Doyel: UIndy star grows out his hair to honor late aunt
After his aunt died of cancer, Brennan McElroy started growing out his hair to donate it.
They taunt him on the road because they see the hair. And because they don't know the story behind it.
Most of what they say is silly stuff, harmless really. His reddish hair is long and keeps getting longer, which is why 6-7 senior forward Brennan McElroy of the No. 16 University of Indianapolis basketball team doesn't hear about Justin Bieber anymore.
This year the hair is halfway down his back, pulled into a ponytail. For McElroy, the teen idol stuff was so last year. This year he dunks on someone and the crowd calls him Cupcake or Dixie. Sweet Cheeks. Sunshine. Cher.
Most of the time McElroy just grins along with it. But every now and then …
"In Florida they were calling him Sunshine," says UIndy coach Stan Gouard, referring to the Greyhounds' two-game trip to Miami in December. "Brennan comes over to me and says, 'By halftime, they're going to be leaving.' Sure enough, I look over at halftime and half the kids are gone. They helped him enough, got him upset enough, for some dunks – and we had a big lead and they left."
The kids on the road, they don't know. They didn't know at Barry University in December, they didn't know at Southern Indiana last week, and they won't know at the Division II national tournament next month.
"They don't need to know," McElroy says.
Maybe they do. Because after the season, Brennan McElroy will cut off his hair – to be made into a wig. For a cancer patient.
Like his aunt was.
* * *
Her name was Anne, Anne McElroy, but family called her Midge. Little Midgie, they'd say, and she was the youngest and smallest and feistiest and most mule-headed of five kids.
Little Midgie couldn't stop smoking. Not after lung cancer killed her dad on Valentine's Day in 1996, not even after it killed her mom on New Year's Eve in 2011. Little Midgie, born on the Fourth of July 1962, smoked until doctors found cancer in her lungs in her late 40s. She stopped smoking and the cancer went into remission. When it came back, it came back with cruelty – and Little Midgie decided to die on her terms. She was smoking at the end.
She also was watching UIndy games on the Internet, all the way to the end. Brennan McElroy's her nephew, you know, and she was so proud of him. Until the cancer made travel impossible, she went to all his high school games and to a UIndy game or two. She missed his first collegiate double-double, though. It happened the game after she died on Feb. 28, 2013.
"I was locked in," McElroy says. "I was so motivated to play for her."
Aunt Midgie died without hair on her head. She died without a wig or a hat, either. She was bald and she was neither ashamed nor scared. Tough woman? If you knew Anne McElroy, you wouldn't have to ask. To the end she worked for the Illinois Department of Corrections, its chief of labor relations, and she would go out in public with her bald head uncovered.
Cancer might kill her, but it was never going to beat her.
Aunt Midgie's nephew is growing out his hair for an outfit like Locks of Love, for a stranger who might like to cover the baldness. Because not everyone is as comfortable being bald as Aunt Midgie. And that's OK.
* * *
Brennan McElroy wasn't supposed to have this platform. On the night of his final high school basketball game, what he figured was the final organized game of his life, his Decatur (Ill.) St. Teresa team played a 2A regional at the University of Illinois-Springfield against Robinson High School, featuring eventual NBA center Meyers Leonard.
Robinson won in a blowout, but McElroy – just 6-4 at the time – had 10 points, three rebounds, three assists, three steals and three blocked shots against the 7-1 Leonard.
Gouard was in the crowd, there to see one of McElroy's teammates, who had been recruited by a UIndy assistant. This was Gouard's first look at that kid.
"I was supposed to decide whether to offer (the other player) or not," Gouard says. "I watched McElroy for a few minutes and said, 'Who's that?'
"My assistant starts scrambling through his notes. I said, 'We're recruiting the wrong guy.' "
McElroy was planning to attend DePaul or Eastern Illinois, but not as a basketball player. Five years later – McElroy redshirted his second season after suffering broken bones in his back on a jarring landing after a dunk – he is UIndy's most versatile player. Joe Lawson of Washington High School is the top scorer (18.9 ppg), Australian point guard Lucas Barker is best in assists (8.0 per game) and Jordan Loyd the top perimeter scorer (14.4 ppg), but McElroy does it all. He leads in rebounding (7.7), steals (2.0) and field-goal shooting (69.3 percent), and is third in scoring (10.1 ppg) and fourth in assists (2.5). He is a post defender and emergency point guard.
Last month, scouts from the Minnesota Timberwolves visited a UIndy practice.
"They wanted to know who McElroy was," says Gouard. "He doesn't shoot the 3-pointer well enough to play in that league, but he can go to Europe and make some money."
McElroy suffered a torn ankle ligament two weeks ago and won't be 100 percent until after the season, because he needs surgery. There's no time right now and UIndy is having a special season, so McElroy plays hurt. Aunt Midgie wasn't the only tough, stubborn mule in the family.
"Most guys couldn't do it," Gouard says. "When he's healthy, we're the best team in the country" – and before the injury, UIndy indeed was ranked No. 1.
Thursday against St. Joseph's, Brennan McElroy will play his final game at home. It will be Senior Night. His mom will be there. His father. Not his grandparents. Not his aunt.
Brennan McElroy will wear his hair long Thursday, and he will wear it as Aunt Midgie wore her baldness when she died at 50. He will wear it comfortably, with pride. He will wear it how he will wear it, honoring a woman who died from cancer and beat it anyway.
Find Star columnist Gregg Doyel on Twitter at @GreggDoyelStar or at www.facebook.com/gregg.doyel
How to donate hair
To donate hair to Locks of Love or Wigs for Kids, it must be at least 10 inches long (12 inches for Wigs for Kids), washed and dried, and pulled in a ponytail or braid before being cut. Place the ponytail or braid in a plastic bag, and mail it in a padded envelope to:
http://www.locksoflove.org/donate.html
Locks of Love
234 Southern Blvd.
West Palm Beach, FL 33405-2701
http://www.wigsforkids.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=34&Itemid=159
Wigs for Kids – Hair Donations
24231 Center Ridge Road
Westlake, Ohio 44145