With national involvement slowing, former Villanova football coach Andy Talley is challenging other coaches in a social media campaign to sign up new bone marrow donors.
Talley and his Get in the Game bone marrow foundation are driving forces on college campuses on behalf of the Be The Match national registry, whose marrow program seeks to match donors with patients who are fighting life-threatening blood cancers such as leukemia and lymphoma.
Talley’s awareness campaign comes while the COVID-19 pandemic adversely impacts registry drives and other marrow donations. He has contacted football coaches nationwide with a “Pass It On” challenge. The coaches are asked to make a quick video in which they catch a football, talk briefly about the marrow registry and throw the ball off-screen before saying, “Be The Match, Pass It On!”
On Twitter, the coaches are using the hashtags #PassItOn2020 and #Getinthegame while tagging BeTheMatch and talleybonemarro as well as other coaches they want to challenge to make a video. On Facebook and Instagram, the coaches are tagging talleybonemarrow. They also are asked to include, “To join the registry, text GITGSAVES to 61474.”
Talley, a member of the 2020 College Football Hall of Fame induction class, was Villanova’s first coach in 1985 and spent 32 seasons guiding the Wildcats, receiving the 1997 Eddie Robinson Award as the FCS coach of the year and leading a national-championship season in 2009. He started his bone marrow foundation in 2008 and has involved nearly 150 football programs that have registered over 100,000 donors.