TexasTerror
January 1st, 2007, 12:05 PM
This story never gets old. Now, the story of Jerry Kill, his battle with cancer and his Salukis season is the top local story back home. I know there's a lot of folks who are new to this board and FCS. Hope you enjoy reading about one helluva coach...
Cancer Unable to Slow SIU Football Coach
BY TODD HEFFERMAN, THE SOUTHERN
It happened over a month before Southern Illinois University football coach Jerry Kill made it public, but once the 45-year-old revealed his battle with cancer, it hardly left the regional air.
Kill's battle with kidney cancer, his establishment of the Jerry Kill Cancer Fund and the Salukis' 9-4 finish was the top local sports story of the year.
"If I felt it was going to be in a situation where I was just hanging on to coach football, and our team started going the other direction, I would step away from it," Kill said in a Feb. 14 story that revealed his battle with the disease. "If I can't give 100 (percent) then I would walk away from it. You can tell by my tone that's not going to happen."
The father of two stumbled upon the diagnosis almost by accident. After suffering a seizure on the sidelines in an Oct. 15, 2005, home game against Illinois State, he went on various medications to curb the violent attacks. Medications that injured his ribs, and after his wife of 22 years, Rebecca, told doctors her husband had complained of abdominal pains, they ran a computerized tomography (CT) scan.
Doctors originally thought it might be kidney stones, but after a local urologist performed a second CT scan, the ‘c' word came out long and strong.
http://www.southernillinoisan.com/articles/2007/01/01/sports/doc459930a17fe81739615087.txt
Cancer Unable to Slow SIU Football Coach
BY TODD HEFFERMAN, THE SOUTHERN
It happened over a month before Southern Illinois University football coach Jerry Kill made it public, but once the 45-year-old revealed his battle with cancer, it hardly left the regional air.
Kill's battle with kidney cancer, his establishment of the Jerry Kill Cancer Fund and the Salukis' 9-4 finish was the top local sports story of the year.
"If I felt it was going to be in a situation where I was just hanging on to coach football, and our team started going the other direction, I would step away from it," Kill said in a Feb. 14 story that revealed his battle with the disease. "If I can't give 100 (percent) then I would walk away from it. You can tell by my tone that's not going to happen."
The father of two stumbled upon the diagnosis almost by accident. After suffering a seizure on the sidelines in an Oct. 15, 2005, home game against Illinois State, he went on various medications to curb the violent attacks. Medications that injured his ribs, and after his wife of 22 years, Rebecca, told doctors her husband had complained of abdominal pains, they ran a computerized tomography (CT) scan.
Doctors originally thought it might be kidney stones, but after a local urologist performed a second CT scan, the ‘c' word came out long and strong.
http://www.southernillinoisan.com/articles/2007/01/01/sports/doc459930a17fe81739615087.txt