His No. 31 is one of just four retired numbers in UofL history, and he is one of just five Cardinals to earn over 1,000 rebounds during his career. That’s on top of his 1,686 points.

that Unseld was the player who changed the Cardinal program, quoting fellow UofL legend Darrell Griffith, who said, “He paved the way for everybody that came after him at the University of Louisville, that first true African-American superstar.”Ěý

Unseld’s legacy extends well beyond Louisville.

He was selected as the second player overall in the 1968 NBA Draft by the Baltimore Bullets. The Seneca High School graduate went onto play 13 years for the Baltimore/Capital/Washington Bullets, where he became the second player in NBA history to be chosen NBA Rookie of the Year and the Most Valuable Player in the same season. He was a five-time NBA All-Star and was named the Championship Series MVP when he led the Bullets to the 1978 NBA title.Ěý

Unseld earned a spot in the Hall of Fame in 1988 and was selected among the 50 Greatest Players in NBA history in 1996 to honor the 50th anniversary of the league. He served as head coach of the Bullets from 1988-1994.Ěý

His impact on the Washington Wizards/Bullets franchise was recently featured on as part of a Black History Month series. The story examines Unseld’s leadership and unselfishness on and off the court. In 1979, Unseld and his wife, Connie, opened Unselds’ School in Baltimore, which features small classes, personalized instruction and a focus on social and emotional learning, according to .Ěý

His son, Wes Unseld Jr., an assistant coach with the Denver Nuggets, told NBC Sports that his father did whatever he could to make sure the school was a success, including cooking lunches and cleaning the floors.Ěý

“How many lives he directly or indirectly impacted, I think those are the things that are most meaningful,” Unseld Jr. said.Ěý

However, one Cardinal basketball alum and one former basketball manager teamed up off the court to find a creative way to bring sports fans together and give back during the pandemic.

Akoy Agau (’19) and his friend and former UofL men’s basketball manager, Matthew Melander (’18), turned their friendship into a partnership with the creation of Their efforts have been featured on ESPN and WHAS 11.

Primetime Sports uses live-streaming service Twitch to stream athletes and celebrities playing video games while allowing fans to pay to interact with them. The company and players split that money, with some of Primetime’s share being donated to charity.

“We always wanted to do something with athletes, connect athletes with fans in a unique way,” Melander told . “We were trying to think of a new way for fans to interact with their favorite athletes. And video games, the platform is becoming more and more popular. A lot of guys that played video games in college, they continue to play that during their professional careers. The live aspect, as opposed to a recorded podcast, is a fun way to interact with their favorite athletes.”

With the pandemic limiting in-person sports activities, Agau and Melander saw an opportunity to also make a difference for fans of the NCAA Tournament.

“We thought this would be the perfect time to capitalize on and kind of start networking on that,” Agau told .

So, they held a virtual NCAA Tournament. But unlike other virtual tournaments that used computer projections and algorithms to pick a winner, this tournament actually let the players play. Forty of 68 teams who were projected to play in the real NCAA Tournament participated, with NBA-bound stars or departing seniors leading their squads from their video game controllers. Agau and Melander tailored the rosters to reflect reality, including player ratings, a tournament court and even school logos and uniforms. The bracket was divided by users playing on PlayStation and Xbox, and the competition began on July 15. Now in the Final Four, Kentucky, Rutgers, Illinois and Michigan State will compete for the (virtual) winning title this weekend.

The former Cardinals saw the virtual tournament as a way to try to make up for the sudden end to the sports season and these former players’ college careers.

“Guys getting to miss out on that is really sad,” Agau said. “If I would have missed out on it, having been there before, I definitely would have been devastated. We just kind of wanted to provide an experience that can some somehow bring that same excitement.”

“What better way to get involved than to do something to give back to these guys that had something taken away from them, that they work so hard for and also to be able to give back to some different charities that will need the money currently,” Melander said.

Half of the money raised from the tournament was donated to two charities: Direct Relief and Save the Children. Agau and Melander hope to grow their company and continue giving back through their virtual games.

“We would love to make this an annual thing. It’s a unique thing to do,” Agau said. “A lot of those guys do play video games. So this is a good way to help raise money, get money in their pocket, people can tune in and watch and support their guy. A last hurrah to support one of their guys.”

“We are incredibly proud to be as highly ranked in community service as we are in athletics,” said Vince Tyra, director of Athletics. “We have great leaders in our athletic department that provide our student athletes an opportunity to give back to so many causes in the Louisville community. Our student athletes love giving back and are learning a great deal while doing so.”
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NCAA Team Works, which coordinates community service efforts at NCAA championships, and Helper Helper, a volunteer management and tracking platform, launched the community service competition to recognize student-athletes who give back to their communities. Winning schools’ victories are decided based on the number of service hours completed and participation of student-athletes.
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This is the sixth annual NCAA Team Works Helper Helper Community Service Competition award, with all Divisions I, II and III participating.Ěý
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“Engaging in community service provides student athletes with the opportunity to become active members of their community and has a lasting, positive impact on society at large,” said Jazmine Jones, UofL Women’s Basketball player and SAAC vice president. “Community service enables students to acquire life skills and knowledge, as well as provide a service to those who need it most. Here at Louisville, community service is much bigger than the sport of the student athletes because it means a lot to us and we take it serious to become positive role models to kids in the community.”
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Louisville, which has ranked in the top five for service all six years of the competition, accumulated 6,827 service hours by 718 student-athletes during the fall semester. As a whole, the department averaged 9.5 hours per student-athlete, as UofL teams partnered with 98 nonprofit organizations over the course of the semester. The top four partners included: Jefferson County Public Schools, Score International, Norton Children’s Hospital, and Louisville Ironman.
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The Cards Come Together event saw 165 student-athletes volunteer their time. The baseball team led the department averaging 25 hours per student-athlete. The lacrosse team ranked highest among the women’s teams, averaging 20 hours per student-athlete.
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Individually, 87 Louisville student-athletes contributed at least 20 hours over the course of the semester. Additionally, 221 student-athletes volunteered at least 10 hours during the semester.

In fact, many Cardinals have been firing things up even more these past few months – going beyond the ACC and the NCAA to take on the world.

Some are even sitting on top of it.

Take Mallory Comerford, for example. Even if you don’t follow the sport of swimming, you probably know she’s one of the most decorated athletes in UofL history, with four NCAA titles under her belt. Now, she’s also a world record holder.

During the FINA World Championships in Gwangju, South Korea, in July, Comerford swam the third leg of the mixed 400 freestyle relay, which won a gold and set a new world record. She was also part of the women’s 400 freestyle relay, which set an American record and earned a gold medal, and the women’s 400 medley relay, which also won the gold.

For measure, Comerford’s individual effort in the women’s 100 freestyle earned her a seventh-place finish in the world. Ěý

Her former teammate, UofL alum Kelsi Worrell Dahlia, also earned a world record during the meet as a member of the women’s 400 medley relay. The day prior, Dahlia achieved an American record in the 50 butterfly with a fourth-place finish.

Newly-graduated Zach Harting also competed in the World Championships, finishing sixth in the 200 men’s butterfly. The Cardinals’ head coach Arthur Albiero was one of Team USA’s coaches during the meet, marking the fifth time he has been tapped to coach a national team.

This meet is one of the last international competitions before the 2020 Olympic season starts and our Cards are in a good spot to potentially represent Team USA next summer in Tokyo.

Women’s basketball coach Jeff Walz is also a world champ, having coached Team USA at the FIBA U19 World Cup in Bangkok, Thailand, last week. Team USA beat Australia in the championship game 74-70 in overtime.

Meanwhile, Dani Busboom Kelly, head coach of the Cardinals’ volleyball team, spent much of July coaching USA Volleyball’s High Performance Teams in Florida. This experience builds on her 2018 resume, in which she coached the US Collegiate National Team to a gold medal in the European Global Challenge in Croatia.

One of Kelly’s players, Tori Dilfer, a sophomore setter from California, was part of the U.S. Women’s Collegiate National Team this summer, which placed ninth in an international tournament in Nocera, Italy, in July.

Incoming UofL freshman Jessica De Filippo was part of the Canadian U-20 soccer team during a Women’s U-20 international series played in England in early July. Speaking of soccer, former UofL standout Chinyelu Asher represented Jamaica during July’s World Cup.

UofL incoming lacrosse players Maddie McDonough and Nicole Perroni are currently representing their respective countries (Israel and Canada) in the 2019 FIL U19 World Championships in Canada.Ěý

UofL’s head coach Scott Teeter led the 2019 Canada Women’s Field Lacrosse U19 National Team Evaluation Camp in June, as well. Teeter has served as head coach of the Canadian U19 National Team since 2009.

Finally, (we think?) Louisville baseball coach Dan McDonnell spent much of his summer coaching the USA Baseball Collegiate National Team, his first year as head coach.

“To put a uniform on, especially a USA uniform, one just to compete again is fun and healing when the season ends with a loss, but especially when you put the USA uniform on. It’s a real treat,” .Ěý

From the pool to the court to the pitch to the field, Cardinal Athletics have made quite an impact on the world stage this summer. This should provide plenty of momentum heading into the fall sports season, and plenty of pride while donning the red and black.