Go green (and pink)! Phoenix women raise $21,000 on ‘shear’ effort

Proven champions on the court, the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay women’s basketball team has championed breast cancer awareness, as well, having raised $21,000 for the cause over a two-week period.

Longtime team physician and surgeon Dr. James Hinckley rallied the team with an offer to shave his luscious locks for $2,500 in pledges and his wavy whiskers (he wore a trimmed beard for 30-plus years) for $7,500.

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The team easily surpassed Hinckley’s goal with a $21,000 fundraising effort, earning a post-game clipping party at center court of the Kress Events Center following the team’s title-clinching win over Loyola on Feb. 21. The team members took turns with the shears in front of hundreds of Phoenix fans, who stayed late to watch Hinckley’s hair and iconic beard fall to the floor.

Earlier in the day, the team (23-3 overall, 15-0 in the Horizon League) clinched at least a share of its 11th straight Horizon-league title. Phoenix players donned pink jerseys for the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association “Pink Zone” game. The special initiative was “a global, unified effort for the WBCA’s nation of coaches to assist in fighting breast cancer awareness on the court, across campuses, in communities and beyond.”

More than 1,250 women’s basketball teams and supporting organizations committed to assist, this year. Last year’s effort raised nearly a million dollars, nationwide.

At UW-Green Bay on Feb. 21, breast cancer survivors were invited to attend the “Pink Zone” game where they received a free game ticket and a commemorative Pink Zone T-shirt and wristband. Phoenix women’s basketball alumni also contributed, along with Green Bay Preble’s Sting Cancer group in a “dash for cash” that generated more than $2,300 from generous Phoenix fans in attendance.

Bellin Health and the Bellin Foundation in Green Bay were partners in the “Pink Zone” event and provided the team with the special pink jerseys. Pledges could also be made to the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation.

According to the American Cancer Society, breast cancer is the most common invasive cancer among women in the United States, accounting for nearly one out of every four cancers diagnosed. One in eight American women who live to be 85 years of age will develop breast cancer, a risk that was one out of 14 in 1960; 2.4 million women living in the U.S. have been diagnosed with and treated for breast cancer.

Photos by Mike Roemer