KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- All these years later, Norm
Stewart considers himself fortunate to have
survived.
The longtime Missouri coach collapsed on a
team plane bound for Oklahoma in 1989, and was diagnosed with colon
cancer. He missed the final 14 games that season, at a time when so
little was known about cancer that "there was a lot of guesswork going
on," Stewart said.
"People guessed right at my deal,"
he said, "and so I'm a lucky survivor."
There have
been plenty of advances made in the fight against cancer since then, and
many of them have been made with the assistance of Coaches vs Cancer,
the organization that Stewart and his wife, Virginia, helped to found 20
years ago.
What started as a way to raise money at
Missouri has grown into a nationwide collaboration between the American
Cancer Society and the National Association of Basketball Coaches, and
has already raised more than $100 million to support the mission to
eradicate cancer.
"The thing about it is I'd lost my
mother to cancer, and I was just recovering from cancer, so it was kind
of a no-brainer," Stewart said in an interview Tuesday. "But no one I
think had any idea the magnitude of what it's become, and it's only
going to become bigger. It's pleasing, and the main thing is we're
raising money, and we're making advances on
cancer."
Stewart was the guest of honor at Coaches vs
Cancer's annual tipoff event at Kansas City's Municipal Auditorium on
Tuesday night, and was joined by plenty of
dignitaries.
Among those who attended the fundraising
dinner, auction and celebration were Kansas coach Bill Self, current
Missouri coach Frank Haith, Kansas State coach Bruce Weber, Wichita
State coach Gregg Marshall and new Missouri-Kansas City coach Kareem
Richardson.
"Obviously he's the guy who really got
this going, Coaches vs Cancer, and he enjoys being around the coaches,
being around the game still," Weber said. "It's great that all the
coaches can come together. The cause brings everybody together, so it's a
positive thing.
"Plus, it's the start of
basketball," Weber said. "It's right around the
corner."
Indeed, one of the early season tournaments
is the Coaches vs Cancer Classic at the Barclay's Center in New York.
Other tournaments have benefited the organization, but last year's was
the first edition of the tournament bearing its name. Among the schools
scheduled to participate this year are Michigan State, Oklahoma, Seton
Hall and Virginia Tech.
Another spinoff of Coaches vs
Cancer is the annual Sneakers Weekend, when college coaches wear
sneakers with their regular game attire to draw more awareness to the
fight against cancer.
"When you have a pulpit as a
coach, a voice, people listen," Marshall said. "Cancer is a terrible
foe, and if we can all come together, we can a lot of positive things.
This is vitally important, being able to solve and eradicate this
horrible disease."
Self has been involved with
Coaches vs Cancer dating to his days at
Illinois.
"Everybody has been touched by it, directly
or indirectly, in some form or fashion," he said, "so anything we can
do to bring awareness or add to a possibility of beating this disease in
the future is something well worth everyone's
while."
Stewart said that Coaches vs Cancer recently
teamed up with CEOs Against Cancer, a similar organization from the
business world. He said that 400 chief executives from across the
country have already participated, and that number could grow to 1,000
by the end of the year.
The hope, Stewart said, is to
raise $50 million annually for cancer research within five
years.
"My vintage, when somebody said cancer, you
had your papers in order and you folded your arms," he said, "and young
people today, they don't have that thought. They know they'll be tested,
and you do your testing whether it's a mammogram or a colonoscopy, you
can catch the disease."
