Did something happen this week?

Vander Blue was unwittingly dragged into the news a bit this week, but thankfully in a few days he'll hit the court at The Al and forget about the madness. On December 19, Converse and Eastbay will host the 2nd Annual Converse Eastbay Classic the Al McGuire Center. Blue's Madison Memorial squad will play the marquee game at the event against Rufus King.

The classic is an all-day, seven game exhibition. All proceeds from this event will go to the JG Scholarship Fund. Tickets are $7 each.

Here is the schedule:
9:00 a.m. – Valders (Valders , WI ) vs. Shorewood (Shorewood, WI )
10:30 a.m. – South Division (Milwaukee, WI) vs. Waukesha West (Waukesha , WI)
12:00 p.m. – Logan (La Crosse, WI ) vs. Appleton East ( Appleton, WI)
1:30 p.m. – Richards (Oak Lawn, IL) vs. Hamilton ( Sussex, WI)

4:00 p.m. – Girls: Divine Savior Holy Angels (Milwaukee) vs. Muskego (Muskego , WI)
5:45 p.m. – Waupun ( Waupun, WI) vs. Port Washington (Port Washington, WI)
7:30 p.m. – Rufus King (Milwaukee, WI) vs. Madison Memorial (Madison, WI)


Other notes:
How about a look at an MU All-Decade Team? David Kay over at The Sports Bank wrote up a fine post analyzing the best Warriors from the decade.

Mark your calendar for January 30, 2010.
The Nicole Ellis Foundation will sponsor its inaugural Nicole Ellis Shoot Out. The WIAA sanctioned tournament will be held on Saturday, January 30 at South Division High School. All proceeds will go the Nicole Ellis Foundation.

Here is the current schedule:
8:30am King vs. Pius (Fr)
10:00am South vs. Cedarburg (JV)
11:30am King vs. Pius (JV)
1:00pm Washington vs. Beloit Memorial (JV)
2:45pm Washington vs. Beloit Memorial (Varsity)
4:30pm South vs. Cedarburg (Varsity)
6:15pm King vs. Pius (Varsity)

Save the Date: 2nd Annual Warrior Day Golf Outing

Hey -- a quick heads up Warrior fans.........The 2nd Annual Warrior Day Golf Outing will be held on Tuesday, July 21 at the Grand Geneva in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.

As a reminder, the event is hosted by Bo Ellis to honor his daughter, Nikki, a 2000 MU graduate who passed away from a rare liver disease. The golf outing in Nikki's memory will benefit the Nicole Ellis Foundation. All proceeds will benefit the American Liver Foundation, Marquette Men's and Women's non-revenue sports, and the proposed Hank Raymonds Educational Center. Last year the event raised more than $37,000.

We'll share more information as it becomes available -- so please do mark your calendars and strongly consider attending if you are so inclined.

Thoughts and prayers for Joe Krysiak and family

We wanted to offer our condolences to Joe Krysiak, who lost his father this past week. Richard Krysiak passed away on Thursday at age 62. Visitation is scheduled for Monday, with a funeral on Tuesday. As you might recall, Joe and his new bride Pam were married earlier this year. Our thoughts and prayers are with you and your family, Joe.

Sending out Christmas cards soon? Do it with a Marquette stamp.

I stumbled across this today. Stamps.com has a collegiate stamps section that includes Marquette. So when you are ready to send out those Christmas cards this year, consider using a Marquette stamp to do so. A portion of the proceeds goes to MU.

Wrap up: 1st Annual Warrior Day Golf Outing a huge success

It's official, the 1st Annual Warrior Day Golf Outing was a huge success.

Earlier this week Bo Ellis, his family, and the board members of The Nicole Ellis Foundation welcomed more than 110 participants, including 30 former Warrior basketball players, to The Bog and raised more than $37,000. That's right, $37,000 was raised to benefit the Nicole Ellis Foundation. Well done!

CrackedSidewalks was honored to be an official sponsor for the inaugural event. Please click here to see the full list of sponsors, board members and participants in this year's event.

Finally, we want to thank our intrepid field reporter, Jim McIlvaine. Jim, who in addition to his fine work with Camp Anokijig and the Marquette radio network, is also a freelance writer and photographer. Jim put those skills to work and sent along this terrific collection of photographs from the event -- as you can see, the Marquette basketball family turned out to support Bo and his family.





BTW, doesn't Earl Tatum look great (light blue shirt)! Remarkable, looks like a strong recovery for Earl.

Great shots, Jim, thanks. But wait, we're not done --

Warrior Day Golf Outing Update

Don't forget, the 1st Annual Warrior Day Golf Outing will be held on Monday, July 28th at The Bog in Saukville, Wisconsin. There's still time to secure your spot on the course with a number of Marquette basketball greats, and to ante up for one of several worthwhile sponsorship opportunities.

Marquette great Bo Ellis is hosting the event to honor his daughter, Nikki, a 2000 MU graduate who passed away from a rare liver disease called Budd-Chiari. The golf outing in Nikki's memory will benefit the Nicole Ellis Foundation, a 501(C)3 corporation. All proceeds will benefit the American Liver Foundation, Marquette Men's and Women's non-revenue sports, and the proposed Hank Raymonds Educational Center.

C'mon, let's make this first Warrior Day Golf Outing a big success by raising awareness and money for these worthy causes.

For more information, please click this .pdf document link , visit their web site at the Golf Digest Planner, or email the good folks managing this event at nicoleellisfoundation@yahoo.com

Thanks for your support.

Full Details on 1st Annual Warrior Day Golf Outing

As we first reported several weeks ago, this summer Marquette great Bo Ellis will host the first annual golf outing to honor his late daughter, Nikki, a 2000 Marquette graduate.

The 1st Annual Warrior Day Golf Outing will be held on Monday, July 28th at The Bog in Saukville, Wisconsin. The golf outing in Nikki's memory will benefit the Nicole Ellis Foundation, a 501(C)3 corporation. All proceeds will benefit the American Liver Foundation, Marquette Men's and Women's non-revenue sports, and the proposed Hank Raymonds Educational Center.

Supporters are asked to provide a $350 donation which includes 18 holes of golf with a former Marquette Warrior basketball player and a host of other perks. If you can't make the golf outing, that's fine too -- $100 donations will be accepted for the dinner, which includes a silent auction and raffles.

The list of former MU greats participating in this event is remarkable, and includes (among many others):

• Mark Anglavar
  
• Jim Boylan
  
• Brian Brunkhorst
  
• Tom Copa
  
• Ron Curry
  
• Dave Delsman
  
• Jerry Homan
  
• Robb Logterman
  
• Dean Marquardt
  
• Jim McIlvaine
• Ulice Payne
• Anthony Pieper
  
• Tony Smith
  
• George Thompson
• Brian Wardle
  
• Marcus Washington
  
• Steve Voboril
  

Folks, it's time to jump in and join this great cause, and to support Bo and his family, who have been such a big part of the Marquette community for many, many years.

For full registration details and the complete list of participating MU alums, please click here for the official .pdf -- thanks to MUScoop for hosting the document.

We'll keep you posted on the event.

EDIT: Added wiki links for each former player

Save the Date: 1st Annual Warrior Day Golf Outing

This summer Marquette great Bo Ellis will host an important golf outing to honor his late daughter, Nikki -- and we wanted to post early details on the event.

The 1st Annual Warrior Day Golf Outing will be held on Monday, July 28th at The Bog in Saukville, Wisconsin. Proceeds from the event will benefit the newly created Nicole "Nikki" Ellis Foundation. Nikki Ellis, a Marquette graduate like her father, was just 24 years old when she passed away after a brief illness.

This is an event that Marquette hoops fans can't afford to miss. Former Marquette stars are turning out in droves to support Bo and the new foundation -- here's a list of former players already committed to play in this remarkable event:

• Jim Boylan
• Ron Curry
• Dave Deisman
• Travis Diener
• Jerry Homan
• Robb Logterman
• Maurice Lucas
• Jim McIlvaine
• Tony Smith
• George Thompson
• Marcus Washington
• Jerome Whitehead

The format is built for the fan --- there will be one former player in each of the 36 foursomes. The day of golf will include dinner, pictures, a silent auction and additional programming.

For now, mark your calendars for July 28. We'll provide registration and additional information on the 1st Annual Warrior Day Golf Outing to support the Nicole "Nikki" Ellis Foundation soon.

MU to recognize US military and their families

For $10, Marquette fans can donate MU/UL tickets to family members of Marines stationed in Iraq. Read all the details here on the MU site.

Spread The Word On Organ Donation

PSA time here at Cracked Sidewalks.

April is National Donate Life Month and the Milwaukee Bucks are teaming up with Trey Schwab to raise awareness in donor programs and Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis, the disease that nearly took the former MU assistant's life just a few years ago.

On Monday night at the Bucks home finale against the Hawks volunteers with information on organ donation and pulmonary fibrosis will be at the Bradley Center.

Talk with your family about organ donation. The need is great -- check out these facts from OrganDonor.gov:

• More than 95,000 people are in need of an organ for transplant.
• Each day, about 77 people get the organ transplant that gives them a second chance, but 17 to 19 others die because they did not receive an organ transplant.
• More than half the people on the waiting list for a donated organ are racial or ethnic minorities. Chances of getting a transplant increase if donor and recipient share the same racial/ethnic background.

Pardon the interruption: PSA

I'm going to abuse my blogging privilege for a moment to digress from MU basketball for this Public Service Announcement.

I got a frantic call from my wife at lunchtime. She was in our basement and one of my gadgets was beeping. That gadget was this Explosive Gas / Carbon Monoxide detector from Kidde.

Time to get out of the house and call 911. Three minutes later, some of Whitefish Bay's finest are in my basement. Turns out the furnace was spewing out high levels of Carbon Monoxide, a deadly, colorless and odorless gas. They killed the furnace and began airing out my now, very cold house.

Had we not had that CO detector, this story could have ended very differently, especially had it occurred while we slept. This sort of thing doesn't just happen to the downtrodden, heating their homes improperly. It even happens to Marquette fans with properly maintained furnaces.

The moral of this story is: Get a CO detector, for crying out loud. They're a cheap $20 of life insurance. -- And if you have one already, give it a test after you read this. We'll all sleep better if you do.

Thanks for your time. I apologize for this non-sequitur, but we at Cracked Sidewalks need to keep all our fans safe!