A who’s who of the basketball world — with a few baseball players thrown in for good measure — turned out for a dinner that poked some good-natured fun at legendary coach Doug Moe and raised a sizable amount for the JoAnn B. Ficke Foundation.
George Karl, Larry Brown, David Thompson, Chauncey Billups, Kiki Vandeweghe, Mike Evans, Bill Hanzlik and Carl Scheer were among the 350 eager to share some tales — tall and otherwise — about Moe, who was head coach of the Denver Nuggets for 10 years and the 1987-88 NBA Coach of the Year.
The event at the DoubleTree Denver Tech Center was organized by Bill Ficke and his son, Dan. JoAnn Ficke, Bill’s wife and Dan’s mother, succumbed to non-Hodgkins lymphoma in February 2007. Bill Ficke, a former assistant coach with the Nuggets, owns Big Bill’s New York Pizza in Centennial. The JoAnn B. Ficke Cancer Foundation serves cancer patients in need by furnishing them with beds, wigs and other supplies and paying for breast, cervical and prostate cancer screenings. The foundation also funds cancer research.
Eric Young, his son, Eric Young Jr., and Dexter Fowler represented the Colorado Rockies, while Bernadette Leiweke flew in from Los Angeles to attend the dinner with her friend, Nancy Anschutz. Leiweke’s husband, Tim, was an executive in the Nuggets organization before moving to Southern California to become president of Anschutz Entertainment Group.
Former voices of the Denver Nuggets Al Albert and Jeff Kingery were there, too, along with former NBA coach and current television analyst Mike Fratello; six-time NBA All-Star Adrian Dantley; Peggy and Mike Dunn; trainer Jim Gillen; Dr. Jeff Matous of the Rocky Mountain Cancer Centers; and masters of ceremony Ron Zappolo and Tom Green.
The Rev. Patrick Dolan gave a hint as to what was to come when he prefaced the invocation with a request. There were so many tall people in the room, Dolan said, that the only way he wouldn’t be made to “feel like a shrimp” is if everyone remained seated for the brief prayer.
Read more about what was said, and by whom, by logging onto my Seen First blog: blogs.denverpost .
Who’s got talent?
LaFawn Biddle, Frances Owens and Adam Angelich are looking for a few talented people — singers, dancers, musicians, storytellers or magicians —- to star in Intergenerational Idols, a May 7 dinner and show benefiting Bessie’s Hope.
They issued a casting call last week during a get-together at Jing, where such supporters as Sunny Brownstein, Julia Peay, Sandy Alpert, Margeaux and Jeanette Azar, Katie Reichman, Meg Meagher, Sarabeth Jones, Ginny Messina, Adrienne Ruston Fitzgibbons, Murri Bishop, Martha Kelce and Mary Ann Henry nibbled on dim-sum-inspired appetizers while learning more about ticket prices, sponsorship opportunities and reservation deadlines.
Mary McNicholas asked everyone to be on the lookout for items well suited for the silent auction that she and Lou Walters will stage the night of the benefit, and Sharron Brandrup, executive director of Bessie’s Hope, joined with co-founder Linda Holloway to talk about the work Bessie’s Hope does to bring joy to the lives of nursing-home elders who have no family or friends living nearby.
For additional information on the 10-act show, call 303-830-9037 or visit .
Joanne Davidson: 303-809-1314 or jdavidson@denverpost.com; also, and GetItWrite on Twitter
