The University of Mississippi Athletics

Rebels Host ?Tickled Pink At The Tad Pad? Thursday

2/8/2010 | Women's Basketball

OXFORD, Miss. - The Ole Miss women's basketball team has joined forces with Baptist Memorial Hospital North Mississippi and will participate in its annual "Tickled Pink at the Tad Pad" game Thursday night at 8 p.m. when the Rebels play host to fifth-ranked Tennessee.

Fans are encouraged to wear pink in support of raising breast cancer awareness. The WBCA Pink Zone initiative is a global, unified effort for the Women's Basketball Coaches Association's (WBCA) nation of coaches to assist in raising breast cancer awareness on the court, across campuses, in communities and beyond.

Every fan in attendance wearing pink will receive a gift from Baptist Hospital, and the fan wearing the best pink outfit will win two tickets to the SEC Women's Basketball Tournament next month in Duluth, Ga.

"Tickled Pink" t-shirts will be on sale during the game, and fans can also enter to win two Pink Zone basketballs autographed by the Rebel basketball team. In addition, breast cancer survivors will serve as guest coaches and donations will be taken at halftime.

The WBCA began the WBCA Pink Zone, formerly known as "Think Pink", in 2007 as an initiative to raise breast cancer awareness in women's basketball, on campuses and in communities. Kay Yow, former North Carolina State University head women's basketball coach, served as the catalyst for the initiative after her third reoccurrence of breast cancer in 2006.

In 2007, more than 120 schools unified for this effort and helped make the inaugural year a success. In 2008, over 1,200 teams and organizations participated, reaching over 830,000 fans and raising over $930,000 for breast cancer awareness and research.

The 2009 campaign raised over $1.3 million, reached over 912,000 fans, unified more than 1,600 participating teams and organizations, and saw 56+ schools break attendance records at their event. The WBCA's charity of choice is the Kay Yow/WBCA Cancer Fund, in partnership with The V Foundation. The WBCA strongly encourages all donations from Pink Zone games to be given to this Fund.

The NCAA has also joined the WBCA Pink Zone initiative by implementing the "Calling for a Cure" campaign where all NCAA women's basketball officials blew a pink whistle during the WBCA Pink Zone. Additionally, officials were encouraged to make a donation to the Kay Yow/WBCA Cancer Fund. The NCAA raised $45,000 during the "Calling for a Cure" campaign over the past two years.
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