It warms the heart to witness parents give their children their undivided attention and support at each and every significant moment in their lives.
This is exactly what Michael McGuire did for his son Easton, who was just three years old at the time, in October 2022, when he was coated in coal dust after attending a basketball game.
At the same time that the University of Kentucky Wildcats were raising money by playing a game at the Appalachian Wireless Arena, he was there to express his support for the first basketball game that his son participated in.
Michael gave an interview and revealed that the reason he did not have time to wash up before the game was because he did not want to miss his kid’s first basketball game.
He had just forty-five minutes to go to the arena from his place of employment, so he reasoned that if he went home to wash his clothes, he would not arrive in time to see the game.
It got the attention of John Calipari, the head basketball coach at the University of Kentucky, and he posted it on Facebook to share the moving moment between a father and his son.
According to what he stated in a Facebook post, “my family’s American dream originated in a coal mine in Clarksburg, West Virginia, thus this photo strikes home.
After his shift, he hurried to be with his kid and watch our squad, according to what I’ve been informed. Don’t know who he is, but I have seats for him and his family at Rupp to be treated as VIPs!”
Since then, the picture has received 74,000 responses and 30,000 shares as of the time this article was written.
Because Michael was working underground at the time the picture began to circulate online, he was unaware that he had gone viral until he returned back to his house. Only then did he find out the news.
“As soon as I got out of there and had service on my way home, everything went absolutely crazy… I couldn’t believe that what I was seeing was really happening,” he added.
Michael also said that Calipari provided him with an opportunity for a VIP experience on the same night, but at the time, he was still deciding which game to attend. He said that it was “mind-boggling” that everyone had come together in such a manner.