After five-and-a-half decades, Jim Boeheim can still remember his first steps on the campus of Syracuse University.

“When I was 17 years old, I came to Syracuse right next store," Boeheim said at his retirement press conference in 2023. "There was a dirt floor practice field for football. Syracuse had lost 29 straight games in basketball, not football.”

He would go on to serve 47 years as head coach of the men's basketball program with over 1,000 career wins and countless memories made. So it’s only fitting that Saturday is Jim Boeheim Day in the Dome.

It will be an afternoon to honor one of the best to ever do it.

“We've got over 50 former players, managers, assistant coaches coming back," SU Director of Athletics John Wildhack said. "Throughout the game, we're going to have vignettes of just captures of the great historic moments in coach Boeheim's career, but also some testimonials from some of his colleagues and competitors as well. And then we're going to honor him postgame. Mike Tirico is going to emcee it. You can't do it justice at halftime.”

The moments on the court will define him as a basketball coach. But sometimes it’s his work in the community through the Jim and Julie Boeheim Foundation that made a difference for so many.

“He helped bring a community get-together," Syracuse women's basketball coach Felisha Legette-Jack said. "He put basketball courts all over the place. He put golf courses out there. He helped inner-city people. I mean, he has the biggest heart you ever can imagine. You won't see a lot of it because he's kind of like, 'oh, don't talk to me,' but if you give him a hug, he really will receive it. And I go right in on him.”

“What he's done for the community, it's not going to be replicated again," Wildhack added. "This is a moment in time and it's an opportunity to thank coach for everything he's done for our community.”

He’s taken his new role post-coaching and hit the ground running, helping the university raise money and being a mentor for other coaches on the SU Hill.

"He's one of the greatest coaches in any sport of all time," Syracuse head women's lacrosse coach Kayla Treanor said. "He's just he's a wealth of knowledge and he's such a unique person. My dad's also a basketball coach. I grew up in a basketball family. So, I mean, it's just unbelievable that I get to know him and get to talk with him. And he's meant so much to this university and this community."

“Watching him and seeing him stay on the sideline for 47 years, I don't know how long it's going to take, but it's going to take what it takes for me to get back here," Legette Jack said of Boeheim's impact on her. "Watching him gave me the idea that maybe one day it'll come true, I guess. Stay in the race.”

He's a coaching legend who will always call Syracuse home.

“I will never leave here," Boeheim said in 2023. "I'll never leave Syracuse. And I'll never leave Syracuse University.”