Miami coach's clutch call

SOME STORIES just need to be passed along in as many forums as possible.

It doesn't matter if there is no real connection to your area of coverage or typical daily content.

Some stories are so good that as many people as possible need to be made aware of them, just because they are the type of stories that make our world a little bit brighter.

We had one of those in our region on Friday night when Rowan University pitcher Richie Suarez was named winner of the 2015 Most Courageous Athlete Award at the 111th Philadelphia Sports Writers Association annual dinner.

How could the story of a 22-year-old who endured a nearly 4-year leukemia battle and double-hip replacement surgery to fulfill his dream of pitching in a college game not warm even the coldest soul?

That Suarez has been motivated by his personal experience to pursue a career in medicine so that he can help others adds to the human experience.

I don't know if it was picked up by other media outlets across the country, but I hope it was.

Yesterday as I was searching for ideas for this column, I came across a story about University of Miami basketball coach Jim Larranaga and 88-year-old Jim Palma, a terminally ill man who had played one season for the Hurricanes program in the 1940s.

The story was originally filed by Associated Press basketball writer Tim Reynolds yesterday morning.

I first saw it when it was picked up by ESPN.com. During a search for more information I was inspired to pass it along when I agreed with the headline to a link to the story at NBCsports.com that called it "Assigned Reading."

By the afternoon, the story was on national.suntimes.com, CBSSports.com, usnew.net and maxsportschannels.com.

I wanted to make sure it reached Daily News readers.

Officially, Palma does not appear in the records of the Miami basketball program because he played freshman basketball and was never a member of the varsity team. Freshmen were not eligible to play on the varsity back then.

Still, for 65 years since his graduation from Miami, the Navy veteran proudly considered himself a member of the athletic program and often wore the orange and green of the university's sports teams.

Last week, with Palma in hospice care, dying of pancreatic cancer, his daughter-in-law wrote a letter to the Miami athletic department telling his story.

All she requested was for someone to send a current photo of Larranaga's team, or anything that would help lift the man's spirits.

The message passed through several hands and when it finally got to Larranaga, the coach decided on the "anything" option.

Miami was preparing for a big Atlantic Coast Conference showdown against then-No. 4 Duke.

No one could have blamed Larranaga if a request for a man he had never met got lost in the shuffle of priorities of big-time college basketball.

But Larranaga remembered back to a time in his life when his father was diagnosed with bone cancer and needed to find a doctor.

Larranaga called his high school basketball coach, Jack Curran, who was a legendary figure at Archbishop Molloy School in New York City.

Curry told Larranaga not to worry. The next day, his father had an appointment with a top doctor and for the next 7 months until his death, Larranaga's father got the best care possible.

"That stayed with me," said Larranaga, who also in recent weeks has invited a cancer-stricken girl to a game and took his players to Homestead Air Reserve Base to thank the troops for their service.

So last Monday, Larranaga instructed Miami men's basketball director of operations Adam Fisher to get him on the phone with Palma.

Larranaga talked with Palma, telling him that it was irrelevant that he was not recognized as a letter winner because he only played freshman basketball.

"We have a saying," Larranaga said. "Once a 'Cane, always a 'Cane."

He told Palma his team would dedicate the Duke game to him.

"Coach was incredibly genuine," Palma's son, Larry, said of the phone call. "He was asking, 'How tall are you? What position did you play? How was your team? What did you study? What was your job? How are your kids? Did your kids play?' It was not like a mail-it-in phone call."

Larry Palma said his father stayed up later than usual to watch the start of the 9 p.m. game. Miami was leading by 14-12 when he went to bed.

At midnight, Larry woke Jim to give him his medicine and inform him that the Hurricanes had pulled off the upset, crushing Duke, 90-74, at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

Larry said his father's face lit up.

"He was just elated," Larry Palma said. "And I don't know if what happened next was fate or whatever."

Larry said the next morning that light was no longer in his father's eyes and it was clear that he was succumbing to the cancer.

Jim Palma died yesterday morning in Stamford, Conn. He passed away knowing that Larranaga considered him a part of the Miami basketball legacy.

"We're a sports family," Larry Palma said. "For this to happen, it was a great family moment and a tribute to my dad and really a tribute to Hurricane sports.

"Little things can be huge things at the right moment in time. To me, that's what I take from this."

That's the kind of message we all should take from a story like this, and that of Suarez.

And to me, both stories should be "Assigned Reading," to be passed along to as many people as possible.