Rock Chalk Roundball Classic meaningful for families fighting cancer & returning Jayhawks

Thursday night, in a packed Lawrence Free State gym, 4-year-old Azel Bryant shot a basketball behind him and didn’t look back.

It fell perfectly through the hoop.

This hoop was a makeshift one, and the girl who’d been holding her arms in a circle laughed as she broke it to give Bryant a high-five. Scattered across the rest of the gym floor were six other children in the same black jersey as Bryant. They played and ran with each other, some bouncing basketballs bigger than their heads. The oldest, 11-year-old Keira Whiting, tried her hand at free throws.

These children are part of the “Magnificent Seven,” beneficiaries of this year’s Rock Chalk Roundball Classic. It’s an annual charity event put on by KU broadcaster Brian Hanni to fundraise for families battling pediatric cancer and other challenging illnesses.

This year is the Roundball Classic’s 16th, having started in 2009. Each year, a roster of KU basketball alumni, along with former coaches and football players, return to Lawrence for a weekend of basketball, a celebrity dinner, and bowling night.

As noted in parent testimonials on the event’s YouTube channel, the support is welcome: Families not only face steep medical expenses, but also have to take extended time away from their jobs to care for their children. Others pay high fuel costs to regularly drive to the hospital — the Reynolds family, from Topeka, accumulated over 7,000 miles on their vehicle.

And so, the Roundball Classic’s impact is profound.

“I underestimated the way I would be feeling right now,” Abigail Bryant, Azel’s mother, said. “I’m overwhelmed with this new compassion that I have for this whole organization.”

Elizabeth Smith, mother of 4-year-old Calvin Smith, remembered the moment her family had been accepted as beneficiaries. “I cried. I cried, and we were shocked. For one, there’s just so many families that could benefit from this.”

In his father Joshua Smith’s arms, Calvin showed off the Spider-Man glove he’d been wearing all night — a gift he’d received during his treatment at Children’s Mercy Hospital. According to a GoFundMe page created on the family’s behalf, Calvin completed his final round of chemotherapy this week.

Thursday’s game seemed to be a worthy celebration. As part of the introductions, the Magnificent Seven ran through a crimson and blue tunnel of KU alumni to a loud ovation. Six-year-old Rowdy Campbell rode on his father’s shoulders, a basketball painted over his cheek.

For the rest of the night, the likes of Christian Braun, Silvio DeSousa and Ochai Agbaji — with the help of coaches Gradey Dick and Greg Ostertag — traded off deep 3-pointers and hard-hitting dunks. During the first timeout, former Kansas player Calvin Thompson took a knee and proposed to Barbara Adkins-Henry.

Then, more 3-pointers. More dunks. Cheating accusations (in jest). More layups. The game ended in Red Team domination over the Blue. The scoreboard: 116-101, Red.

“It was fun, especially having current NBA players and former Jayhawks that I’ve watched,” Kylee Kopatich, a former KU guard, said after the game.

This year is Kopatich’s third at the Roundball Classic, and she’s become a regular for more than just the basketball.

“(The kids) are the reason why you just gotta keep coming back — it’s an easy ‘yes’ every year, because I know just how big of a benefit this is and how well it supports the kids,” Kopatich said.

For Brooklyn Nets forward Jalen Wilson, this Roundball Classic was his first. “I love everyone here. They supported us for so long, so to be able to come back for a special moment and for all of us to be together, it means a lot.”

At least 1,600 fans were in attendance Thursday night. And with two more nights of fundraising to go, the Roundball Classic is well on its way to beating last year’s record of $340,000 in donations, Hanni said. According to the Roundball Classic’s official website, the event has raised more than $1,042,000 over the last 16 years, benefiting more than 40 families.

“Childhood cancer is about people coming together, outside of maybe just knowing about (it),” Abigail Bryant said. “It’s about saying, ‘You know what, I’m gonna follow their journey. I’m gonna walk alongside them, and I’m gonna do life with them.’”