The idea, like many great ones, came totally by accident. Gary Mervis was waiting at a traffic light on his way back from Camp Good Days & Special Times 11 summers ago when he noticed a young boy being disciplined by his mom for tossing a football around in their van. Mervis couldn’t help but smile as he drove off. He thought about how football had become deeply ingrained in our culture and how that young boy, like so many others, was gearing up for another season. But Mervis also thought about the kids he had just spent the day with at Camp Good Days on the shores of Keuka Lake, and how most of them would never have an opportunity to experience what it was like to be a part of a football team because of their cancer diagnoses.
“That really bothered me,” said the camp’s founder and director. “I began thinking about what we could do to give those kids with cancer a chance to experience something that so many of us took for granted.”
And that’s when the bulb went off. Why not have a handful of kids serve as honorary coaches of the St. John Fisher College and University of Rochester football teams during their annual game? And why not make the experience all the more special by making it an in-season bowl game?
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The Courage Bowl game is scheduled to kickoff at 6 p.m. and can be watched throughout New York State on the Time Warner Sports Channel (Ch. 26).
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