John Calipari may win his first Emmy before his first national championship.
Hoops for Haiti, a telethon that raised more than $1.3 million for earthquake relief in Haiti, was nominated Wednesday for a regional Emmy in the category of special achievement in community service. Since Calipari conceptualized, organized and hosted the event while his Kentucky players helped man the phones, the Wildcats coach was one of the 12 people Lexington CBS affiliate WKYT submitted as part of its entry.
The most amazing part about the Hoops for Haiti telethon was that it was just a matter of two days between the time Calipari conceived it and the time that it aired, a testament to the power of Kentucky basketball. In between preparing for a road game at Auburn the day before the telethon, Calipari had to round up donors, auction items, gifts and anything else that would help create a 90-minute fundraiser in less than 48 hours.
"It may not have been fair to the fans of Kentucky," Calipari told Yahoo! Sports last year. "During the Auburn game, it was on my mind. It didn't affect how I coached or how we played or the comeback that Auburn made to make it close. It wasn't that. But when they made their run in the second half, I thought, 'We might have to do this after a loss and that's going to be tough.'"
Kentucky held on to defeat Auburn, but the telethon was the real victory of the weekend. It was an act of great vision and generosity from a man who may soon become college basketball's first Emmy-winning coach.
Blake Lively Christina Applegate Shana Hiatt Tara Conner Drea de Matteo
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