La Salle supports the 2-year-old daughter of women’s basketball coach Mountain MacGillivray in her fight against leukemia

At first glance, the La Salle-Richmond women’s basketball game on Sunday looked like any other game at Tom Gola Arena. Fans decked out in La Salle gear sat in the bleachers. The cheerleaders and dance team shook their pompoms to the music blasting through the gym. The Explorers went through their warmups, clad in bright yellow uniforms.

A closer look at the yellow T-shirts being worn by the La Salle players, athletics personnel, cheerleaders, dance team, fans, and, perhaps most importantly, coach Mountain MacGillivray would reveal that this was more than just another game for the Explorers.

The shirts read “FIGHT ON” on the front, and “CLIMB WITH EMILY” on the back, referring to MacGillivray’s 2-year-old daughter who was recently diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Young fans held signs in support of Emily, videos played of the players voicing messages of support for their coach’s daughter, and Emily herself made an appearance at halftime to a roaring reception from the crowd.

Emily’s appearance was followed by a speech from Joe McDonough, the founder of the B+ Foundation, which provides financial assistance to families affected by pediatric cancer. La Salle has worked closely with the B+ Foundation for eight years, raising money for the foundation through “Explorathon,” an event in which students from multiple organizations around campus raise tens of thousands of dollars for the fight against pediatric cancer.

McDonough emphasized the importance of the university’s involvement in his foundation, noting that having a child with leukemia so close to home will make people realize just how devastating a diagnosis can be, and how it is unfortunately more common than many people realize. He does have hope, though, that “I’ll come out on this basketball court to make another speech for the B+ Foundation, and a 15-year-old Emily will be standing beside me to tell her story.”

MacGillivray is choosing to be optimistic about his daughter’s diagnosis, saying on the athletic department’s podcast last week that she is in remission while facing treatment for at least two more years.

“What you learn from a 2-year-old is to live in the moment,” he said. “She doesn’t like when she’s got to deal with the doctor and the nurse. And she doesn’t like when she’s got to take her medicine. But as soon as that’s done, she’s back to playing and having a good time. And she’s not worried about what’s going to happen tomorrow. And she’s not thinking about, ‘Oh, this might go the wrong way,’ or ‘I could get an infection,’ because she’s 2 years old. She’s worried about, ‘What am I about to eat right now,’ and ‘Which one of my siblings is going to play LEGOS with me?’ And I think that’s a lesson for all of us.”

While the Explorers did end up thrashing Richmond 77-57, the game was more of a testament to an oft-used descriptor of La Salle — that the small campus is a community, a place where everyone can feel seen and heard and supported in tough times like these. No matter what the result might have been, the fans and the larger La Salle community, were there for Emily.