Racing In Pink For A Bigger Cause

Story and Photos By Laura Duffy for DyeStat

Falling leaves, pumpkin spice everything, playoff baseball and pink for Breast Cancer Awareness. (And cross country, of course!)

These are just a few of the things that October brings. While visions of pink uniforms have  been in the sports world for a few years now, they shone brightly this past weekend at the NCAA D1 Pre-Nationals meet in Terre Haute, Indiana.

Five women’s teams and two men’s teams sported pink uniforms, while other schools showed up with pink shirts, hair ribbons and sweatbands. Coach Rhonda Riley of Duke said, “It is a great opportunity to support a great cause. Who doesn’t want to wear pink?”

The Blue Devils have gone pink during the month of October for the last four years. Riley also said, “It helps to see our team in a sea of 250 runners!”

In 2019, an estimated 268,600 new cases of invasive breast cancer will be diagnosed among women. Approximately 41,760 women and 500 men are expected to die from breast cancer this year.

This is the second year that Michigan has worn pink.

“We are a women’s sport. This resonates with us,” Wolverines coach Mike McGuire said. "I am big on us being blue. We don’t wear white or maize, but I enthusiastically support not wearing Blue (for breast cancer awareness)."

McGuire said that with so many athletes wearing pink he had a harder time spotting his runners.

“I didn't spot my kids right away but we (coaches) all feel the same way. It is the right thing to be doing,” he said.

Kansas might be the program that has a history of wearing pink the longest. Coach Michael Whittlesey stated that his team has been wearing pink for the past decade but that the program has a history of pink dating back to the 1950s.

Ole Miss was also pretty in pink at Pre-Nats. Coach Ryan Vanhoy stated that the Rebels first debuted pink singlets in 2018.

“Our athletes enjoy wearing different uniform combinations, especially ones that can be symbolic of a great cause,” he said. 

Toledo coach Andrea Grove McDonough is a firm believer in the cause behind wearing pink.

"We’ve forgotten that we still haven’t found a cure," Grove McDonough said. "The point of the movement is to bring awareness. Everyone is affected. In fact, I would like to see more men’s teams wearing pink.” 

Approximately 1 in 8 women (13%) will be diagnosed with invasive breast cancer in their lifetime and 1 in 39 women (3%) will die from breast cancer.

Coincidentally, at Pre-Nationals, 35 women out of 252 women were wearing a pink singlet, which is approximately 1 in 8 women…. or 13%. 

Source: American Cancer Society. Breast Cancer Facts & Figures 2019-2020. Atlanta: American Cancer Society, Inc. 2019.