Zach Edey’s mom, Julia, turns into Boilers’ star
CHICAGO (WISH) — Purdue’s Zach Edey continues to gain national attention, but he’s not the only Edey dealing with the spotlight.
His mom, Julia Edey, has become just as much of a star as her son.
“You’ll just randomly hear the crowd go crazy, and it’s like, ‘Oh, yup, my mom probably just got on the screen,’”
You’ve heard of Zach, Purdue’s 7-foot-4 phenom wreaking havoc for the Boilermakers. Now his mom has become a mainstay on television broadcasts across the country and the Mackey Arena jumbotron.
“I was sitting there and I was like, ‘Wow, everyone got really noisy. What’s happening?’ And I look up at the screen and I was like, ‘Oh, it’s me! Oh, my gosh.’ I was actually kind of embarrassed, but then obviously it’s flattering. So, that first one was funny. It just kind of caught me off guard, and I thought, ‘Oh, boy, I’ll have to be braced. I don’t want to be caught doing anything embarrassing.’”
Zach said, “It’s kind of strange, honestly, but people really love her. I kind of just let her do whatever she wants. She used to kind of always come to me and be like, ‘Is it OK if I tweet this? Is it OK if I do ‘this’?’ I just kind of told her like, ‘Just kind of do whatever you want.’ She’s a great person, and it kind of shows through Twitter, and that’s why people really love her.”
Her son might be known for not being very expressive on the court. Julia, however, is just the opposite. She doesn’t shy away from letting everyone know just how she feels, and she’s not worried about how many cameras are trained on her either.
“You know, I have a clapping callus,” Julia said. “So, probably a little on the intense side. For sure when we had the COVID masks, it was a little easier. You could shout into it and no one could tell what was going on, and then once you lost the masks, you (clears throat) … You just want them to know that they’ve got some love in the audience.”
There’s nothing small about Julia’s support. She regularly hosts the entire team for dinner, fully embracing Team Mom.
“Caleb Furst’s mom and I get along really well and she had said, ‘You treat the guys like your own.’ And I thought, ‘I guess so, in a way.’ They are just such great guys and are really openly affectionate. They’re just sort of like, ‘Hey, Mom!’ Dave Jenkins likes to call me Mama Edey. It’s pretty funny.”
Zach said, “It’s great to kind of have a friendly face out there. I’m in a different country. She’s in a different country. Kind of to have that steady presence is a great thing.”
Truly no bigger fan of the Big Man than his mom.
