Buddy Boeheim Surprises Two Young Fans with Birthday Message

The pandemic has eliminated fan interaction with players in many cases. That includes at Syracuse, including Syracuse basketball to start the season as fans will not be permitted inside the Dome. That could change later in the season, but it also may not.

Before Syracuse basketball games in years' past, many Orange players would interact with young fans. They would give them high fives, sign pictures, posters or shirts, and even pose for pictures with them. Young fans will miss that opportunity to start the 2020-21 season, but that is not preventing some players from finding ways to provide a memorable moment to their biggest, and sometimes youngest, fans.

Jamie Jewett is a Syracuse fan who lives in Ohio. She has twin girls who are also big Syracuse fans. The girls have taken a shining to Orange star Buddy Boeheim as he too is a twin to sister Jamie Boeheim. During the 2019-20 season, the girls sent Buddy letters expressing their fandom, and he replied that he would look for them at the Louisville game. Louisville is the closest Syracuse travels in most years to the Jewett's home in Ohio.

Buddy followed through with that promise and took pictures with the girls at that game.

It turns out, being twins is not the only thing the Jewett girls have in common with Buddy. They also share the same birthday, November 11th. With the pandemic preventing another meeting with their favorite player, the girls sent Buddy a video to challenge him to send them a birthday message.

Mom sent the video to Buddy through social media, and to their surprise, he followed through with a message on the morning of their actual birthday. Buddy took time out of his birthday to send a message to two of his biggest fans. A truly heartwarming moment.

"One thing I've learned throughout this experience is that Buddy is truly an upstanding young man," Jewett said. "He made two young fans like him even more with this generous and thoughtful act of kindness."

Well done, Buddy.