On Friday nights in Oklahoma, Pawhuska High School shows what building a football program that stands for something bigger truly looks like. Under Head Coach Matt Hennesy, the team doesn’t just chase wins—it plays with purpose and pride. For the past 13 years, Hennesy’s Pink Night tradition has brought players, families, and the entire town together around a cause that gives football meaning beyond the scoreboard.
“They’re going to play for somebody else. Somebody that’s a warrior. Somebody that’s battled something way worse than a sprained ankle, way worse than a blown-out knee”.
That belief reshaped everything about how Hennesy’s players approach the game. Instead of running out under the lights with their own names on their backs, they wear the names of local cancer warriors—people fighting real battles. The idea started when Hennesy grew frustrated seeing kids wear pink just “to look cool.” What began as a small correction evolved into a lasting tradition—one that unites a town, broadens perspective, and teaches young athletes that football means more when it’s played for someone else.
Turning Awareness Into Action
Each October, teams across the country hold cancer awareness games. Hennesy takes that idea further by turning awareness into action. Rather than letting players wear pink just for show, he builds a direct link between his athletes and real people in their community.
Every player reaches out to their family to find someone who has battled cancer. If a player doesn’t know anyone personally, the program pairs them with someone to represent. Each jersey carries that person’s name—“Grandma B,” “Uncle Jim,” or “Granny June.”
Hennesy sets the tone early and insists on doing it right. “You want to get it done early… talk to your kids about how important this is going to be”. By starting the process in August or early September, he gives players time to reflect on what the night truly means.
When kickoff comes, it’s no longer just another game. Every player steps on the field with purpose, honoring someone who’s faced a battle far tougher than any they’ll see in the fourth quarter.
Inspiring Purpose and Performance
Hennesy turns Pink Night into a lesson in perspective and motivation. The night before the game, he reminds his players who they’re playing for. “Remember who you’re representing. When you get tired in the fourth quarter, I don’t want to hear you’re tired. Just think about that name on the back of your jersey”.
That message changes how his players compete. For 13 straight years, Pawhuska has never lost a Pink Night game. The streak isn’t just about football—it’s about purpose. When players understand their effort honors someone else’s fight, they find another gear.
Uniting the Community
What began as one coach’s idea has grown into a town-wide movement. Local sponsors now fund the jerseys so that every dollar raised through the auction goes directly to a local cancer warrior or their family. During the game, live and online auctions bring energy to the crowd as people bid on jerseys bearing the names of loved ones—bids that often reach into the hundreds of dollars.
One moment that defined the event came when the team honored a seven-year-old boy battling cancer whose dream was to ride in a helicopter. That night, he arrived at the stadium by helicopter, wore his own custom jersey, and even ran a play with the team.
“It was one of the greatest nights in my coaching career,” Hennesy said. “Those moments mean more to me than a lot of plays we’ve won.”
Pink Night photo gallery
The Bigger Win
When football programs stand for something bigger, they become catalysts for change. Hennesy’s model proves that building a football program around purpose not only inspires players but also transforms entire communities.
From $6,000 to $22,000 raised in a single night, Pink Night shows what can happen when coaches channel the power of sport toward something meaningful. It’s a reminder that football’s greatest victories often happen off the field.
Related:
More Than a Game: How One Team’s Pink Night Became a Community Movement
Building a Legacy: Love, Hardwork, and Community
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Podcast transcript
Matt Hennesy (00:01)
Hey, I’m Matt Hennessey. head football coach at Pawhuska High School in Pawhuska, Oklahoma. What I’m going to talk to you today about is a little idea that we came up with 13 years ago that’s really been a difference maker. I get asked a lot about this, about where we came up with the idea, how to do it. It’s basically how to handle pink night, how to handle your cancer awareness night. A lot of us have ways we do it. We have a cancer awareness night. We let the kids wear it.
you know, pink wristbands or whatever, whatever your case may be. Well, I had a problem with, and I am very, very structured on what color we wear. Kids are gonna wear the same color. They’re going to wear the same color socks. We’re all gonna look alike every game. So I had a problem with all October. Kids just wanted to wear pink just to look cool. So I was researching, trying to figure out what would be a good way to get the most out of this and actually honor our cancer warriors.
Raise money do something make it meaningful for my players as well as other people So first I thought I got a stolen idea from a guy I was gonna charge $5 if you wanted to wear something you didn’t pay five bucks for everything you wore and then donate the money American Cancer Foundation Well, okay. I was great. I was kind of thinking that’s that was the way I was gonna go and Then all of a sudden I was watching a girl foot into the SPN saw girls basketball game and the girls were in pink jerseys and they had somebody else’s name on the back
I thought, man, that’s genius. So we stole the idea, like I said, about 13 years ago. And basically, here’s the way it goes, just to break down how it goes. You want to get it done early. So first week of September, August, if you can. You talk to your kids, and you talk to your kids about it. And once you establish the program, obviously they know what it is. But early on in it, talk to them about how important this is going to be. They’re going to wear the name of somebody else on the back of their jersey instead of their name.
So they’re going to play for somebody else. Somebody that’s a warrior. Somebody that’s battled something way worse than a sprained ankle. Way worse than a blown out knee. Way tougher than being tired in the fourth quarter. Whatever it is. So get a name from them. You have some of your family. Have them talk to their parents. That’s the big thing. And honestly, one of the hardships, I guess you’d say, in this deal is a lot of times families have more than one person, unfortunately, that they want to honor.
So know sometimes I say, so I usually just spill it to them as, hey, your kid’s gonna be here for four years, do one this year, do one next year, we’re gonna do this every year. So, you by the time you get done, you can have one for everybody. But flip side of that is some kids won’t have anybody. don’t, luckily, thank goodness, nobody in their family, cancers touch their life, you know, or friends or family. Most kids have, but if they have it, then you say, okay, great, I will find somebody for you.
So the ones that do, you get their names, you write them down, make sure your spelling’s right, because once you put it on there, you can’t change it. So have them call their mom, whatever, have the mom send it to them, make sure it’s right. And that was a thing we ran into early on doing it when I wasn’t very, very adamant about making sure the spelling’s right. Get that right. And then the ones that you don’t, figure out how many jerseys you’re to have. Like I put my water girls in jerseys, we put our cheerleaders, our cheerleaders have jumped in the program.
They’re in jerseys. We put our sideline chain gang in jerseys. We get as many jerseys as possible because the more jerseys you get, the more money you’re going to make. So however many jerseys you have left that are blank, you can put that out on your social media and say, hey, this year we have 12 jerseys. Start bidding how much you want pay to have the name of somebody on the back of this jersey. So during this process, we meet with our booster club and we have a group.
And we try to identify somebody locally. And that’s where I think it is huge. There’s somebody locally in your community, and sometimes we’ve had two people, sometimes we’ve had one, that you’re going to donate all the money to. So this is a straight fundraiser for them. It really brings your community together. So you get the names, you get them all in there. Make sure you, like I said, your jerseys early. BSN, I’ve started getting my jerseys from BSN. JR Rallo is my.
sporting a draft. And I started ordering from them. They have their own brand of jersey. So it’s not a Nike or anything. So it’s inexpensive, but it holds up well. It’s a great jersey, but it’s sublimated. So they turned them this last year in just a little over two weeks for me. So you can get them done fairly quickly, but they look great. Matter of fact, I’ve got one right here. This is our Osage sponsor this year. It’s a pink jersey with somebody else’s name on the back, whatever they call them.
You may have grandma on the back, Granny B, Uncle Jim, whatever they want to put. I don’t care. I don’t limit that. I let them put whatever they want on the back of their jersey. So then you get your jersey in and when you put the roster out for that game, it says it on there. You put it out on your social media, those names. Your announcer all game, tackle by Granny June. And it’s it’s awesome. The tech crowd gets into it. And a lot of times it’s people that are
warriors that have battled it and won and they’re sitting in the stands. Sometimes it’s not, sometimes you know cancer got them and so they’re fighting tough. during the game, so this is the next piece, so you get your jerseys, you wear them, you do all that. The great thing is again the big piece for me, for my team, is the motivational piece of talking to my kids the day before the game. Well when we ordered the jerseys, then the day before the game, then right in pregame.
Remember who you’re representing. You’re representing that name on the back. That name on the back is somebody again who battled something a lot tougher. When you get tired in the fourth quarter, I don’t want to hear you’re tired. Just think about that name on the back of your jersey. And just side note, don’t know, 17 years or 13 years, excuse me, 13 years, we’ve never lost a pink night. I don’t know if it’s because of the jerseys. I don’t know if it’s because they play hard or I don’t know. But we’ve never lost a game on on that night.
But during the game you have a silent auction. So you have somebody set up and we did it digitally this year and old school down by the concession stand. We also did it digitally where they could go online and do it. And people are bidding constantly. And we start the bidding off at $75 for a jersey. If you don’t get a sponsor, it’s gonna cost you about 60 bucks a jersey. So you’re not gonna make a ton. So another piece is try to get a sponsor. Try to get a sponsor for that night. This year the Osage Nation sponsors.
So they paid for all the jerseys. So we had zero overhead. So every bit of money we raised went straight to our cancer recipient, to our fundraising recipient. So we played during the game. They’re all bidding. They’re CNO. This person bids $75. I’m going bid $80. I’m going to bid $90. We had one night where we had two brothers down there, and his mom’s name was on the back. The jersey was the nephew was wearing. was two uncles. They went. The jersey ended up going for $600.
you know, because they kept going back and forth on who wanted this jersey. And really, they were just doing it to kind of give to the program. But, you know, there’s been some super cool nights on this night. One year we had a young man, was a seven-year-old boy who had, unfortunately, had cancer. And he loved football. And he loved Batman. He loved football and Batman. And I was talking to him one day, and we decided we were going to do the fundraiser for him. And he was telling me about the fact that he had
Riding really wanted to ride in a helicopter. He’d ridden in a helicopter twice, but he didn’t remember because both times unfortunately been being rushed to the hospital. Been life flighted and he’d survived it. So that night we had custom jerseys made and they actually had our logo on top of the Batman wings and they’re black black jerseys with hot pink lettering and all that. It also worked out to where that night my quarterback was setting the national or excuse me, not national, the Oklahoma.
every Oklahoma record for completions and all that. we had every media outlet there. Anyway, we flew the little boy, we got him a jersey too. We flew him in on a helicopter. He brought the game ball in. In the game, we actually let him run a play. Just a night that maybe one of the greatest nights in my coaching crib and did it 30 some years. And that night still to this day, those moments mean more to me. I can remember that way better than I can remember a lot of plays we’ve won. I’ve won state championships, I’ve done different things.
you know, but I remember that. And that’s the kind of things you’re trying to create here. But so at the end of the day, you get all the money raised, however much you raise. We try to have the, whoever cancer warrior is, be the honorary captain in that game. Have them come out, if they’re able, sometimes they’ve been pretty not in good place, you physically, but they couldn’t. But if we can, we try to have them come out and do the coin toss. That’s always a neat piece. Then we have them come back to the next game.
or a family member, whoever can. And we present the check to them at the next home game on how much we’ve raised. And the cool things, it’s usually between six and up to $22,000. For the little boy, raised $22,000. So you can raise a lot of money from it, but it’s more about the awareness. It’s more about making your kids understand, hey, there’s a lot of things out there way tougher than football. There’s a way tougher than losing a game and then fourth and going and not getting it.
a blown-out knee. It’s tougher than that. So making your kids understand that, representing somebody besides just wearing pink. Because I think that’s what a lot of unfortunate, a lot of that’s turned into. It’s just kids want to wear pink. we did that. Another thing we do with that, piece we do with that, a little piece, is I always call the opposing coach and let him know because
Really half the time, I don’t know if the jerseys are legal because we go with a smaller number a lot of times. This year we went with a big number. But I mean, sometimes they’re not exactly. So I want the opposing coach to know what’s going on. But I do something for him because something in his community has happened too. So I have him give me a number and a name and we make a jersey for him. And I present it to the head coach at midfield before the game starts so everybody kind of understands what’s going on. We understand that their community is fighting cancer just like our community is.
It kind of just brings everybody together right there. But just some little things I would remind you of in wrapping this up is order it early. Don’t put it off and all of sudden be into September and you’ve only got one game in October and you’re trying to give your sporting a guy a week to get him here. It’s not going to happen. So order early, plan ahead. Try to get a sponsor if you can.
If you get a sponsor that’s gonna take out that big chunk that it cost you to do it and then that just lets you give more to whoever your recipient is. Do a jersey for the opposing coach. Have the warrior be an honorary captain if possible. And then just the stressing to your players of why we’re doing this. We’re not doing it to wear pink. We’re not doing it because it looks cool tonight. It’s really cool looking jersey. We’re doing it for that name on the back.
And that name on the back is somebody that we love or I tell them a lot of times I said, know, it’s because sometimes you’re have kids that don’t know the name on their back. And I tell those players, look, you should be honored. Somebody wants to put somebody they love that much on your back. And so the kids all really buy into that. And then at the end of it, I bring the jerseys in, I launder them. And then we let them pick them up as soon as they’re paid for. This year we just.
with it being online, most of it online, they were able to pay online, it was super easy. I could just check, da boom, the kids could take them home to their parents or whoever, or if somebody else bought it. A lot of times it gets into a bidding war, people they don’t even know that knew that person, they wanna bid on, they want that jersey because there’s something they wanna do with it, present it to them or whatever. But again, just a little idea, when they reach out to me and ask something special, we do a lot of great two point conversion stuff, we do some things that are unique in our program.
But this is the one thing I think I get asked about and the one thing I think in the last two communities I’ve been in has made the biggest difference. If you ask the community something we do for the community and for our team to bring everybody together, this is one of those things.