MIchael McGuire is a coal miner in Kentucky. What he did makes him the envy of fathers everywhere and even earned praise from legendary coach John Calipari who shared a picture of him on social media expressing admiration and dedication to his son.
McGuire rushed straight from work to take his family to a University of Kentucky Wildcats practice game. The photo, which has now gone viral, shows Michael McGuire and his son sitting in the stands at Saturday's Blue-White Game scrimmage that was played in Pikeville, in Eastern Kentucky. McGuire is still wearing his work uniform and heavy boots and his face and arms are covered in black coal dust.
The picture was taken by Kentucky fan Sue Kineer who posed it on several Wildcats fan pages on Facebook in hopes that someone from the coach's staff would see it and send the little boy an autograph.
Coach Calipari tweeted: "My family's American dream started in a Clarksburg, WV coal mine, so this picture hits home. 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!!."
Kentucky fans quickly found him and connected the coach with the family. He says he was at work underground while all this was happening and had no idea any of it was going on. "When I got out and got service on my way home, it went crazy ... I couldn't believe that it was real." He said he only had about 45 minutes to get to the game when he got off work on Saturday and he didn't want to miss his son Easton's first basketball experience!