This is disappointing news, but it appears there is a great example of a first class Husky citizen selflessly putting the program ahead of his own concerns. What follows is speculative conjecture, but probable given familiarity of witnessing my father fight and finally succumb to pancreatic cancer.
Since Don James has had surgery and is scheduled to begin chemotherapy, I suspect he knew the diagnosis well before he spoke to the football team 20 years to the day after he gave his abrupt resignation as head coach. The decision to resign may have been the most difficult choice he has ever made, and I doubt he anticipated the depths to which the program sank during the past two decades. He may have felt he owed the program something and having tremendous fortitude, a cancer diagnosis was not going to interfere with celebrating the grand opening of the new Husky Stadium.
I was there for the game and can still invoke the goose bumps I felt and hear the roar when he was honored during a break in the game. Suspecting he knew of his diagnosis and kept it private so as not to draw attention and sympathy toward him and detract from the team and the new stadium is a remarkable display of selfless class and respect for the football program he obviously still loves. In the context of how he was treated by the UW administration and then AD prior to his resignation, and by the media, Don James’ present actions are exemplary by the highest standards.
My admiration for Don James increases and I hope the time for eulogies is still a long way off.
