Cancer battle a team effort for Richts
Bulldog Nation, even rivals, offer support for MICHELLE HISKEY
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 06/18/06
Seven weeks after her cancer surgery, Katharyn Richt's family ate yet another donated meal from their freezer Tuesday night.
Dinner was courtesy of University of Georgia fans, a gift from strangers in the stands whose passion for her husband's football team led them to reach out to the 41-year-old mother of four.
Katharyn Richt, wife of football coach Mark Richt, smiles at children Zach, Anya and David at a Waffle House. Mrs. Richt said she worried especially about Zach and Anya, who lived in a Russian orphanage before joining the family and had lost a mother once before.
The Bulldog faithful — known to line up their babies to be licked by mascot Uga, and to buy red and black caskets when the end comes — showed how fervent support of a sports team can extend to include small gestures of humanity. They deluged Katharyn and Mark Richt with flowers, calls, cards, babysitting and food.
"It's been overwhelming the way people reached out and wanted to show how they cared about us," she said.
The first lady of Georgia football had surgery in late April, and returned twice to the hospital with complications. Each time, the support from fans was there.
Her most noted predecessor in the role recently experienced the same phenomenon of strangers treating her like a beloved relative. Barbara Dooley, whose husband Vince coached the Bulldogs for 25 years, is in her final treatment for breast cancer diagnosed in December.
"I could not get out of bed, and I looked at those cards and thought of people that sent them ... and the people praying for someone who they've never met and probably will never meet," Barbara Dooley said. "The interesting thing is not one [card] mentioned football."
A coach's personal crisis takes him — and those around him — off the pedestals fans so often put them on, she observed.
"People think you are above tragedy and you are not. You're a normal human being," she said. "Katharyn Richt having cancer? How could she? It brings you down to a human level."
The Richts celebrated their 19th wedding anniversary in March while awaiting tests that would show that abnormal cells from her cervix were cancer. A Pap test at her annual checkup in January had flagged the possibility.
In late April, she had a hysterectomy at Atlanta's Northside Hospital.
Two days later, she had trouble breathing. She was treated for excess fluid and released the next morning.
Later the same week, she felt pain in her right calf. A scan showed her legs had small blood clots, a potentially fatal problem that runs in her family. She returned to the hospital for complete bed rest over three nights.
Now, she takes a blood thinner every day.
Asked for prayers
The couple often speaks of their Christianity, and Mark Richt said prayer got him through. Prayer from supporters.
Spring is a big season for speaking to booster clubs, and he made his family's needs known.
"I wasn't ashamed or afraid to let them know what was going on," he said. "Anyone who has a faith in God, I let them know to pray, and a lot of people did.
"I got pretty numb there. I was out of it a good bit," he said of his reaction to her diagnosis. "I shut down in a lot of ways and everything else didn't matter much. I have a routine of prayer and I believe in prayer, but I had a hard time doing that. You'd think I'd be a warrior, and I struggled. I enlisted help that was more mentally able to do it."
The night before surgery, Katharyn Richt thought about what would happen if she didn't survive. Her two youngest, Zach, 10, and Anya, 9, were adopted from a Russian orphanage.
"They didn't know their real mom, so they've already lost one," she said. "You wonder if they could take it."
She said she didn't worry because she felt spiritually uplifted by so many people, even if she didn't know them.
"I was just very peaceful, even with the blood clots," she said. "If people didn't pray, it would be a lot harder for me. Narcotics can make you depressed, and going in and out of the hospital was a struggle at times. But prayers helped me focus my mind back on knowing God was there and I would be fine."
Coach turned 'advocate'
She's usually the family support person for the coach and their children, aged 9 to 16. With cancer, she leaned on her husband, whom she calls "my advocate."
He asked doctors all the questions she didn't think of. He requires her to take a frequent body scan to detect cancer.
"Whether I was a coach or not, my personality is that I want to know a straight answer as quickly as I can, to give the best chance to succeed," Mark Richt said. "It's very much like a football game, but it's different when you're talking about the life and welfare of your wife. The stakes are much, much higher."
The couple was thankful for the timing of the cancer. "It wasn't football season so that was a blessing," she said.
The sport was never far away, though. Even the Southeastern Conference referees sent a bouquet, and nice messages came from Steve Spurrier, a coach the Bulldog fans love to hate, and his wife.
During her ordeal, son David, 11, started talking about becoming a doctor. "After an NFL starting quarterback and taking over for my dad," he said.
At times, his mom treaded carefully because she knew the Bulldog Nation watched her.
When asked which Athens hospital helped her during her post-surgery complications, she said both did and stopped short of comparing their care. She didn't want to come off as recommending one.
"It's so competitive," she said of the atmosphere in her husband's orbit at such moments.
During her recuperation, Richt eagerly signed up for the Atlanta Two-Day Walk for Breast Cancer. Hundreds of women walk as a way to raise money and show hope.
She realized that surviving cancer didn't budge the family calendar. The two-day walk covers a weekend when her son's team plays Friday. Her husband's team takes on Mississippi State the next day.
"By then I want to be completely recovered," she said. "I might have to miss a game."
I would not trade the Richts for any other family in the NATION!
