Jesse Winter

From left, David Coors '04, a teammate of George Boiardi, Pete Coors '69 and former Cornell lacrosse coach Richie Moran chat at the 21 Dinner at the Cornell Club in New York City Jan. 27.

Nearly 200 Cornellians and their friends gathered Jan. 27 to celebrate the widely separated legacies of two former Cornell University students, the late George Boiardi '04 and late sports journalist Dick Schaap '55, at the first 21 Dinner at the Cornell Club in New York City. Both men wore the number 21 -- some five decades apart -- on the Cornell men's lacrosse team.

The Cornellians and friends not only celebrated two lives, but also raised $50,000 -- or triple the funds they expected -- for Teach for America of South Dakota, according to Jesse Rothstein '03, a close friend of Boiardi, who organized the dinner. Before his tragic death during a lacrosse game on March 17, 2004, Boiardi served as a Cornell lacrosse team captain and was president of Alpha Tau Omega fraternity on campus. Boiardi had committed to join the South Dakota corps of Teach for America upon graduation.

Like Bioardi, Schaap was a campus leader. Schaap, who was a dedicated Cornell alumnus, went on to become a well-known journalist, whose career spanned more than 50 years in television, newspapers, radio, magazines and books.

Jeremy Schaap '91, Dick's son, an Emmy Award-winning reporter and host of ESPN's "Outside The Lines," gave the dinner's keynote address.

The money raised will help grow the corps of South Dakota Teach for America teachers to 40 -- up from 34 this year and 17 just two years ago -- to teach in some of the state's highest-need public and Bureau of Indian Affairs schools on the Rosebud and Pine Ridge Reservations.

Teach for America is the national corps of outstanding recent college graduates from a variety of academic majors who commit two years to teach in low-income urban and rural communities and become lifelong leaders in expanding opportunity for children.