“Hoops for Haiti” raises more than $1 million for disaster relief

 Photo by Scott Hannigan | Staff

The college hoops world made a slam dunk for disaster relief on Sunday.

UK head coach John Calipari, along with Lexington TV station WKYT, held the “Hoops for Haiti” telethon on Sunday afternoon to raise money for disaster relief for the earthquake-stricken Caribbean country. By the end of the day, the program had raised a total of more than $1 million — from personal donations that were matched dollar for dollar from local businesses.

Some of the more prominent donations were from Joe Craft, who donated $100,000, former UK head coach and current Minnesota head coach Tubby Smith, who donated $1,000, ESPN commentator Dick Vitale, who donated $1,000, and Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim, who donated $5,000. The final donation by the end of the telethon was by former UK basketball player Nazr Mohammed, who donated $10,000. That pushed the total to $501,000 personal donations by 5 p.m.

Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo also joined in on the program, which featured UK players answering phone calls and famous UK alum Ashley Judd helping out as well.

Final results will be released later tonight.