[waltjp]

I found this letter posted on a high school football forum. The letter was written by Jason's uncle. Read on.

Dear Board Members,

I don’t know how many of you are Rutgers Football fans or whether any of you found interest in the game last Thursday night, but I wanted to share with all of you a human interest story which has touched us beyond words.

As many of you are aware, my nephew Jason Schaible , who is 20, has been battling Hodgkin’s lymphoma for the past year requiring frequent visits and stays at Robert Wood Johnson hospital and at the New Jersey Cancer Institute in New Brunswick. During one of his chemo treatments back in September one of Jason’s oncology nurses, Karen, mentioned that she would get him tickets to any Rutgers football game he wanted to attend. He chose the Louisville game. Of course at that time neither team was ranked and there was not nearly the level of interest. Jason entered the hospital to undergo a stem cell transplant on November 1st and, because of the prolonged treatment, realized he would not be able to use the tickets to the biggest football game in State history. Jason returned the tickets to Karen, his nurse, who then posted a notice on the Rutgers Alumni web-site telling everyone Jason’s story. The story was brought to the attention of Mr. Mulcahy, the Rutgers Athletic Director, who then called coach Schiano to see if they could get a jersey for Jason. After learning that Jason had returned the tickets and was hospitalized with cancer, coach Schiano, on Thursday…the busiest day in the history of the football program and when everyone wants a piece of the coach, personally went to visit Jason in the hospital. He brought a football signed by all the Rutgers players, a jersey and a hat to give to Jason. More importantly he told Jason that he was more concerned about his health than some football game. They spoke for a half hour about life, its ups and downs, and how fighting for something was just as important as winning. He left Jason with his personal phone number and told him to call him when he was out of the hospital and feeling better. He said he wanted to see Jason when he was healthy so that he could give him a new set of tickets.

The impact that this simple gesture of compassion has had on Jason has been astounding. Coach Schiano will forever have a whole new set of fans – The Schaibles

Thanks for listening….

Tom