A Prescription for Basketball - Part 1

Setting a goal can help raise the spirits of patients fighting cancer. For some critically ill patients, the goal might be learning to play the piano or seeing a grandchild born. Or, it could be to watch a particular basketball game or to attend the basketball season celebration banquet. Over the last fifteen years, I’ve watched the passion of several of my fellow boosters for our Stanford women’s basketball team have a positive effect on their ability to cope and survive beyond expectations. In my book Boosters Always Win, I talk about three such fans. Abbreviated, the stories are as follows:
In 1992, Diana—a graduate student at Stanford—was diagnosed with malignant melanoma. Diana told her doctor that her radiation treatments could not be scheduled on Thursdays because those were game nights. Diana remembers, “Going to the games was my therapy. A chance to forget what I was going through. I looked forward to those basketball nights, feeling complete happiness and transported to another world. It was a very uplifting experience.” Happily, Diana survived her cancer. Although she moved to the East Coast, she and her family have continued to follow Stanford basketball and rejoined the Fast Break Club this year. She plans to be in Knoxville for the Tennessee game this November.
In 1996-1997, the Stanford team led the Pac-10 Conference. We looked toward the NCAA tournament in March with hopes of a national championship. As the end of the season and the tournament drama unfolded, the health of two boosters, Shelly and Margie, unraveled. Shelly, a Stanford alumna in her early 30s and the Stanford Ticket Office manager responsible for women’s basketball, was well known to all the boosters and season-ticket holders. Margie, an active member of the booster club, was in her mid 50s. Both were diagnosed with terminal cancer.
Shelly attended home games wearing a baseball cap, disguising the fact that she had lost her hair during therapy. She had to be there. Shelly’s non-Hodgkins lymphoma continued to progress, despite chemotherapy. By mid March 1997, she was hospitalized again. She was not able to travel to the Final Four, but she watched the games from her hospital bed, surrounded by friends. Shelly died on the summer solstice that year, wearing a T-shirt from the Final Four she couldn’t attend.
Margie, who had never smoked, was diagnosed with aggressive lung cancer in February 1997. Within four days of her diagnosis, she was rushed to the Cardiac Care Unit for physicians to drain fluid and treat the membrane surrounding her heart. Margie, within one week, went from an apparently healthy person with an annoying cough to near death, and then to fragile health with a grim prognosis. Margie continued to attend home games and watched away games on TV at the Old Pro with friends. She planned her chemotherapy so she could travel to the Final Four in Cincinnati (see photo of Margie and Tara at the Kodak banquet). Margie died on the day of the first game of the next season. Flowers were placed in her usual season-ticket seat before the game. Our annual Fan Spirit Award is named in her honor.

These are but three examples of people who found joy from their passion for Stanford women's basketball and support from the basketball community during an illness. I'll share more current examples in the future.