Purchase a cool T-shirt, help endow the Jerome Kersey Scholarship Fund

Mitch Walker (right, with purple stocking cap) views framed jersey of old friend Jerome Kersey that is hung in the Longwood locker room.

Mitch Walker was a teammate of Jerome Kersey’s at Longwood College in Farmville, Va. They remained close friends until Kersey’s untimely death at age 52 in 2015.

As a tribute to Kersey, Walker has created T-shirts commemorating Kersey’s years with the Lancers and with the Trail Blazers during his time in Portland.   Walker sent photos to a designer, who created a collage inside Kersey’s jersey numbers — 25 with the Blazers, 54 at Longwood — that is striking. The Portland T-shirts are in Blazer colors — black with red and white lettering. The Longwood T-shirts are in Lancer colors — blue with white lettering.

“We did shooting jerseys for the Longwood players during the 2018-19 season,” says Walker, who lives in Queens, N.Y., and works as a financial advisor for Equitable as well as a director/administration of children’s services for the city of New York. “Then we made the regular T-shirts based on Jerome’s numbers in Portland and with Longwood.”

The T-shirts sell for $30. All net proceeds go to the Jerome Kersey Scholarship Fund at Longwood, created by another of Kersey’s long-time friends, Kevin “Huggy” Brandon, and wife Rhonda. The scholarship goes annually to a player who most exemplifies the spirit, effort, perseverance and hard work that marked Kersey’s career in college and the NBA.

“The fund has more than $80,000 in donations,” Walker says. “The goal is to get it to $100,000 so we can endow the scholarship.”

Those interested in purchasing a shirt can visit the online store here.

► ◄

My latest book is now for sale, Jerome Kersey: Overcoming The Odds. You can buy regular, autographed, and inscribed copies of the book in my new and improved online bookstore here.

Follow me on Twitter.

Like me on Facebook.

Be sure to sign up for my emails.