Gard vs. Gard exhibition way more than just basketball
October 03, 2016 | Men's Basketball
They may be foes on the court on Oct. 30, but they’re brothers in the fight against cancer
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BY MIKE LUCAS
UWBadgers.com Senior Writer
MADISON, Wis. — Gard vs. Gard.
WIAC commissioner Gary Karner originally came up with the idea for a college basketball exhibition matching UW-Platteville's Jeff Gard and Wisconsin's Greg Gard.
"He felt the publicity behind it would generate a lot more steam for his conference if they had the brother versus brother storyline," said Greg Gard who's entering his first full season as head coach. "My biggest concern was that it would put us out of rotation and how the other seven teams in the league were going to feel. But he (Karner) quickly put that concern to rest."
The Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference is composed of Eau Claire, La Crosse, Oshkosh, Platteville, River Falls, Stevens Point, Stout and Whitewater.
Last year, the Badgers faced River Falls. Platteville was the exhibition opponent in 2013.
"We're obviously out of turn because we cycle all the way through," said Jeff Gard, who's going into his eighth year with the Pioneers. "But it was an easy decision for our league."
The Gards won't be the only brothers in the Kohl Center.
Showalter vs. Showalter.
UW senior guard Zak Showalter will be reunited in this matchup with his younger brother Jake Showalter, who transferred to Platteville after stops at North Dakota State and Lindenwood.
Jeff Gard knows it will be special for his players "because a lot of these guys are from Wisconsin and they're going to be able to play on the floor of the marquee school and program they look up to."
October 30, 2015.
"That's the day our dad passed away," Greg Gard said.
After a determined six-month fight, Glen Gard lost his battle with glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), a rare form of brain cancer. Gard was 72. When Greg Gard began looking at possible dates to schedule the exhibition with Platteville, everything pointed to playing it on October 30, 2016. And it just fell into place. One year later, to the day.
"It's going to be a tough month as it is and that's going to be a tough day," he said. "Instead of all of us sitting around moping and reflecting on the bad, let's try to do something positive here."
He made sure to keep his mom, Connie, in the loop.
"As I started to get more details," he said, "I wanted to go with more concrete information before I really presented it to her. And I think it will be good for her, too. I've talked to people who have gone through similar type situations and the anniversary of such things is always hard and if you can counter them somehow with something positive, it helps."
All three brothers agreed with that premise: Greg, Jeff and Garry Gard.
"I do think it's some therapy for our family," Jeff said. "It's going to be kind of bittersweet, a very tough day for us. But knowing dad, he's going to be grinning ear-to-ear."
Grinning because Glen Gard was all about one thing.
"He was all about trying to help other people," he said.
Gards vs. Cancer.
"One thing led to another," Greg Gard explained, "and I got together with people at the Carbone Center and our marketing people and we brought all the groups together."
What emerged was a Brain Cancer Awareness theme for the Platteville exhibition. The event will be a celebration of the doctors and researchers working right here at UW-Madison striving to find a cure. The game will also serve to recognize those who fight or have fought bravely and valiantly against this disease and the community impacted by cancer and the support they provide in this fight.
"It's using two of the state's schools to get a center stage and bring an awareness to a disease that our family had to battle last year," Jeff Gard said. "To team up with the Carbone Center, it's an opportunity for us to show support and to extend a helping hand to individuals who might be struggling with this and don't know which direction to turn."
"We had no clue (on GBM) until it hit us personally."
Until May of 2015, Greg Gard had never heard of Glioblastoma Multiforme.
"Unless you've gone through it, your knowledge base is very miniscule," Greg said. "The form of cancer that our dad had was so rare… and the survival rate is pretty shocking.
"But I didn't want the sole focus on brain cancer (for the exhibition game) because there are a lot of diseases in the cancer world impacting people. Even though it has the brain cancer awareness label on it, I'm also very conscious of the fact that there are a gazillion types of cancers out there. The color of the pins that we will be wearing will be gray which is reflective of brain cancer. But there's going to be recognition of researchers and doctors in other areas at Carbone and UW Hospital.
"We're also going to do some things during the game where we recognize patients and survivors. It's much more broad-based than brain cancer."
It's all part of the education and general cancer awareness that will be promoted.
"You can put awareness in a lot of different areas – cause, cure, treatment, prevention," Greg Gard said. "There's a lot of places we can use awareness to hopefully educate and help people."
Another cancer initiative Greg Gard is eager to continue is the annual Shooting Down Cancer campus event, which will return for the fifth year on Oct. 10. Greg and his wife, Michelle, will team up with UW-Madison students to make a sizeable donation to the fight that is so close to their hearts.
The Gards still get emotional when they talk about this topic and, specifically, their dad.
"There's not a day that goes by that you don't get a tear in your eye," said Jeff Gard who singled out his Platteville players for helping him get through the tough times last season. "They were the rock for us. Every one of our guys were at the visitation – standing in line for three hours – and at the funeral services the next day. It's another family for us to lean on."
Last week, he brought his team to Madison. Among other things, the players watched a Badger football practice and heard from Lamar "Soup" Campbell, who works out of the UW student-athlete development office.
"He (Campbell) said, 'You don't have problems, you have challenges,'" Jeff Gard said. "We all have challenges in life. It's just a matter of how we handle them."
Four boosters helped transport the players from Platteville to Camp Randall Stadium.
"Dad would have been one of those guys driving," Jeff said. "We would have the team over to their house in Cobb. And he kind of looked at our players as sons, like we do."
Greg Gard indicated that his dad would have likely been breaking down Paul Chryst's practice. "And then he would have gotten over here to the Kohl Center to see what we were doing," he said.
At a time of need during the mourning period after his dad's death, Gard got the same support from his UW players last season that his brother got in Platteville.
"Absolutely and they still are supportive," he said, citing an all-encompassing example of their care factor that materialized over the summer.
"Nigel Hayes comes up to the office, unbeknownst to me, and talks to Kat (Vosters, the director of basketball operations) about getting a patch on our jerseys."
The patch would feature the initials of Glen Gard and Kathy Gutierrez, the mom of associate head coach Lamont Paris. Gutierrez passed away in mid-June. She was 62.
In early August, the Badger family lost one of its most loyal and charitable members in Ab Nicholas, a former UW basketball player. His initials will also be on the memorial patch.
"Nigel was the representative of the team in requesting the patch," said Greg Gard, obviously moved by their actions. "They wanted to do it for the season."
Meanwhile, the UW players might snicker at the thought of their head coach being the grand marshal of his hometown parade, the 2016 Cobb Corn Roast parade in mid-August.
Cobb (Pop: 458) is a little over 50 miles from Madison.
"They asked our family to be there an hour before the parade," Greg said, "to accept a check to the brain tumor society from the fire department in memory of dad."
Glen Gard was active with Cobb's volunteer fire department.
"As they started to make the check presentation," he said, "they started talking way more about me and my career path than they should have given what I thought they were going to do. As I started to scan the crowd, I looked over and saw that one of the street signs was covered with a cardboard covering."
And, later, when they flipped over the cover, it revealed, "Gard Way."
"Most of the family knew what they were going to do except for me," said Greg Gard, knowing that he had been tricked. "They got me, and I didn't even know about it."
How many college basketball coaches have a street named after them?
"I don't know if it was in my honor," Greg said, "or in my dad's honor."
As it turns out, Gard Way is a dead end.
"Hopefully, it's not a premonition for anything," he said, laughing.
Gard Way intersects with Motel Street. But there is a catch.
"The motel is no longer in business," Gard pointed out.
The fire station is at the end of Gard Way. A city baseball diamond is across the street.
"Heck, if you're going to put it somewhere in Cobb," he said of Gard Way, "that's probably the best place. My dad spent a lot of time at the ballpark and the fire station."
When Jeff and Greg Gard walk to mid-court and shake hands in front of the Kohl Center scorer's table before the tipoff to their October 30th exhibition, they certainly won't be alone.
"For sure, dad will be that official that we used to have on the driveway back home," Jeff said. "He'll be making sure we're keeping each other in check and it's not getting too out of hand."
"I said last year I had an extra assistant coach," Greg noted. "I probably should have reported that to the NCAA. I had a guardian angel hanging over me and helping me out with a few things.
"It will be a very bittersweet moment knowing that he's not there to see it. But at the same time, it doesn't happen without him. In a direct way, he's causing this exhibition game to happen."
And it's taking place with a goal and bottomline that Glen Gard would have endorsed and loved.
Helping others.
