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Joe Golding to the rescue!
When flight cancellations left the UTEP men's basketball coach and a few Pitt football players stranded in Dallas, Golding saved the day with a ride back to El Paso. The Panthers are scheduled to face UCLA in the Sun Bowl on UTEP's campus on Friday.
Samuel Okunlola, Jake Frantl and Hudson Primus made the more-than-600-mile journey from Dallas to El Paso with Golding, his wife and two sons on Monday (December 26), ESPN reports. Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi told reporters what went down.
"Joe Golding, head basketball coach at Texas-El Paso here in town ... him and his wife and child, they picked up and took our three guys and drove them because the flight was delayed to get them here for practice. They got here late last night. Just want to give a shoutout to those guys," said Narduzzi, who reportedly didn't even know Golding before Monday.
Golding told KTSM that he "didn't even think twice about it." "I would hope someone would do that for my kids," he said. He added that Narduzzi, of course, approved the trip and so did the players' parents. He continued to detail the experience:
"I see these guys; they have Pitt bags on. They start talking about playing in the Sun Bowl and having to get to El Paso and there wasn't any cars left. And I was like, 'Hey, if we can find a big enough car, I'll take you guys home.' And they were like, 'Who are you?' (The rental car employees) showed up with a minivan first of all. It was too small, and we couldn't all fit in it. Then they had like a big Ford Explorer. I said, 'Who's using that one?' He said, 'Nobody right now. But you can't afford that one; it's too much money.' I said, 'Just give it to us; we got to get home, man.'"
The seating arrangements were as follows: Golding's wife Amanda and two sons Cason and Chase sat in the back. Frantl sat shotgun, while Okunlola and Primus sat in the middle row. "We went to the gas station and loaded up for dinner about 9:30, 10 at night. Made one stop in Pecos at the Pilot for some fresh coffee and a couple Red Bulls and made it all the way back, man," Golding said.
They arrived in El Paso shortly before 6 a.m. — just in time for the Pitt players' 9 a.m. meeting and 10:30 a.m. workout. "They even got a two-hour nap, I think," Golding said.