With March Madness in full swing, we know one family of diehard University of Kentucky men's basketball fans who will be glued to the screen.
The McGuire family provided us with an iconic college basketball moment in 2022 that illustrated a father's love for his son and their shared love of Kentucky basketball.
There was no way Micheal McGuire was going to miss his 3-year-old son's first trip to see the Wildcats in person, even if it meant showing up to the arena covered in soot from his job in a coal mine.
A photo from the preseason game on Oct. 22, 2022, shows McGuire with his face and clothes covered in dust and soot as he watches his son, Easton, beaming at the players during the Wildcats' annual Blue-White scrimmage at Appalachian Wireless Arena in Pikeville.
The viral photo caught the eye of then-Kentucky head coach John Calipari, who shared why it was particularly special to him.
"My family's American dream started in a Clarksburg, WV coal mine, so this picture hits home," he tweeted. "From what I've been told, after his shift, he raced to be with his son & watch our team. Don't know who this is, but I have tickets for him & his family at Rupp to be treated as VIPs!!"
Calipari's tenure with Kentucky ended after last season, and he is now the head coach at the University of Arkansas. The legendary coach led the Razorbacks to an upset of second-seeded St. John's to reach the Sweet Sixteen in the 2025 NCAA Tournament, where Kentucky is also still alive.
The 10th-seeded Razorbacks will play third-seeded Texas Tech on March 27, and third-seeded Kentucky will face second-seeded Tennessee on March 28 as they try to keep their dreams of a championship alive.
Even though Calipari now wears the red and white colors of Arkansas after 15 seasons at Kentucky, he has maintained his relationship with the McGuire family.
"We still talk to him to this day," Mollie, Micheal's wife, told The Courier Journal in January. "He still checks in. We still talk to him frequently. He's definitely a very genuine, down-to-earth person."
She shared that the legendary coach still texts them on their birthdays and sends them well wishes for Christmas.
"Just to be a normal little family in eastern Kentucky and receive something from the Caliparis?" Mollie said. "It's not something we ever expected -- that we would even be a thought when it came to things like that."
Micheal still gets recognized by strangers as "that famous coal miner" from the viral photo, his wife told the Courier Journal. Easton is now 5 years old and getting into basketball as a player. The family will never forget Calipari's gestures.
"We knew that he did a lot of things for outreach, community events and all of that with sports. Like, we were aware of all this stuff that he was doing," Mollie told the Courier Journal, "but we didn't realize, on a personal level, the extent that he went to for people."
At the time the photo went viral in 2022, the family received an outpouring of support from fellow parents and Kentucky fans.
"Much respect for this man making time to be a Dad!" one man commented on Calipari's tweet. "I'm a union worker myself and know the struggle of trying to balance family time and work. Sometimes you have to make the hard choice to provide for your family but when you do get time make it truly count."
McGuire works long hours six days a week at a coal mine about 40 minutes away from the arena, and he was determined to get to the game even if it meant not having time to wash himself off.
"Didn't want to miss it," he told TODAY's Jacob Soboroff in 2022. "I've had to miss quite a few stuff."
McGuire grew up as a diehard Kentucky basketball fan watching games with his own father, so he was excited to carry on the tradition with his son.
"Easton has taken a huge interest in sports, so it was the perfect time to buy tickets for Micheal and Easton to start that," Mollie said on TODAY.
It didn't take long for his son to be hooked on the excitement of Kentucky basketball.
"Easton was dancing and everything!" Micheal said.
"It's been a fun experience for us as a family," Mollie said.
While McGuire may have stood out in the crowd at the game, it's not unusual to see coal miners covered in soot and dust at their kids' sporting events in eastern Kentucky, considering the prominence of the industry in that area.
The 2022 Blue-White game was especially important to the region because it raised more than $162,000 to help victims of that summer's deadly floods in eastern Kentucky. Floyd County, where the McGuires live, was one of the worst-hit areas.
"We had some friends who lost a lot," Mollie said. "That's when we looked at each other (and said), 'All right, let's do what we can.'"
Calipari gave the family VIP tickets to a game at Kentucky's famed Rupp Arena in Lexington. Mollie and Micheal took Easton and their daughter, Lynlee, who is now 3, to a game against fellow college basketball power Kansas in January 2022.