METAIRIE, La. -- The Wally Pontiff Jr. Foundation has made a donation to the Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Association (HCMA) to raise awareness of Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (HCM), a genetic disease which results in a thickening of the heart muscle.

Wally Pontiff Jr., an outstanding baseball scholar-athlete at LSU, died in his sleep from sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) in 2002 at the age of 21. Each year 300,000 people die from SCA. The most common cause of SCA in young people is HCM.

Wally’s parents, Wally Sr. and Terry Pontiff, established the Wally Pontiff Jr. Foundation to benefit philanthropic organizations in the New Orleans area.

“The money donated by The Wally Pontiff Jr. Foundation will be used to educate cardiologists in greater Metairie and New Orleans,” said Lisa Salberg, president and founder of the HCMA.

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