University of Tennessee Athletics
Tennessee Fights to OUTLIVE Cancer
May 29, 2009 | Men's Basketball
May 29, 2009
By Josh Battle
By the end of his junior season in 2007, Tennessee guard and Southeastern Conference Player of the Year Chris Lofton had faced some of the top competition in NCAA Division I basketball. The first-team All-SEC player who led the conference with 20.8 points and 3.42 3-pointers per game had just come off a heartbreaking 85-84 loss to eventual national runner-up Ohio State in the third round of the 2007 NCAA Tournament.
Tennessee had come close to reaching its team goal of playing for a title, and Lofton was determined to head back to Knoxville and begin the process of off-season workouts with hopes of leading his team back to the tournament in his final go-around during his senior year. However, the rigors of off-season training were about to be delayed. Before his season could end, Lofton had one more opponent to face, his toughest challenge yet--cancer.
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| The early detection of Chris Lofton's cancer increased |
Lofton's cancer was detected through a random NCAA drug test following a first-round, 121-86 victory over Long Beach State in the NCAA Tournament. Certain that he did not fail the test because of drug use, UT officials appealed the results and had Lofton tested a second time, after which he was informed that if he indeed wasn't using drugs, then the positive result could possibly signify cancer.
Following a series of more exact testing at The University of Tennessee Medical Center, Lofton was diagnosed with testicular cancer in March 2007. He then underwent surgery to remove a tumor and privately endured four weeks of radiation treatment. While Lofton's experience with cancer was the first for that era of the men's basketball program, it would not be the last.
Only six short months later, cancer devastated the Tennessee family once more when Billy Smith, father of then-sophomore forward Tyler Smith, lost his battle with lung cancer.
By this point, Brooks Savage, a 23-year-old graduate assistant on the Tennessee staff had witnessed firsthand how the impacts of cancer had affected his team. He had seen the toll the disease had taken on his own family, having lost two grandparents and an aunt to complications resulting from cancer.
From each of these incidences, Savage had seen enough of what cancer could do to those around him and decided it was time to take action and fight back against the disease that had caused so much pain and grief. From these difficult and trying experiences, the OUTLIVE program was born in the spring of 2009 to help spare others from the familiarity with those same difficult emotions of helplessness and loss.
The primary message of the OUTLIVE program is to raise awareness for cancer prevention and early detection screenings in addition to raising money to help fund cancer education and screening initiatives at The University of Tennessee Medical Center Cancer Institute. The program raised money through the sale of t-shirts at UT home games during the month of January. The motivation behind the $15 t-shirts was to create a "white-out" effect during the Vols' Jan. 31 home game against SEC East rival Florida while at the same time, signaling a united stand against cancer.
"OUTLIVE is a fundraising initiative geared towards early detection and screenings for cancer inspired by members of our basketball family," Savage said. "Chris and Tyler in particular.
"It was a good way for our program and our players to get involved in a cause that was bigger than them and really make a difference regarding an issue that affects nearly everyone," Brooks added.
Statistics do prove cancer is an affliction that indeed affects nearly everyone. According to the American Cancer Society, it was estimated that more than 1.4 million Americans were diagnosed with cancer in 2008, with an estimated 560,000 deaths resulting from the disease. In Tennessee alone, more than 29,000 new cases of cancer were diagnosed and an estimated 13,000 lives were lost in 2008. Overall, Tennessee ranked sixth-highest in cancer deaths compared with the rest of the country.
With these facts evidenced through scientific data, the significance of early detection and screenings becomes more apparent. According to the American Cancer Society Web site, "Finding cancer at its earliest, most treatable stage gives patients the greatest chance of survival."
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| Graduate assistant Brooks Savage came up with the idea for OUTLIVE |
Dr. Dan Green, a radiation oncologist at the UT Medical Center Cancer Institute, strongly agrees.
"The earlier you find it, the better the chance of a cure," Green said. "The treatment is easier; the cure rates are higher, so finding it earlier makes all the difference in the world."
"It's simple," Dr. John L. Bell added. "Early detection is (a patient's) greatest probability to long term survival and cure. There's nothing to be afraid of, early detection is a good thing."
Savage also agreed.
"From the outset, we tried to figure out where exactly we wanted the money to go to in regards to cancer, whether it was directly for the cure or education and research," Savage said.
"We figured that the best place for the money to go--in this situation--was for early detection and screenings because that is basically what saved Chris' life. The fact that he was able to catch it early was critical. If you ask the doctors involved in cancer research, they'll tell you that's one of the best ways to cure it--catch it early and attack it at its earliest stages before it grows to a size that is less manageable.
"Getting screenings and getting tests, and living healthy as a whole, is really the best way to manage cancer from the outset. Research and the science involved have come a long way in being able to cure it or eliminate it. We determined that was the best place for the money to go, because Chris was fortunate to catch his early."
If anyone could attest to the benefits of early detection, it would be Kevin Pipes, a business owner in nearby Sevierville, Tenn., who was diagnosed with prostate cancer six years ago and was treated at UT Medical Center.
"Frankly, it saved my life," Pipes said of his cancer screening. "I don't have any doubt that had I not gone to the doctor every year and had regular physicals and checkups, I don't think I'd be here today. Early detection saved my life."
When Savage decided it was time to step up and do something, he approached UT athletic department administrators with his idea for OUTLIVE. But Savage also knew he needed a prominent "figurehead" to help promote the program, to see it develop from concept into practice; that's where Tennessee head coach Bruce Pearl figured in.
"I felt like there was an opportunity to make a difference and do something about it," Savage said. "Coach Pearl got on board, along with the rest of the staff and the athletic department and it turned out to be really special.
"It was critical that the athletic department took the 30 minutes at the outset to listen to an idea, see the potential that the program had and then say `yes' to it," Savage added. "It really took off."
For Pearl, getting on board with the OUTLIVE program was all too easy.
"Brooks compelled me," Pearl said of their first meeting about the topic. "Brooks said `We have to do something else.' He told me `I feel like it's my calling to do more, and I feel like cancer has affected my life so much.' So I said to him, what do you want to do?
"I told him one of the things you can do is try and raise money for research. If we're going to beat cancer, we're going to have to have money to fund the fight against it."
As with Savage, the fight against cancer also is a personal one for Pearl. In addition to having his players touched by the disease, Pearl's own mother has battled with breast cancer.
"It keeps a lot of things in perspective," Pearl said of the experiences. "For Chris to have gone through a season where so few people knew why he was so slow to get started and so challenged to play like an All-American his senior year... when all along both Chris and the coaches knew why he wasn't the same.
"His body had battled and beaten cancer, and as people who have been through it know, your body goes to war. Chris won that war but it took a lot out of him, and that was tough to see. When our whole team went to Tyler's father's funeral to help him through that time, we knew that Tyler didn't just lose his dad, he lost his best friend. He lost his closest advisor; he lost the person on earth he trusted more than anybody. Tyler felt his father's love, lost it and so we as a team tried to help him get through it.
"What happened with Chris Lofton and his battle with testicular cancer and what happened with Tyler Smith and the loss of his father to lung cancer--as well as knowing that my mother had battled breast cancer--it definitely had a tremendous impact on us."
It was that mindset of team and family that aided Pearl in guiding his team through its most difficult and trying times, as the program tried to cope with the realities the disease had leveled on it.
"One of the things we do as coaches is help our players deal with adversity on and off the court," Pearl said. "We find ways to help our players through our own experiences and the way we try to live our lives. It's vital to be there for them--much like a parent or family member--to help them through those times.
"Until you're a father, you can't quite understand the love we have for our children. It's unlike any other love," Pearl said of the transition that takes place as a team becomes a family.
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| Head coach Bruce Pearl personally purchased 3,000 OUTLIVE t-shirts that |
Along with Savage and Pearl, the entire University of Tennessee athletic department took an active role in promoting OUTLIVE leading up to the Florida clash, a game that fell during the "Coaches vs. Cancer" week, a nationally recognized collaboration between the American Cancer Society and the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) that encourages cancer awareness and healthy lifestyles through awareness, fundraising and advocacy. The program seeks to empower basketball coaches, their programs and local communities into recognizing they can make a difference in the fight against cancer. Part of the NABC mission is to encourage basketball coaches to serve as community outreach agents in order to raise the awareness about the devastating disease.
Pearl took that goal to heart when he jumped into OUTLIVE.
"Through the success and visibility of the program, I think there are two things (we accomplished,)" Pearl said of the event. "Number one, hopefully there are more people in Knoxville and this region who are aware that we are equipped with one of the finest cancer treatment, early detection and prevention centers in the country right here on campus. The word is out on the importance of early detection and screening, and the word is out that it is available and it is affordable or it's free to those who can't afford it; it's there. So we created a lot of visibility, and then secondly, we helped to raise some money so if people are stricken by cancer, they don't have to leave this city to beat it."
That is precisely the message doctors at the UT Medical Center Cancer Institute have been trying to get out, too. And with the help of the OUTLIVE program, that word has spread. In 2008 alone, approximately 1,800 new cancer patients were provided care and more than 4,000 people were provided screenings by the UTMC Cancer Institute.
For Bell and other physicians on the front line, awareness about the disease and the resources available to combat it is crucial.
"My goal would be that for anyone in this region--whether it be a patient, a family member or a health care provider--the first thing that comes to mind when they find out they have or may potentially have cancer is that `I've got to get over there to UT and get taken care of because they have comprehensive, multi-disciplinary services and all the experts in all the different disciplines from all the best training places in the country who can take care of me," Bell said. "All I've got to do is get over there to UT, because they can take care of me.'"
It was through coach Pearl's efforts that so much of the visibility for the program was made possible. Just as Savage recognized the importance getting Pearl to promote OUTLIVE, the program's success hung on Pearl's commitment to seeing it through, all the way from that first meeting with Savage to the total of more than $86,000 generated by the sale of the OUTLIVE t-shirts and donations. It is well known around the Knoxville campus that when Pearl signs onto something, he's on board all the way.
That commitment was clearly evidenced through the 3,000 shirts Pearl personally purchased so members of the UT student body could be included in the "white-out" event which took place the evening of the Florida game (which the Vols won on national television).
"It was not long ago that I was a starving student myself," Pearl said. "I did not want our students to have to buy a shirt, but I wanted them to feel a part of what was happening, so I bought those shirts for them and was very happy to do that."
Savage acknowledges Pearl's contributions as invaluable.
"Without coach, it wouldn't have been nearly as successful," Savage said. "He's the straw that stirs the drink, I guess you could say. He bought shirts for the students and really drove home the white-out effect with the PSAs and press conferences he did.
"He was always pushing for the community to get behind (OUTLIVE), and without him it wouldn't have been nearly as successful as it was."
Others agree with Savage's assessment of the significance of Pearl's contribution.
"I think it's great that coach Pearl decided to back a program like this," Bell said. "It sets a standard for the community and says that someone who is visible, who people listen to when they talk, is not afraid to stand up and take a position on something or lend their name and credibility to a worthwhile and worthy cause and champion it. We're grateful to them. I am, the program is and the institution is."
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| Pearl hopes to see other schools launch their own version of the OUTLIVE |
"It's great," Dr. Fred Kline of the UT Medical Center added. "I think that's how the word gets out. You have to have somebody that's recognized in the community that people might listen to. (Coach Pearl is) out there and everybody knows who he is."
With OUTLIVE, Pearl stepped up and threw his weight behind something he believed in whole-heartedly. His time, his efforts and even his money; all of it went to what he considers to be a worthy cause, a cause made worthy in its ability to help other people--those less fortunate, those with less resources or those who have lost hope all together. And he's doing it at 100 mph.
"I think what Bruce Pearl can bring is he is a very popular and very well liked person, and I think his main attribute is his enthusiasm," Pipes said. "He gets enthusiastic about the program. With Bruce Pearl's enthusiasm in the program, he's a public figure that everyone instantly recognizes and he gives what I call credibility to the cause. It's through people like him that we can educate many of the younger people."
The question now is where will OUTLIVE go from here?
"It would be my hope that we could do it every year, that we could do something along those lines every year to continue to try to outlive cancer," Pearl said of his vision for the program.
Savage agrees completely.
"Hopefully we can continue it and find a way for the public to rally behind it again--and not just here at Tennessee alone, but other programs across the country," Savage said.
"My hope is that this will become an ongoing program each year where we can raise funds. The funding is important but awareness is at least equally important," Green said. "People need to realize (screening) is something they really need to do. They may not want to, but they really need to do it.
"Unfortunately it comes at the expense of Chris Lofton having to go through what he did, but obviously he was a very admired and beloved player on the Tennessee team and I think the quote on the back of the t-shirt was important. The fact that it was him that it happened to was a very big deal; that was Chris Lofton." The quote Green referenced was one uttered by Lofton after his battle with cancer was made public following the 2007-08 season: "You're going to get knocked down. It's whether you stay down or whether you get back up and fight that counts."
Overall, OUTLIVE is about awareness and prevention. It's a message that must be carried on and championed by those who have an impact through influence.
"It's what we have to do," cancer survivor Pipes said of his hope for the continuance of the OUTLIVE program. "Twenty years ago if someone had cancer, it was like a death sentence. Now there are treatments, and there is hope out there if we can educate the public to take the tests and get the work done. We've done so much, but we're still not there yet. We all need to band together and fight against this because awareness is everything. When you get people like Bruce Pearl involved, it really helps the cause."
When asked what might have been Pearl's most significant contribution to the cause, Bell's answer was simple.
"Awareness, it's the visibility and awareness that resulted when coach Pearl stepped up. He helped people to be aware of the importance of early screening and detection. There are people who have gone and gotten screened who otherwise might not have. And that's a good thing.
"We haven't found the total cure yet, but we will. And if people like Bruce Pearl continue to help what we're doing in our program, that's what it's going to take," Pipes added.
Postscript: Following a third straight All-America season as a senior in 2007-08, Lofton signed a contract to play professional basketball in Turkey. In an April playoff game, Lofton scored 61 points while making 17 3-pointers and leading his team to victory.
Tyler Smith was granted a waiver by the NCAA Administrative Review Subcommittee that allowed him to transfer to Tennessee from Iowa without sitting out a year, so that he could be closer to his cancer-stricken father. Unfortunately, Billy Smith passed away just months later in September 2007 and never had the chance to see his son play for the Volunteers. Tyler Smith is a back-to-back first-team All-SEC performer and has led the Vols in assists each of the past two seasons.
