Gimino: Ex-Cats rally from afar to help friend battle cancer
by Anthony Gimino on Feb. 26, 2008, under Sports
Bouie with daughter Eboni
PHOENIX – They came from Montreal and South Carolina, Washington, D.C., and Dallas.
They came from northern California and southern California.
They came from Utah and Austin, Texas. They came from wherever, however, all on relatively short notice.
Tony Bouie looked around the crowd of about 150 that gathered in his support Saturday at the Arizona Biltmore Golf Club and marveled at the familiar faces and the faces of those he hadn’t seen in more than a dozen years.
“I wish I didn’t have to get sick to bring everybody together,” he said building toward a laugh, “but, hey, if that’s what it takes, I’ll do it.”
Bouie, a University of Arizona All-American safety in 1993 and 1994, was diagnosed with cancer in December when he went to the doctor for what he thought would be a routine check in order to get life insurance.
He is 35.
Ex-teammates rallied to put together a fundraising golf tournament, auction and dinner at the Biltmore. The event raised more than $45,000 for medical costs and Bouie’s family, said former UA offensive lineman Eric Johnson, who helped lead the effort.
“Humbled, humbled, humbled,” said Bouie, whose hair fell out last week after his second round of chemotherapy for his stage-four lymphoma. “I saw the list of guys and got tears in my eyes. Unbelievable.”
Tears. He said he and his wife, Allison, cried for three days after learning of his cancer. They have two daughters, ages 3 and 1.
“I’m past the stage where I’m morbid about it,” Bouie said.
“I’m to the point right now where I’m in the fighting stage, and there’s a good diagnosis that I will get through it. The more I tell people about being a cancer patient, the more people I get to know who have had cancer and who have beaten it.”
Worst-case scenario: He has a year or two.
Football alums from five decades attended Saturday. Athletic director Jim Livengood and former UA football coach Dick Tomey shook hands and put arms around each other. Some fans and boosters, including Anaheim Angels owner Arte Moreno, showed up for a $300 round of golf.
Ex-UA and NFL linebacker Brant Boyer arranged for the auction’s centerpiece. Boyer, like former Wildcat Heath Bray, is friends with 1992 Heisman Trophy winner Gino Torretta.
Torretta donated a football signed by 20 former Heisman winners. An amazing item. The ball sold for $5,500. To Boyer.
In many ways, it was a who’s who of Desert Swarm era football – George Malauulu, Sean Harris, Darryl Morrison, Dan White, Jim Hoffman, Brandon Sanders and a whole bunch of guys not looking for credit, just offering support or doing whatever they could.
Ex-ASU and NFL quarterback Jake Plummer floored Bouie by sending two autographed jerseys from the Denver Broncos. Former UA baseball player Richard Lemons donated a beautifully framed autographed jersey from the San Antonio Spurs’ Tim Duncan.
Tomey donated a framed reproduction of an enlarged Sports Illustrated cover, proclaiming “Rock Solid” Arizona as the No. 1 team in the 1994 preseason. Four of the five guys on the cover, including Bouie, attended Saturday and signed the item.
Tedy Bruschi, the fifth guy on the cover, could not attend, but sent an autographed football for the auction.
And sometime during the festivities, a strange thing happened.
His former teammates, who came to help Bouie, realized he had given them a gift instead.
“It’s really given the guys an opportunity to reconnect,” Morrison said.
“It’s important to rekindle relationships and hear about their families and to say, ‘I appreciate you, I care about you.’ At the end of the day, that is what you want.
“Tony’s really helping us.”
Typical.
Bouie, as a way to show his religious faith in a time of crisis, is waging a public battle against cancer. Through a Christian organization, he already has traveled out of state several times to give his testimony at churches.
He agreed to let a Tampa, Fla., TV station – he played for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for four years as a undrafted free agent – shoot a report at his home in Anthem, north of Phoenix, and also show him receiving treatment at the Arizona Cancer Center.
He posts video blogs to his Web site, godmademelaugh.com. Alison posts updates at carepages.com (sign in: TonyBouie).
“What he has done is let us see into his life,” Morrison said.
“It takes a special person – a very, very special person – to invite somebody into his world like this. When I think of Tony and I can’t reach him by phone, I’ll pull up his blog and listen to him.
“It inspires me to keep praying for him, it inspires me to do what’s right, it inspires me to not take anything for granted.”
It’s a wonderful, wonderful thing – the best of things – when whatever you do establishes a bond for life with whoever you do it with.
When Bouie needed help, his teammates were there.
“You coach to win, but you also coach to have a team that feels strongly about one another and is brought together for a lifetime,” Tomey said.
“This is illustrative of the fact that this bunch of guys, and the people who coached them, succeeded in that endeavor. That’s really what it is all about.”
As the dinner and auction neared its end, the old teammates, together again, sang “Bear Down” just as they would after every victory.
Maybe they can gather together again someday soon for a different kind of victory.
The day when cancer is gone from Bouie’s body.
Anthony Gimino’s e-mail: agimino@tucsoncitizen.com
Torretta
