2/1/2023 basketball Edit

Purdue to Support Project 44 During Penn State Game

A frustrated Butler Bulldogs center Andrew Smith walks down the court after missing yet another shot near the end of their 53-41 loss to Connecticut at the end of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship at Reliant Stadium in Houston, Texas on, April 4, 2011. (© Matt Detrich/IndyStar via Imagn Content Services, LLC)

Travis Miller • BoilerUpload

Publisher

Travis Miller is the publisher of Boiler Upload, the new home of Purdue sports on the Rivals.com network.

Most nights in Mackey Arena are special, but tonight as Purdue takes on Penn State there will be a little more meaning behind the game. Former Purdue assistant Micah Shrewsberry brings in a solid Penn State team, but he will also be drawing attention to a larger cause going back to his pre-Purdue days.

Many college basketball fans remember the memorable runs Butler made to the national championship game in 2010 and 2011. One of the keys to those teams was Andrew Smith, a local player from Covenant Christian HS in Indianapolis. Sadly, Smith passed away seven years ago from cancer. one of his final public appearances was at Butler's win over Purdue in the Crossroads Classic less than a month earlier.

Since then Drew Tower, the athletic director at Brownsburg High School, has been part of a team with Shrewsberry and Purdue assistant Terry Johnson promoting Project 44, an organization that promotes bone marrow donation in order to fight cancers like the one Andrew had. Project 44’s initial goal is to save 44 lives. With a 1:430 ratio of registrants to matches, 18,920 new registry members are needed. Now an incorporated 501(c)3 non-profit organization, Project 44’s enhanced broader mission is to save lives by fostering a mainstream sense of moral obligation and willingness to support and join the bone marrow registry.

Tonight both Purdue and Penn State's staff will be promoting the organization by wearing P44 branded shirts at the game. They are supporting the core mission of Project 44 as described on its website:

Andrew’s passion for the bone marrow registry was ignited when, after learning he would need a bone marrow transplant, a match would not be so easily found if the roles were reversed and it was his wife Samantha needing a match. As a male of European decent, Andrew was quickly matched with a donor. But due to limitations in the registry’s ethnically diverse membership, many patients with varied ethnic backgrounds would die waiting for a match. This injustice did not sit well with Andrew, so in the midst of his own battle, he and Samantha made it their mission to raise critical awareness for Be The Match, the nation’s largest bone marrow registry.

— Project 44

For more information on how you can become a bone marrow donor visit Project 44.