OLEAN — The Coaches vs. Cancer 716 Golf Classic is always a celebration of perseverance, but Sunday’s reception at Bartlett Country Club became something more: a night to honor two figures whose stories embody the fight against adversity: former Maryvale basketball coach Mark Kensy and former St. Bonaventure president Sister Margaret Carney.

Kensy received the Jim & Kathy Satalin Inspiration Award, reflecting on a lifetime of connection between basketball, family, and the battle against cancer. He invoked the memory of the late Jim Valvano, recalling Valvano’s famous 1993 ESPY speech: “We need money for research that may not save my life, but may save the lives of my children.” For Kensy, the words carried deep meaning.

“My first encounter with cancer came in 1979, when the brother of my best friend, Michael Ring, passed away from the effects of testicular cancer,” Kensy said. “Fast forward to 2007, when our son, Garrett, was diagnosed with the same cancer. Memories of Mike came flooding back. Knowing his history, I was a basket case.”

What followed was a journey defined by resilience. Kensy leaned on his son Chris, then an assistant coach. Today, he celebrates Garrett as an 18-year survivor, husband, and father of three. Out of Garrett’s fight came purpose: Kensy’s family and former players launched alumni tournaments to raise money for Coaches vs. Cancer.

“I accept this honor on behalf of our basketball program — especially Chris and Garrett, and Ryan Moore, and my wife, Sharon,” Kensy said. “And in the immortal words of Jim Valvano — never give up.”

If Kensy’s story was about family strength, Sister Margaret Carney’s was about institutional transformation. The longtime St. Bonaventure president became the first recipient of the Bob Lanier Impact Award, introduced by Adrian Wojnarowski, now the Bonnies’ men’s basketball general manager.

“Sister Margaret, through the years of her time as president, and even still now there are very few individuals who have had the impact on our university that she has had,” Wojnarowski said. “When you think about the stature of those who will be remembered for making their mark — Sister Margaret, Bob Lanier — it’s really fitting that she would be the first recipient of this award.”

Carney, herself a cancer survivor, accepted the award with a reflection that stretched from her first meeting with Lanier in 2003, when the basketball program was reeling from scandal, to his role as a global ambassador for the NBA.

“When you go out to play next season, you’ll probably be booed. You’ll be called names. You will be taunted and maybe humiliated,” she remembered Lanier telling Bonnies players. “But we will be there. We will have your back. And we will work with you, because now your job is to work with us to restore the reputation of St. Bonaventure University.”

She described Lanier as a man who inspired schoolchildren, fought for diversity, and refused to accept excuses in the pursuit of justice.

“I think if Bob were with us now, he would be very concerned about some of the things Mark and Woj have alluded to tonight,” Carney said, warning of the commercialization of college athletics. “But I also think he would say to us: Don’t give me any excuses. Don’t say that’s the way it is. Don’t say we’re too small or we don’t have the votes. He would say, ‘in your hands are the possibilities of a new future.’”

Closing, Carney turned to the words of Tennyson’s Ulysses, urging those in the room to carry forward Lanier’s spirit of resolve: “To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.”