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Nominated by @LauraBrink! We nominate @NickZKerr, @UACoachMiller, and our friend @geoff_yang. #ALSIceBucketChallenge http://t.co/HdJ2wRW11d
— Steve Kerr (@SteveKerr) August 15, 2014
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The gauntlet — or is it the bucket? — has been laid down.
Steve Kerr, the former Arizona Wildcats hoops star, and his wife Margot Kerr challenged coach Sean Miller, their son Nick Kerr and friend Geoff Yang in the burgeoning ALS Ice Bucket Challenge.
The Kerr couple, as shown in the video, took not one, but two, buckets of ice-cold water in the challenge.
The challenge involves daring a person to dump a bucket of ice water over their head within the next 24 hours or else donate money — usually $100 — toward fighting ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis).
Even if a person completes the challenge, they generally donate money anyway.
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.@SteveKerr – Challenge Accepted this week on the beautiful campus at The University of Arizona! #BearDownFamily
— Sean Miller (@UACoachMiller) August 15, 2014
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Once a person completes the challenge, they’re also supposed to dare several other people — usually three — to participate, which is why the challenge is becoming a phenomenon. ALS, better known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, is a fatal disease that makes people lose muscle control, including the ability to eat, speak and breathe. Life expectancy for those with it is between two and five years, and the only drug available for it is only able to extend that by a few months.
The ALS Association stated that Pete Frates, a former Boston College baseball player, began the Ice Bucket Challenge. He’s being widely credited for kicking it off. Frates is 29 and has been living with ALS since 2012. Frates has noted several people actually took the challenge before him, at which point they were only supposed to donate to a charity of their choice, rather than the ALS Association specifically.
Frates took the challenge at the end of last month, and it has become viral since.
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Arizona football coach Rich Rodriguez took the Chillin’ For Charity challenge in June for the Kay Yow Foundation, a charity that raises money for cancer research in honor of former North Carolina State women’s basketball coach Kay Yow, who passed away from breast cancer in 2009.
Arizona women’s basketball coach Niya Butts is one of the first coaches who started the challenge (#Chillin4Charity).
ALLSPORTSTUCSON.com publisher, writer and editor Javier Morales is a former Arizona Press Club award winner. He also writes articles for Bleacher Report and Lindy’s College Sports.
