JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Tom Coughlin and the Jay Fund are celebrating a milestone anniversary and are inviting everyone to drop down and do a few pushups.
The Foundation has been going strong for 31 years in its mission to support families who are battling cancer. This week, the Jay Fund is celebrating that anniversary with a Pushupathon. Former Jaguars and Giants coach Coughlin has tasked supporters with doing 310 pushups between Sept. 28 and Oct. 4 and raise $310. There’s even a leaderboard for push-uppers to register, log and track their progress across the week against other supporters.
Recommended Videos
The idea for pushups is a modified version of what Coughlin’s former players at Boston College did in 1991 to raise money in their community for the namesake of the foundation, Jay McGillis. Coughlin said that when McGillis was diagnosed with leukemia, BC linebacker Mike Panos approached the head coach and said the team needed to do something to help the family.
“He sat down and we talked. He said we have to help the McGillis family because they have stopped working. All they do is go to the hospital to be with Jay,” Coughlin said.
They devised a plan – BC players solicited the community for financial pledges for how much they lifted in the weight room. That raised $50,000 for the McGillis family. It gave Coughlin and his wife, Judy, a greater mission than just coaching and being involved in football.
“When Jay died, July 3 of 1992, we knew, it was like the good Lord saying to me, look, when I have a chance to give back, it’ll be in the name, image, and likeness of Jay McGillis,” Coughlin said.
Coughlin and Judy, in conjunction with the blessing of the McGillis family, started the Jay Fund in 1996 with a celebrity golf classic. Since its inception, the Foundation has given more than $39 million in support of nearly 7,000 families who were facing cancer.
“When a family hears that their child, babies, literally babies, has cancer, they feel their lives have been changed forever, first and foremost,” Coughlin said. “And they might be taken down the hall where somebody’s telling them how much it’s going to cost. Well, we know, experience-wise, no one fights cancer alone. So, we are there for the families in any way that we can be to help.”
The pushup battle is far more inviting than the weight room pledges at Boston College in 1991 and ’92. Coughlin joked that the media portion of the competition wouldn’t draw enough weight to earn pledges.
“We worried that the community wasn’t going to respect you at the door knocking to pledge your 160-pound bench, you know what I mean,” Coughlin joked.
Coughlin said that the McGillis family remains involved in their own way in the Jay Fund.
“I talk to his mom [Pat]. His brother [Mike] is on our board. His sister [Kathy] we see all the time,” Coughlin said. “The thing I want you to remember about this is that Jay’s mom takes great pride and it gives her peace because she knows that in Jay’s name, so much has been done for so many to help them in their desperate time. She can’t help from telling us how grateful she is and how many people Jay has been able to help over the years.”
