can to eliminate terrible diseases in this world. Likewise, fans should always be reminded of the real cause behind the games Syracuse plays to open its regular season.

Syracuse hosts Bethune-Cookman tonight in the first round of the 2K College Hoops Classic Coaches vs. Cancer Classic. The Coaches vs. Cancer program, started in 1993, works with the American Cancer Society and the National Association of Basketball Coaches to raise money for cancer research, education advocacy and patient services.

This is the third time in four years Syracuse is playing in the tournament, and the second consecutive year SU is hosting a group of opening-round games. The Orange won the tournament last year in the finals at Madison Square Garden.

It would be easy for any head coach to coast through his career focused completely on basketball. But Boeheim is not just committed to raising money; he feels an obligation to do so. To him, there is no alternative.

‘I believe that’s what we owe the community for their support,’ Boeheim said. ‘But they come to watch us play because we play good basketball, that’s it. They don’t come because I do something. It’s our job, it’s my responsibility, to help give back in the community with Coaches vs. Cancer, Make-a-Wish, the Kidney Foundation and other things that we work on.

‘If we didn’t do that, we’d be really negligent. It’s not like I look at it and I’m doing some great thing. That’s what we should be doing.’

Since the Coaches vs. Cancer program began in 1993, more than $25 million has been raised. The basketball tournament itself has raised more than $3 million for the American Cancer Society since the tournament’s inception in 1995. On a Syracuse level, assistant coach Bernie Fine said Boeheim has raised more than $500,000 for the Coaches vs. Cancer program in the past year.

Fine thinks the Syracuse area still isn’t fully aware of all the work Boeheim does off the court, which validates never ceasing to write about the head coach’s mission.

‘I don’t think the general public sees all the stuff he does in the community,’ Fine said several weeks ago. ‘(In a couple days) we’re going to a Boys’ Club dinner with the whole team. Then we have a Make-a-Wish luncheon, which is about 600 women and the team. Last year, we raised more than $60,000. We all try and give back to the community. The community has been great to us and we live here and want to give back.’

Under Boeheim’s influence, his assistant coaches all support causes as well. Fine serves as president of the Upstate New York chapter of the National Kidney Foundation and Hopkins travels to most fund-raisers with Boeheim. Some of the time, players accompany the coaches, too.

Every spring since 2000, Boeheim has hosted with his wife Juli his annual ‘Basket Ball,’ a formal event that includes dinner, celebrity appearances and an auction. Besides that, there are plenty of other outings he attends throughout the year that raise money as well.

‘He goes to tons of fund-raisers, and he doesn’t like to talk about it,’ Santelli said. ‘He just wants to help where he can help, he doesn’t look for notoriety from the fact.’

Even though he doesn’t want much renown, Boeheim remains one of the most loyal supporters of the Coaches vs. Cancer program in the country.

‘There’s a lot people that can give maybe not money but time to charity,’ Fine said. ‘He goes above and beyond the call of duty and not just in Syracuse. He’s involved in a ton of things.’

There is a far greater meaning to the games than what is taking place on the court tonight and Wednesday at the Carrier Dome. And it’s only one fund-raiser during the year; it just happens to be the most visible.

You can all see the passion with which Boeheim coaches every game. It may be hard to tell – partly because I wasn’t able to secure pictures of his orange date book – but that same ardor is there for fighting disease as well. And like in basketball, he will never be satisfied.

Ethan Ramsey is an assistant sports editor at The Daily Orange, where his columns appear every Tuesday. You can e-mail him at egramsey@gmail.com.

Published on November 6, 2005 at 12:00 pm