Football has long adopted a term that has dominated the medical field and applied it to one of the more common injuries in the game.
When referring to head injuries, or concussions, players and coaches often call them the “C-Word.” Avoiding saying the full word is a superstitious thing, and players believe if they say it, they can manifest one so they avoid it like the plague.
One Houston Cougars staff member has been battling the “C-Word,” except it is the real one. Ahead of Houston’s matchup against the then-No. 11 Texas Tech Red Raiders, ESPN’s flagship college football program, College GameDay, highlighted director of strength and conditioning Kurt Hester’s battle with stage IV melanoma.
Houston Cougars quarterback Conner Weigman (1) warm up before playing against Texas Tech Red Raiders at TDECU Stadium. / Thomas Shea-Imagn Images
”I’ve never been scared to put up a fight on anything in my live so it has kind of helped me out in the long run,” Hester said to start the video. “I love showing them that ‘look, you’re going to have problems. You’re going to have adversity. You’re going to have to suck it up. No matter bleak things you think they are, that obstacle, you can break through it, that you can survive.
Back in January, Hester was lifting weights in Houston’s training facility when he broke a rib. Upon getting an X-ray, it was revealed that he had a mass in his lungs and a few on his liver. It turns out that he had stage IV melanoma, a skin cancer that had spread to his lungs and liver.
“The oncologist said go home, make peace with your family and friends, make sure your will is in order, and call hospice,” Hester said. “They gave me four-to-six weeks to live. They had somebody tell me ‘you’re going to die.’ It’s fight mode now. You gave me a challenge, let’s go fight.”
Hester said the hardest part of his daily battle is the chronic fatigue.
“What are you going to see that he’s not going through right now?” defensive lineman Xavier Stillman said. “He’s wheezing coming up the stairs. So it’s like, why are you taking the elevator? What excuse do you have now?”
Coming to practice and coaching the Coogs has been a major part of Hester’s recovery and he says it’s a form of therapy for him. Since his January diagnosis, his tumors have begun to recede.
“Death is undefeated, but I’ll take it to three overtimes,” Hester said. “That’s strength. There’s nothing that you can throw at me that is going to make me stop. I’m unbreakable.”