This is class.
Arkansas State announced Aug. 19 that Anderson would be taking a leave of absence from his job as head football coach to be with his wife Wendy, who was battling an aggressive form of breast cancer for the second time in three years. The following day, Anderson posted a heartfelt message on social media revealing that his wife had lost her brave battle with the insidious disease shortly before midnight the night before “with me laying right beside her.”
Anderson’s leave of absence extended into the regular season and led to him missing the opener, but the coach surprised his team by returning to the sidelines in Week 2. Next up for ASU is Georgia at Sanford Stadium this Saturday, which is where the class comes in.
Earlier this week, a handful of the UGA faithful took to social media calling for fans attending the game to wear pink, the color most associated with seeking a cure for breast cancer, to honor Anderson’s late wife. The movement has gained significant traction, and the gesture wasn’t lost on the coach.
🚨 PLEASE RETWEET🚨DawgNation let’s get behind this on Saturday. 🐶🎗💖 It’s bigger than a football game. #WearPinkForWendy pic.twitter.com/lcazvSHPYG
— Bulldogs Battling Breast Cancer🐶🎗💖 (@bbbc_athens) September 10, 2019
Beyond grateful... thank you 💕 https://t.co/lfqZr48ZhJ
— Blake Anderson (@CHbanderson) September 10, 2019
“It’s just something I saw on Twitter, and I retweeted it, and it’s just sort of taken on a life of its own the last 24 hours,” Dwight Standridge, who manages the Bulldogs Battling Breast Cancer Twitter account, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “So, we’re trying to promote it as best we can now on social media. It’s never a bad thing to shine a light on breast cancer awareness and finding a cure. We’re always glad to do that.”
As Devon Gales would most certainly attest, the generosity of Georgia Nation is far from surprising.