Kieran Darcy recalls living his dream. After playing four years on the Penn JV team, he was suiting up for the varsity. He had never felt so proud, happy, and nervous in his life. And with 1:30 minute remaining left in the game, Coach Fran Dunphy called his name, and he lived his dream.
This is a great story about one man living his dream- playing for Penn. As a young college student, he was a member of the JV team...then on one special night as a senior- played with the varsity team and got in the game. Despite having no fanfare, no big shoe contracts, and the NCAA not even keeping track of the games...the members of the JV team couldn't be happier or more excited to be playing college basketball.
"I'm not so sure there could be a more pure form of college athletics," says Dunphy, who replaced John Chaney at Temple in 2006. "They just played because they wanted to play basketball. There was very little, if any, reward in it, other than the personal satisfaction of playing the game. I appreciated that about those guys. And the guys who stuck through it for four years at the JV level, well, I can't say I admire anyone more than those guys."
Dunphy's respect for those who played on the JV team was so great that he tried to give every JV team member that was a senior and opportunity to suit up for one home game with the varsity team.
"I think life is made of memories," Dunphy says. "As you get a little bit older, life's even more about memories than current experiences. My philosophy was, you should honor these guys that do what they do every day, that put the time in and get no recognition. Let's give them a little bit of an honor and dress them for a game. Maybe their parents can see it. Maybe they'll have some friends going nuts in the stands for them...If we can provide that, it's an easy choice to make.
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