Son: Cuse to acknowledge father’s death at game
SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Whenever he’d see someone he knew in his neighborhood, Jorge Jimenez would shout across the street in his Cuban accent.
“Hey Papi!” he’d say.
Brian Hernandez, one of Jimenez’s four children, said that’s the man he wants people to remember. His 51-year-old father was killed on a highway Wednesday night when he was struck by a vehicle driven by Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim.
“I want people to know we’re really devastated,” the 19-year-old Hernandez told ESPN in a phone interview. “People don’t deserve to die like this.”
Jim Boeheim will resume his coaching duties for Syracuse on Friday and coach the Orange in Saturday’s game against top-ranked Duke.
Syracuse basketball coach Jim Boeheim was driving a car that hit and killed a pedestrian, police said Thursday.
Since that day, Hernandez and his family have wrestled with the loss of Jimenez.
Hernandez said he had “mixed feelings” when he initially learned Boeheim had planned to coach Syracuse against No. 1 Duke on Saturday night, but he said he’s been told the coach and school will acknowledge his father during the game, which has alleviated some of his concerns.
“Him coaching, it will be a happy environment,” Hernandez said. “At first, I was like, ‘How can you be in that kind of environment, knowing we’re hurt?’ But if he’s doing it for a good cause, toward helping us, we’ll be OK with it.”
More than anything, Hernandez said, he wants people to know his father mattered to those within his family and beyond. Jimenez moved to the Syracuse area from Cuba nearly 20 years ago.
Hernandez reflected on his father’s life, saying Jimenez loved the Yankees and, whenever he had time after working multiple jobs, going fishing. He said his father interacted with the kids on his street, sometimes dancing and cracking jokes, and that he loved to laugh and was a genius in the kitchen.
Hernandez said whenever his father would make a large meal, he’d take plates to folks in his neighborhood.
“A lot of people knew him,” Hernandez said. “He was a person that was always smiling and in a good mood.”
Hernandez said his father planned on resting Wednesday night, but some friends invited him on a trip to a local casino. The car he was in crashed into a guardrail on a cold night that covered local streets in ice.
Per the other individuals who were in the car, Jimenez was trying to make sure his friends were safe and out of harm’s way when he was struck by Boeheim’s vehicle on the highway, Hernandez said.
And that makes Hernandez feel like his father was a hero who sacrificed himself for others.
On Saturday night, more than 30,000 people will fill the Carrier Dome, attempting to establish a new NCAA attendance record.
Hernandez said he and his family will be home, recovering from the most devastating moment of their lives. They have established an online fundraiser to help with funeral services, which will be announced soon, but Hernandez said they’re still processing the events of the last few days.
“My dad was a great, loving guy,” Hernandez said. “He was always joking. It was part of him. If you were to meet him, you’d feel that vibe. I just want his name to be out there. It’s a hard thing.”