FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Clark Teuscher, Sports Information Director, 630-637-5302

Oct. 25, 2011 - Throughout his tenure as the head football coach at North Central College, John Thorne has made a regular practice of emphasizing concepts of team and family, as well as extolling the value of adversity as an opportunity to display perseverance.

Thorne has become an unwitting case study in his own philosophy the past few months, as his players and coaching staff have rallied around his family's struggle off the football field while continuing to achieve success on it.

During the past offseason, Thorne's wife, Kathie Thorne, visited her doctor for an unrelated matter and wound up being diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a treatable but incurable form of blood cancer which currently afflicts more than 50,000 Americans. The current average life expectancy for such a diagnosis is three to five years.

“That hits you right between the eyes,” John said. “Of course, I went with Kathie and we sat and talked to the doctor. We walked out in the hallway and Kathie turned to me and said, 'I'm not going to be able to grow old with you.' That was very hard.”

Almost immediately, the Thornes watched an expansive network of support spring up around them.

“There was a friend of ours, who we had kind of lost contact with,” John recalled. “We knew she had cancer, but we didn't know what kind, and we came to find out it was the exact same kind of cancer that Kathie has. She's survived for about 15 years with it. They found out right away and called and talked to Kathie for a long time.”

Their extended family in the Cardinal football program, meanwhile, came face-to-face with an in-person demonstration of the life lessons their coach has worked so tirelessly to pass on.

“I had just gotten through telling our team that adversity is not a bad thing,” John said. “It's a gift from God. He's testing you and He's going to make you stronger. Good things come out of adversity.

“How is the team going to react if I just completely fall apart and lose my faith and say, 'Why Me?' This has given us an opportunity to show a lot of people that your faith is what you have to get you through these times. Kathie was extremely strong and healthy when the diagnosis came, which is good, and it was an early diagnosis, which doesn't happen often. So there were a lot of blessings in this. We're not looking at this as something horrible. We're looking at it as a blessing from God, because He's going to use us in ways we would never think of to reach many other people and hopefully help a lot of people.”

The Cardinals set about preparing for the 2011 season with many embracing expanded leadership roles due to the change in situation. After a narrow 35-29 season-opening loss at the University of Redlands, they have strung together six straight victories and currently stand alone in first place in the College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin.

“I knew I was going to have to be running into Chicago and spending nights at the hospital with Kathie during the early part of the season, so I wouldn't be able to be at every single practice and meeting,” John indicated. “Getting ready for that first game was probably the most difficult time because I was back and forth so much.

“Thank goodness for these assistant coaches and these great senior players for keeping the team headed the right way. They've done a marvelous job of keeping things together.”

The players also made sure to take an opportunity to throw public support behind their coach's effort prior to North Central's Aug. 25 preseason scrimmage against Aurora University. As a common side effect of cancer treatment, Kathie had begun losing her hair. A team player in the home as well as on the gridiron, John had cut his hair short as well.

“I walked in for our regular special-teams meeting before the scrimmage, and I saw all these guys with short haircuts,” John recalled. “I didn't want to assume they had done this for any specific reason. After the scrimmage was over, several of the parents came up to me and asked how I liked all the short haircuts, because the captains had decided to do that for Kathie. I called Kathie and told her, and she got a little choked up and cried. You could tell it meant a lot to her.”

The Thornes are heartened by Kathie's progress in treatment, which has enabled her to attend most of the Cardinals' games thus far.

“Kathie really loves our players, and she was concerned that she wouldn't be able to make it to many games,” John said. “She's only missed two so far. Things are going about as smoothly as they can right now. In November, we'll have to go back to the hospital for some tests so we can see where we're at and come up with a game plan for what happens next. We're encouraged, and we think she's going to have a chance to outlive this three-to-five-year thing by quite a bit.”

The North Central athletic department is taking its turn in its support of the Thornes on Saturday at the Cardinals' game against Elmhurst College at Benedetti-Wehrli Stadium. Fans are encouraged to wear burgundy, the color designated for multiple myeloma awareness, and burgundy T-shirts with the Cardinals' '22 Sports, 1 Team' slogan will be sold outside the stadium beginning at 5 p.m. with the start of 'Cardinal FanFest.'

All proceeds from the sale of T-shirts will benefit the American Cancer Society's multiple myeloma research. T-shirts can be purchased in advance by clicking here. All advance orders will be available for pickup on Saturday.