By TERRY FREI | The Denver Post

PUBLISHED: May 31, 2014 at 2:01 p.m. | UPDATED: October 2, 2016 at 4:00 p.m.

A helping hand from teammates

Deb Ploetz and Billy Dale started their journey in 2015 to tell the Longhorn story of CTE. It is time for our journey to look back to the end and look forward to begin. The Lithograph above has 250 plus signatures of DKR players. Deb Ploetz wants to auction this historical piece in the marketplace and donate the proceeds to TLSN to help former student-athletes, managers, trainers, and their immediate families who have fallen through society’s safety net.  Greg’s painting will be the only Longhorn sports artifact with this many signatures from the DKR era players who delivered 3 national championships and 11 Southwest Conference Championships to The University of Texas from 1957 to 1977.

Horns Up,

Deb Ploetz and Billy Dale

Billy,

Do you have a link to the last painting that Greg Ploetz finished? The one referenced in the story of 71 team. That hit an emotional button with me. Do you happen to know if I could buy a print?

I related to Greg and always enjoyed our few conversations, rarely about football. I marveled at his perspective—so unique for that group of men, united by the camaraderie of the team and his transition from boy to man. He simply had a broader worldview than most.

In scrimmages against our defense, blocking Greg was similar to uprooting a 4-foot oak tree stump with a 10-year-old tap root. You weren’t going to move him. Just tie him up so one of you backs could run around him! Great guy and a determined football player.

Thanks for what you do, Billy. Merry Christmas.

Jeff Zapalac,

David Richardson (Greg’s roommate in college) wrote to his teammates the following letter after his trip to Colorado in 2014 to deliver a check for $14,000 to Greg and Deb Ploetz. Another $11,000 was raised later to defray memory care bills. 

David says:

DEAR HORNS,

MOST OF YOU KNOW I REPRESENTED LSG AND DELIVERED THE CHECK FOR $14,000 ($25,000 was the final total) TO GREG PLOETZ. BY NOW, MOST OF YOU HAVE READ THE ARTICLE WRITTEN BY TERRY FREI FOR THE DENVER POST CONCERNING GREG’S SITUATION AND THE POSITIVE AND IMPORTANT ROLE THAT MEDICINAL MARIJUANA HAS PLAYED IN GREG’S LIFE.

ALL THE TEXAS NURSING HOMES WOULD NOT TAKE CARE OF GREG UNLESS THEY COULD KEEP HIM MEDICATED AND CALM. DEB WAS AT HER WITS END UNTIL SHE FOUND THIS PLACE IN COLORADO AND HEARD ABOUT THE MARIJUANA TREATMENT. WHAT AN EYE-OPENER IT WAS FOR ME AS AN OUTREACH MINISTER FOR VICTORY BAPTIST CHURCH. NOT THAT I APPROVE OF IT IN THE RECREATIONAL SENSE, BUT IT DOES HAVE SOME VALUE MEDICALLY. AFTER ALL, WHERE DID WE FIRST GET OUR MEDICINES? FROM PLANTS. OVERALL IT WAS A VERY GOOD TRIP. GREG IS IN A BEAUTIFUL PLACE, and THE MOUNTAINS ARE ONLY ABOUT 10 TO 15 MILES FROM HIM. HE CAN GO OUT IN THE BACKYARD AND ENJOY THE BEAUTY. THERE WAS STILL SNOW ON THE MOUNTAINS. HIS NURSING FACILITY IS MORE LIKE A HOME THAN CARE INSTITUTION. THE WORKERS ARE NICE, AND THEY ARE GENUINELY CONCERNED ABOUT THEIR PATIENTS. WHEN GREG FIRST ARRIVED, HE WOULD HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH ANYONE AT THE NURSING FACILITY, BUT NOW, WITH THE HELP OF MEDICINAL MARIJUANA, HE HAS CALMED DOWN, AND HIS ANGER HAS SUBSIDED.

I WAS HIS ROOMMATE, BUT GREG DOES NOT KNOW ME.  HE KNOWS DEB AND THEIR DOG BUTTER.

GREG KNOWS HE IS NOT AT HOME, BUT HE WANTS TO BE.  THIS FRUSTRATES HIM, AND HE CAN STILL GET AGITATED VERY QUICKLY.  HE GOT UPSET WITH ME WHEN I TOOK A PICTURE OFF THE WALL TO ASK HIM ABOUT IT.  HE LOVES HIS ART; I ASKED HIM ABOUT THE ARTWORK HANGING IN HIS ROOM, AND HIS EYES LIT UP, AND HE EVEN SMILED.  HE LIKES TO WALK OR PACE.  HE DOESN'T TALK MUCH, JUST MAKES SOUNDS. DEB SAID THAT SOMETIMES AFTER SHE HAS GIVEN HIM HIS DRUGS, HE CAN PUT A SENTENCE TOGETHER. IT'S VERY HARD FOR DEB TO GET HIM TO DO ANYTHING.   SHE HAS TO MANIPULATE HIM, AND THIS IS VERY HARD ON HER; SEEING HER HUSBAND IN SUCH A STATE.  HE HAS LOST A LOT OF WEIGHT AND JUST DOESN'T LOOK THE SAME.  THE DRUGS HAVE GIVEN HIM AN APPETITE AGAIN, SO MAYBE HE WILL START GAINING THE WEIGHT BACK.  

DEB ADMINISTERS HIS MEDICINE TO HIM IN THE MORNING AND AGAIN IN THE EVENING.  SHE HAS A LICENSE TO BUY AND TO ADMINISTER THE “DRUG”  THE NURSING HOME EMPLOYEES ARE EXCITED ABOUT HOW THE “DRUGS” HAVE HELPED GREG, AND THEY HOPE TO BE ABLE TO ADMINISTER THE DRUG TO THEIR PATIENTS IN THE FUTURE.  THERE IS A TOTAL OF 10 MEN WHO RESIDE IN THE HOME.   HER LIFE IS BETTER BUT NEEDLESS TO SAY HER SITUATION IS STILL VERY DIFFICULT.  FROM MY OWN PERSONAL EXPERIENCE WITH MY DAD WHO HAD ALZHEIMER’S, I CAN TELL YOU THAT THIS IS HARDER ON THE CAREGIVER THAN THE PATIENT. Still, THE LONGHORN FAMILY HAS COME THROUGH AND MITIGATED A VERY DIFFICULT SITUATION.   PLEASE KEEP GREG AND DEBRA IN YOUR PRAYERS. I WAS HONORED TO DELIVER OUR HEARTFELT DONATION TO DEB.   DEBRA AND TERRY FREI WERE OVERWHELMED WITH OUR OUTREACH. 

GREG PLOETZ’S STORY

Athletes who play football use their heads as a battering ram. The result is that football players are prone to dementia, misdiagnosed CTE as Alzheimer’s, depression/suicide, Parkinson’s, and CTE.

In December of 2021, Professor Larry Carlson wrote an article about the 1971 Longhorn football team. I was shocked at the number of players on this team who at the ages between 50 and 60 who passed away from brain-related issues. The link to Larry’s article is https://www.texaslsn.org/1971-a-team-thathas-paid-the-ultimate-pricefor-victory

Greg Ploetz was on the 1971 team. The road that Greg and Deb Ploetz traveled from 2009 until his death from CTE reflects the struggles many Longhorns and their families have experienced with loved ones inflicted with brain-related diseases. Greg’s cause of death was CTE.

A painting that reflects what CTE looks like from Greg’s state of mind.

After being diagnosed with dementia, Greg painted a tribute to his teammates. The completion of this painting in 2010 is a story of his heart holding on while mental capabilities and hand-eye coordination declined. He was struggling with details.

The painting is historically incorrect, but this painting offers a glimpse into Greg’s state of mind. Norman Rockwall’s decades ago rendered a piece of art titled “Self-portrait” Greg Ploetz has rendered a self-portrait of CTE. Even though Greg was a defensive player as a Longhorn, in his painting, Greg ( #31) believes he is the offensive player who delivers the key block that results in James Street’s” (#16) ) winning touchdown run in the national championship game against Notre Dame in 1970.

In fact, James Street does not make this touchdown, Greg is not an offensive player, the Notre Dame jerseys are not blue, #22 Billy Dale is not a blocker, and the stadium architecture is not the Cotton Bowl.

However, for all of us who love him, we understand that this painting is not about art. Paintings deliver messages that words can never yield (a picture is worth a 1000 words), and Greg’s message is delivered. The painting champions the heart and the human spirit’s victory over an aggressive opponent. It is a battle won in a war he will lose.

GREG’S STRUGGLE WAS THE INSPIRATION TO TACKLE A PROJECT THAT A DECADE LATER IS STILL NOT COMPLETE. THE GOAL IS PERSONAL AUTOGRAPHS FROM 500 DKR PLAYERS AND SUPPORT STAFF PERSONNEL ON GREG’S SELF-PORTRAIT. IF THE GOAL IS ACCOMPLISHED, IT WILL BE THE ONLY AUTOGRAPH-RELATED ITEM WITH THIS MANY SIGNATURES OF DKR PLAYERS IN EXISTENCE.

THE LITHOGRAPH IS NOW ON DISPLAY AT THE STARK CENTER ON THE 5TH FLOOR NORTH END ZONE OF DKR MEMORIAL STADIUM. IF THE PAINTING IS SOLD AT AN AUCTION, ALL THE PROCEEDS WILL BE USED TO HELP QUALIFYING LONGHORNS IN NEED OF FINANCIAL SUPPORT.

MAY GOD BLESS GREG’S FAMILY, AND ALL OTHERS WHO HAVE SUFFERED TO THE END WITH THIS HORRENDOUS DISEASE.

Greg’s story is now part of the Concussion Legacy Foundation. The link to the site is listed below.

http://concussionfoundation.org/story/greg-ploetz

.

• Concussion Management Team

• Removal from Play

• Waiver and Graded Protocol to Return to Play

• Specific Education/Training for all HCP’s

• State Wide Tracking/Logging of Concussions

Texas is the 21st state with enacted legislation

David Andersons says about Spanky “Spanky became my client at HillCo during my first year with the lobby firm, 2003. His work on the concussion legislation, Natasha’s Law, is a textbook case of how to take a good idea and make it the law.  The bill’s author was a first term member from Amarillo, Four Price. While he was a rookie then, Four is now one of the top members in the Legislature and he will tell you how important Spanky was with that bill and how much he learned about the legislative process as he worked on it. That bill became the model for many other states since 2011”.

Brain Injury Research Institute

The Brain Injury Research Institute is a center for the study of traumatic brain injuries and their prevention that was founded in 2002. Its founding members include: Julian E. Bailes, M.D., Chairman of the Department of Neurosurgery at West Virginia University School of Medicine and former NFL and current NCAA team physician; Bennet Omalu, M.D., forensic neuropathologist, who is the Chief Medical Examiner for San Joaquin County, California, and Associate Adjunct Professor at the University of California, Davis; and Robert P. Fitzsimmons, Senior Partner at Fitzsimmons Law Offices, in Wheeling, West Virginia.

Chicago Tribune November 2017 Kia Cadenza

Four years ago, researchers from Evanston’s NorthShore University HealthSystem and other scientific organizations announced that they had used brain scans to detect the hallmark of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, in ex-football players while they were still alive – a technique that promised to spur more accurate diagnoses, and possibly new treatments.

 The scans indicated the presence of tau, a protein that builds up over damaged neurological cells, in the brains of former NFL players. But the scientists cautioned that the results needed to be confirmed, since CTE can be definitely diagnosed only by examining brain tissue after a person’s death.

Dr. Julian Bailes, a NorthShore neurosurgeon, said Wednesday that confirmation has arrived.

In a paper published last week in the journal Neurosurgery, Bailes and other researchers reported that one of the former players who had undergone a scan had his brain examined after he died – and sure enough, the tissue revealed that he had been suffering from CTE.

The condition is associated with repetitive head trauma and results in 

dementia-like symptoms.

More research is needed to corroborate the result, but if it holds up, Bailes said it could be a pivotal step in finding a way to help people with the condition.

“If there’s ever a treatment developed, you can test the response to it,” he said. “If you can trust the scans, you can tell a football player he shouldn’t keep playing, or tell someone in the military he can’t get in the way of explosions.”

Visit the Chicago Tribune at www.chicagotribune.com

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 FROM BILL ATESSIS  

5/22/2017

Saw this last week about a young lady with a remarkable recovery.  This is the same group that Bob Lilly and others have treated with. 

http://abc13.com/health/woman-says-stem-cell-therapy-saved-her-life-/2012975/

DAVID MCWILLIAMS AND BILL ATESSIS

 There is a less expensive procedure called celltex that is administered in this country.  I cannot substantiate the results of the treatment,  but I know some very important people are using this procedure.    Their site is http://celltexbank.com/, and the site has a testimonial component you can visit. Other sites to visit include

 

Bill Atessis.

Dear Horns,  (From Bill Atessis)

I am in the beginning phase of investigating a treatment by Celltex Therapeutics for one of my closest friends. This company has treated several prominent NFL players for Dementia and Alzheimer’s.   I have spoken with several former Dallas Cowboys who have been treated and all are pleased with the results.  

That said- please know that I am still in the due diligence phase of research and my comments are informational only and should not be construed as an endorsement of Celltex .

Jackie Sherrill (former A&M Coach back in the 80’s) has been working with Celltex Therapeutics and NFL players to get this treatment covered by the lawsuit funds.  I’m not exactly sure of the pricing but the NFL players I talked to say it is around $15 – $20 thousand.   I will try and meet with Jackie to get more information and a better idea of costs.

This treatment is not covered by insurance nor is it FDA approved.  The stem cell extraction is done in Houston however the injection is done at their clinic in Cancun Mexico.

If you have any questions that you would like me to ask as I pursue my due diligence, please forward to me thru BillyDale1@gmail.com. 

I hope all is going well with you and family.  I am really encouraged about our new coach, and I believe we are going to see UT back in the top tier of college football where we should be.

Hook ’em,

Bill  Atessis

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  Al Sears, MD
11905 Southern Blvd.
Royal Palm Beach, FL 33411

February 14, 2019

Years of crushing blows on the gridiron took a toll on Joe Namath’s brain. But he’s seen dramatic improvement thanks to this natural therapy.

Patriots quarterback Tom Brady pulled off another win. But seeing the players take hits over and over reminded me how tough pro football can be on players’ bodies. It also reminded me of another incredible NFL quarterback.

One who lives right up the coast from me here in South Florida — Joe Namath. Joe had an amazing career with the New York Jets. But the bone-crunching blows that come with the sport left him with damage to his brain.

This type of injury is called traumatic brain injury, or TBI. It’s very common in athletes who play contact sports, especially football players.

But you can experience TBI from other things, too. Like falls, car accidents, or other head trauma. People with TBI have symptoms like memory loss, confusion, headaches, trouble speaking, vision loss, and a lack of coordination.

Your risk of developing Alzheimer’s and dementia rises dramatically after a brain injury.

Mainstream medicine’s treatment for TBI includes a long list of drugs… everything from anti-anxiety drugs to anti-psychotic drugs to sedatives. These drugs can end up doing more damage to your brain and health.

Incredibly, there’s a completely natural and easy treatment they won’t even discuss with you… One that can actually heal your damaged brain. It’s the treatment Joe Namath used.

And it dramatically changed his life.

I’m talking about hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT).

Joe saw such an improvement in his cognitive function after undergoing HBOT that he’s now an outspoken advocate for the therapy. And his brain scans back up his recovery claims.

Areas that were once dark on the scans — showing decreased blood flow — lit up after Joe’s HBOT treatment.

Joe’s not the only brain-injury patient to be helped by HBOT. A study published in the journal PLOS One looked at 56 patients with post-concussion TBI who underwent HBOT. After eight weeks, the patients had significant brain function improvements, as well as improved quality of life. Even if their injuries had occurred years before.1

And here’s the really exciting part… Even though conventional doctors say there’s no hope for stroke patients after six months, the study participants had their strokes six months to three years prior to receiving HBOT.

This is truly an incredible therapy. It’s also a powerful healer for:

• Inflammation

• Wounds

• Cancer

• Infection

• Heart disease

• Parkinson’s disease

When it comes to your brain, HBOT can do more than just heal damage caused by trauma. Studies have found it improved symptoms in kids with autism; 2 enhanced cognitive function in patients with vascular dementia; 3 and repaired brain damage in stroke victims.

In fact, in a study at Tel Aviv University, stroke patients who received HBOT for two months recovered from paralysis, were able to speak again, and had an increase in sensation. Scans of their brains showed increased neuronal activity.4

HBOT involves breathing pure oxygen in a pressurized chamber. This allows your lungs to take in much more oxygen than they normally do. It also stimulates the growth of new blood vessels, which heals and regenerates damaged or diseased tissues, blood vessels and cells throughout your body.

Your body needs an adequate supply of oxygen to function properly. And when you suffer damage — to the brain or any other tissue — you need even more oxygen. That’s why it’s critical to increase the amount of oxygen your blood is able to carry to promote healing.

Heal Your Brain with HBOT

I use hyperbaric oxygen therapy every day at the Sears Institute for Anti-Aging Medicine. And the whole procedure is as easy as breathing. Here’s how it works:

1. During an HBOT session, you sit or recline comfortably in a pressurized chamber.

2. You breathe in 100% oxygen.

3. You can listen to music, watch a movie or simply relax.

A typical HBOT session lasts just over an hour. Treatments are repeated, depending on the condition, anywhere from five to 40 times.

References

1. Boussi-Gross R. “Hyperbaric oxygen therapy can improve post concussion syndrome years after mild traumatic brain injury – randomized prospective trial.” PLoS One. 2013;8(11):e79995.
2. Rosignol DA, et al. “Hyperbaric treatment for children with autism: A multicenter, randomized, double-blind, controlled trial.” BMC pediatrics. 2009;9:21.
3. Xiao Y. et al. “Hyperbaric oxygen therapy for vascular dementia.” Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2012; 11;(7).
4. American Friends of Tel Aviv University. Oxygen chamber can boost brain repair years after stroke or trauma. Science News. January 23, 2013.

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By Nathan FennoStaff Writer 

Dec. 3, 2019

BOSTON — 

The brains arrive at all hours in white cardboard boxes stamped “RUSH!” Inside each package is an inch-and-a-half-thick foam liner and a red bag protecting an ordinary white plastic bucket.

When a courier service delivered Kevin Ellison’s brain to the Bedford VA Medical Center near Boston just after 2 p.m. on Jan. 22, Dr. Victor Alvarez performed the routine he has done so many times that he’s stopped counting.

The neuropathologist unpacked the box, weighed the brain and examined it for contusions or hemorrhages. He snapped dozens of pictures with various exposures to capture differences in shape and color not apparent to the naked eye.

Alvarez processes most of the brains donated to the partnership between the Department of Veterans Affairs, Boston University CTE Center and the Concussion Legacy Foundation. He moves with care and speed, knowing each brain represents a family searching for answers.

Ellison’s family donated his brain to be studied for CTE, or chronic traumatic encephalopathy, the devastating neurodegenerative disease found in people who have suffered repeated head trauma but can be diagnosed only after death. Football players are its most prominent victims.

It had been three months since Ellison died at age 31 — and nearly a decade since his days on the football field as a hard-hitting defensive back, team captain and fan favorite at USC. He went on to play one season for the San Diego Chargers. The three words tattooed on his left arm summed up his approach to life: “Be the best.”

Sports

Hernandez: So long as football thrives, the Kevin Ellisons will pay the toll

Americans are enamored with violence, football provides plenty of it, and players will pay the price with brain trauma, Dylan Hernandez writes.

Dec. 3, 2019

More Coverage

A troubled ex-USC football star died at 31. His family hoped that studying his brain for CTE would help others

Ellison had been living in an apartment behind his mother’s home in Inglewood. He had earned an economics degree in college, but at the end he no longer drove and struggled to keep jobs. He had a headache that never really left. His neck hurt and he felt dizzy. He couldn’t sleep, heard voices, talked to the sky.

Sometimes the old Kevin returned, his mother recalled. But she could tell when the darkness approached. His grin faded. His eyes wandered. He took long showers to escape, the sound drifting into the living room.

UNICEF sets the standard for smart spending

By UNICEF USA

Eighty-nine cents of every dollar goes directly to children. Here’s how it’s done.

The final journey of K-0623, as Ellison’s brain was known to researchers, passed through laboratories and cramped offices in Boston. The search for answers to Ellison’s unraveling took almost a year. Did football, which had given him joy and fame, contribute to his decline? His family would spend that time waiting for an answer.

At his memorial service, the program included a letter his mother, Judy Reisner, wrote to her son: “All my memories just reinforce how deep the relationship between a mother and child. So deep that during these last years, not only could I see the pain in your eyes, I could feel it. It hurt me to my bones that I couldn’t remove it.”

 

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

The family traced Ellison’s decline to the middle of 2012. After his NFL career faltered, he joined an Arena Football League team in Washington state. He had started drinking, something he avoided at USC, and took prescription painkillers. In his first game for the Spokane Shock in May 2012, he scored a touchdown.

Five weeks later, Ellison ignited the bed in his apartment at the Big Trout Lodge with a marijuana-filled cigar. He jumped out a third-story window, later telling authorities God ordered him to start the fire and would prevent anyone from being hurt.

Eventually transferred from jail to a psychiatric facility, Ellison was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.

“He would reset. He would falter. He would be hospitalized,” Camille Ellison, his sister, said during his memorial service. “He would feel better. He would start a new job. He would have to quit. He couldn’t work long hours or drive because that required a considerable amount of concentration and his brain couldn’t handle it. Yet, oh, how his spirit wanted it.”

On Oct. 2, 2018, the family tried to persuade Ellison to go to a hospital for a 72-hour psychiatric hold. He hadn’t taken his psychiatric medication for weeks. The voices and paranoia returned.

Ellison ran down the street from his mother’s house, told a neighbor someone was trying to kill him and vanished. The family filed a missing person report, called hospitals and police departments. Two days later, Camille Ellison posted on Facebook: “If you happen to see my youngest brother, Kevin (i.e. most likely walking) can you please text me.”

An hour before midnight, a man wandered onto the northbound lanes of the 5 Freeway in the San Fernando Valley. He waved his arms at passing vehicles. Minutes after a motorist called 911, a Chevrolet Astro minivan hit the man. Paramedics pronounced him dead at 11:36 p.m. He carried a bus pass and wore a USC sweatshirt.

The Los Angeles County medical examiner-coroner identified Ellison through fingerprints.

Three days after the death, his eldest brother, Chris, received an unusual email.

“I am terribly sorry to hear about your loss, and I am very sorry to reach out today,” Chris Nowinski, co-founder of the Boston-based Concussion Legacy Foundation, wrote. “I am emailing on behalf of the Boston University CTE Center, and we’d like to try and help your family.… If your family would like us to study Kevin’s brain, we may be able to provide you with a diagnosis that helps you better understand what happened.”

Chris Ellison responded a few minutes later: “I am certain this is something we would want to do.”

Nowinski, who played football at Harvard and wrestled professionally, has made such requests for more than a decade. The first came after former Philadelphia Eagles defensive back Andre Waters killed himself in 2006.

Nowinski wrote a script for what to say, then worried, sweated, procrastinated. Eventually, he called and asked the family for permission to study Waters’ remains for CTE. They agreed. Though Waters died at age 44, the examination found his brain had the characteristics of someone twice that age.

These days, Nowinski doesn’t need to send many emails. Word has spread. Families who want to donate brains from deceased loved ones call a black flip phone carried 24 hours a day by center research assistants. They have a few minutes to evaluate whether the brain would be suitable for study. There are more donated brains — from athletes, military veterans and others — than time to examine them.

Two hours after the email, Ellison’s mother signed the consent form. Reisner’s three boys all had suffered concussions. Keith, the middle brother, spent five seasons as a linebacker with the Buffalo Bills. Chris, who played defensive back for Brigham Young, works as an agent for several NFL players and hopefuls.

Kevin, the youngest, had told his sister that he had eight concussions. He had built a reputation for ferocious hits on the football field. Shortly after his death, the USC athletic department tweeted a 14-second video of Ellison hurling his body at California receiver DeSean Jackson in 2006. Their helmets smacked into each other. The announcer crowed about how Ellison almost “beheaded” Jackson.

“The late, great Kevin Ellison,” the tweet said.

At the memorial service, the Ellison family distributed bracelets inscribed with the dates of his birth and death as well as his nickname — Kells. Near flower arrangements with “Be the best” and “Loved by all” written on ribbons, Camille Ellison described her brother’s journey through the fog of mental illness.

“This beautiful human being,” she said. “Still smart, still competitive, handsome and a leader, stuck in a cycle where his brain kept failing him — even when he’d get back on his feet and good things started happening again for him.”

Ellison’s brain remained at the medical examiner-coroner’s office in L.A., stored inside a white plastic container filled with formalin — a pungent mixture of formaldehyde and water — for the trip to Boston.

 

The brains studied by Alvarez and other neuropathologists are processed at the Bedford facility or the Jamaica Plain VA Medical Center in Boston. In Jamaica Plain, a glass-door refrigerator is filled with white buckets holding brains, each container labeled with a case number. Industrial freezers filled with frozen brain halves occupy adjacent rooms.

About a decade ago, Alvarez drove through a snowstorm to surgically remove the brain of a former college football player who had agreed to donate his brain for study. The storm knocked out power to the building, so Alvarez ran an extension cord to a generator in a neighboring business. He brought the brain back to the lab and processed it without delay.

Brains fixed in formalin have a rubbery texture; fresh brains arrive packed in ice and feel like ripe brie. The fresh brains are halved. Part is stored in a minus-80 degree freezer for later genetic and molecular studies. The other is placed in preservative for several weeks to firm up and stop decay.

An hour or so after Ellison’s brain arrived, Chris Ellison received an email from one of the research assistants, Laney Evers.

“We understand that you may be anxious for the results so please know that we will do our best to … work as efficiently as possible,” Evers wrote.

Given the number of brains to study, seven months passed before Alvarez dissected Ellison’s brain July 24, the same day most NFL players reported for training camp.

The brain is sectioned with a tool resembling a bread knife but with a nonserrated edge. Alvarez is known among colleagues for precise cuts, with a practiced and methodical technique. He begins with his left hand gently pressing on the top of the brain while his right hand slides the knife horizontally near the bottom. The goal is coronal slices about a third of an inch thick.

Each cut reveals a new piece of the puzzle. Has the frontal lobe shrunk? Are the ventricles enlarged? Alvarez places each one on a black sheet and photographs it.

Tissue from up to 40 areas of the brain is embedded into cassettes, inch-wide hinged plastic sleeves. The cassettes undergo a day of chemical processing, then paraffin wax is added to enhance the structural integrity of the tissue.

A histologist sections off pieces a tenth the thickness of a human hair. The sections are placed on 80 to 100 glass slides, each one stained by hand.

 

Dr. Ann McKee, chief of neuropathology for the VA Boston Healthcare System and director of the Boston University CTE Center, with the brain of a football player suspected to have suffered from CTE.

(Josh Reynolds / For The Times)

In late August, Kevin Ellison’s slides traveled to the 12th floor at the Jamaica Plain facility, down a white cinder-block hallway and into Dr. Ann McKee’s cramped office, where a wilted plant sits next to a large microscope. McKee is chief of neuropathology for the VA Boston Healthcare System and director of the Boston University CTE Center.

Piles of trays filled with 20 slides each crowd her desk and every other available surface. Two football helmets and a foam cheesehead, from her days rooting for the Green Bay Packers, are reminders of the tension between her pioneering research into CTE over the last decade and America’s most popular sport.

“I used to love football,” McKee said.

She would fight nerves and have sleeplessness nights before each Packers game. CTE changed everything.

“None of these people expected to be risking their brain health,” McKee said. “This was not in their plan. You know, they aren’t people that said, ‘Yeah, I want to play football so badly I don’t care if I can’t think straight.’ That was never part of the decision.”

She thinks of the slides as chapters in a book, each one providing another clue to the person and what they experienced. Though she has access to the name and age for each case, she doesn’t have any additional details in order to keep the focus on the story the slides tell.

A study published last year found CTE in the brains of 133 of 136 former pro football players, though the sample was drawn from donations — and families are more likely to donate the brains of loved ones who had experienced difficulties in life.

Her routine is the same for each set of slides. McKee starts with the olfactory bulb, responsible for the sense of smell, which hints at what she’ll find elsewhere. Dark tangles of tau protein — the toxic hallmark of CTE — are often visible.

Next she examines the substantia nigra, which helps control muscle movement, and the superior frontal cortex, an important area for executive function and emotions.

Each clue brings McKee closer to another answer for another grieving family.

“I feel like I need to be part of the awareness and advocacy because who else will do it?” McKee said. “Who will carry this torch? Who will make the difference for these families if they don’t have a spokesperson?”

Four days after she examined Ellison’s brain, his brother Keith was on the sidelines coordinating the defense as the Redondo Union High School football team scrimmaged against Arcadia High. His brother Chris coached the defensive backs.

‘Who will carry this torch? Who will make the difference for these families if they don’t have a spokesperson.’

Dr. Ann McKee

While neuropathologists peered into Ellison’s brain, clinical researchers dug into his life. On Sept. 17, research assistant Madeline Uretsky called the family with a series of questions.

Uretsky, who suffered a serious concussion while playing high school soccer eight years ago, shares an office with other research assistants at the Boston University CTE Center. Miniature football helmets representing the 32 NFL teams are pinned to the wall, next to a framed photo of New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady.

The researchers collect information using about 400 data points to build a narrative of a subject’s life. Ellison’s family had filled out initial electronic surveys in March and September, but now had more questions to answer:

What is the subject’s psychiatric and neurological history? Where did they work? Could they remember the day of the week? Did they misplace objects? Struggle with substance abuse? Have headaches?

(Ellison family)

Uretsky would hear about Ellison playing tackle football at age 8 with the Inglewood Jets. How he loved to eat, and as a child was caught in a closet methodically devouring a loaf of Wonder Bread. She learned how he graduated from high school a semester early to play for USC and about his return from three knee surgeries. She also learned about the time he bought 100 Vicodin pills on the street after his rookie season in the NFL to hide a knee injury from the Chargers.

And she would hear about the series of 72-hour psychiatric holds, the times he stopped taking medication because it left him lethargic and made him gain weight, and the attempts to self-medicate with marijuana and alcohol.

Twice a month, the Boston researchers hold a “consensus meeting” to discuss their findings, and on Sept. 24 they took up Ellison. Each case begins with a research assistant summarizing the family interview and other information gathered about a subject. The clinicians, including neurologists, neuropsychologists and psychiatrists, discuss the subject. The neuropathologist is last, illustrating the presentation with slides of brain tissue.

Though the clinicians know the subject’s identity while the research is being conducted, the name is withheld at that point from the staffers who process and examine the brain to avoid any unconscious bias. At the consensus meeting, the name comes out. When McKee isn’t presenting, she’ll sometimes Google the person being discussed as the meeting continues. She can’t restrain her curiosity.

The day after the meeting on Kevin Ellison’s brain, Judy Reisner dialed into a conference call with McKee. Camille Ellison did the same. The doctor thanked them for the donation and delivered the news quickly: Kevin had CTE.

(Boston University)

The frontal lobe of his brain had atrophied and the lateral ventricles were enlarged. The changes don’t usually appear until a person is 50, 60, or even 70 years old.

Slides from the superior frontal cortex and inferior parietal region, magnified 40 times, revealed scores of brown specks — telltale CTE lesions. Other slides showed the same thing.

The interplay between CTE and Ellison’s mental health issues wasn’t clear. CTE can be mistaken for bipolar disorder and schizophrenia — Ellison experienced both — or be found at the same time as both conditions. McKee found “mild neurofibrillary degeneration” of the locus coeruleus, which is involved with the body’s response to stress.

For Reisner, the news wasn’t surprising. She had a gut feeling her son had CTE. She still cries each day. Now she worries about youngsters playing football.

“There’s an allure to football, people love watching it, people think these guys are demigods and they make a lot of money,” Reisner said. “But they need to be aware of what could happen to them.”

The day after the call, back in the Inglewood living room filled with photos of Ellison grinning — on the USC sideline, at graduation, with his nieces — Reisner watched the Philadelphia Eagles play the Packers on her big-screen television. Camille Ellison popped in for a minute. She saw Avonte Maddox, an Eagles player, carted off after taking a hit to the head. It made her feel sick.

“After living through what those unseen injuries, those head injuries, those brain injuries do to a person, it’s hard, it’s hard,” she said. “It prompts me to think, ‘OK, now that we know, how can we do better?’ We know CTE exists, it has a devastating impact on people and it had a devastating impact on my brother. … The game is safer, but it’s still not safe.”

 

Kevin’s high school graduation in 2005. From left: Keith Ellison, Kevin Ellison, Camille Ellison, Chris Ellison, mother Judy Reisner and father Charles Ellison.

(Ellison family photo)

The diagnosis hasn’t changed Chris Ellison’s view of football. He suffered several concussions during his playing career and figures he has CTE too.

“Hopefully it can help somebody else in the future,” Chris Ellison said of the research on his brother’s brain. “Kevin had a mental illness. And the CTE might have enhanced it in how he was able to process the mental illness, but that direct correlation, I don’t necessarily agree with.”

Five days after the conference call, Chris Ellison visited Pittsburgh to watch a client play as the Steelers faced the Cincinnati Bengals. It had been a difficult stretch. The anniversary of his brother’s death Oct. 4 was approaching.

Chris wanted to remain in control of his emotions, but as he drove through Pittsburgh, memories flooded back. He couldn’t stop the tears.

“He’s my little brother,” Chris said.

That week, seven more brains arrived in Boston to be studied for CTE.

Nathan Fenno is a sports enterprise reporter for the Los Angeles Times focused on investigations, features and in-depth stories.

Show Comments

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Late Raiders great Ken Stabler suffered from CTE, researchers find

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NFL great Frank Gifford had degenerative brain disease, family announces

 

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NFL great Frank Gifford had degenerative brain disease, family announces

Frank Gifford, the Pro Football Hall of Famer and USC All-American who died of natural causes in August, suffered from a degenerative brain disease linked to repeated head trauma, his family announced Wednesday.

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  CTE – Protecting Children Playing Sports

Experts believe that multiple concussions and blows to the head cause the neurodegenerative disorder CTE. The condition can be officially diagnosed only after death. 

A single concussion or even a few concussions have not been linked to cases of CTE. It requires multiple concussions combined with several sub-concussive blows. 

Symptoms of CTE may include dementia, brain fog, personality changes, mood disorders, impulsivity, and aggression. It is a progressive condition. The symptoms vary for everyone. Researchers are not sure why these differences exist, but they believe it may be related to the region of the brain where CTE starts.

Youth Concussions – What To Do if Your Child Has a Concussion (cordiscosaile.com)

Concussions and Sports

Brain injury is the leading cause of sports injury deaths, according to Stanford Children’s Hospital. Sports injuries account for 21 percent of traumatic brain injuries.

Football

Football ???? Football is a contact sport, and the players in the middle of the conflicts are most likely to be hurt. According to the CDC, 49 percent of concussions occur during running plays, and 63 percent happen during tackling. Linebackers and running backs sustain the highest number of concussions.

Prevention could include limiting contact during practice and expanding noncontact programs.

Basketball ????

High school girl basketball players have higher rates of concussion than their male counterparts. The majority of concussions sustained by basketball players of both genders occur during contact with another player. 

The best preventive measures are enforcing the rules of fair play and training players to avoid unsafe maneuvers.

Baseball/Softball

Baseball is the sport with the highest fatality rate among children ages 5 to 14, with approximately 3 to 4 fatalities annually. 

Approximately 26 percent of concussions occur when players are hit by pitched balls, and another 26 percent occur when players in the outfield are hit by balls. The best preventive measure is to require players to wear batting helmets.

Soccer

Heading (hitting the ball with the head) is a major concern in soccer and is responsible for 31 percent of concussions among girls and 28 percent among boys. Concussions in soccer are more common among girls. 

According to US Soccer recommendations, players younger than ten should not be allowed to head, and players ages 11 to 13 should only be allowed to head during practice.

LACrosse

Approximately 77 percent of concussions among boys who play lacrosse occur during contact with another player, most commonly while body-checking. Among girls, the most common cause is contact with the lacrosse stick.

Limiting contact during practice by restricting the time spent on scrimmages and full-speed drills could prevent some concussions.

Cheerleading

Most concussions during cheerleading occur during practice, with almost 91 percent occurring during toss or lift stunts. Nearly 45 percent of cheerleaders who sustain concussions lack a spotter. The CDC recommends cheer squads take the following preventive measures:

• Limit stunts during practice

• Always use spotters

• Perform stunts on soft surfaces in good condition

• Teach safe techniques

• Only attempt new stunts with proper instruction and coaching staff present

Hockey

Players are 13 times more likely to suffer concussions during competitions than during practice. Wingers face the highest risks. About one-third occur when a player is checked (attempting to use the body to separate a player from the puck).

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends limiting body checking to only the most skilled players and to those who are ages 15 and older.

Combat Sports

In wrestling, takedowns are the most common actions that result in concussions. In boxing and martial arts, knockouts and technical knockouts are the most common causes, according to the British Journal of Sports Medicine. 

Teaching proper takedown techniques and enforcing rules restricting head contact are the most effective preventive measures for these types of sports.

 

 

I remember watching Jevan Snead when he was competing with Colt McCoy for the QB position & then transferring to Ole Miss. I never realized he took his own life. This is a great example of why targeting & blindside hits have to be enforced the way they are.

Originally published by The Associated Press on September 23, 2019

AUSTIN, Texas — Jevan Snead went to Mississippi to rekindle a promising football career that had stalled at Texas. By the time he left the Rebels, with a year of eligibility remaining, he ranked among the most prolific passers in school history.

Snead was found dead in Austin, Texas, on Saturday night by officers responding to a call about a deceased person near downtown. He was 32.

A police spokeswoman said the death was not considered suspicious. Police and the Travis County medical examiner’s office provided no further information Monday.

Gifted with a strong arm and speed, Snead went to high school in Stephenville, Texas, and became one of the nation’s top recruits. He signed with Texas in 2006, shortly after the Longhorns won the national championship behind quarterback Vince Young.

Snead had previously committed to Florida, and his switch to Texas made it appear he’d be the likely successor to Young, who left the Longhorns for the NFL. But Snead couldn’t win the starting job over Colt McCoy, who would go on to a record career with the Longhorns over the next four seasons.

After limited playing time in 2006, Snead transferred to Ole Miss and found success.

He sat out the 2007 season and started for the Rebels in 2008 and 2009, leading them to Cotton Bowl victories in both seasons. In 2008, Mississippi beat eventual national champion Florida and finished the season on a six-game winning streak.

Snead passed for 5,394 yards and 46 touchdowns at Mississippi. Both marks rank in the top 10 in school history.

“I loved Jevan,” former Mississippi coach Houston Nutt said Monday. “He had a great work ethic and attitude and would do anything for his teammates. He was such a tough guy and had some of his best moments in the biggest games … We had two great years together.”

Snead earned his college degree and skipped his senior season to enter the 2010 NFL draft, but he wasn’t selected. He eventually signed as a free agent with Tampa Bay.

“It didn’t go exactly the way I had hoped, but I’m here now. I’m here to make the best of it,” he told The Associated Press in 2010.

Snead was cut later that year.

“He had his heart set on being an NFL quarterback,” Nutt said. “I thought he would make it if he got in the right team.”

North Carolina coach Mack Brown recruited Snead to Texas. He called him “a great young man, who we enjoyed having as part of our program at Texas before he moved on to Ole Miss.”

___

This report included AP reporters Jamie Stengle in Dallas, David Brandt in Phoenix, Aaron Beard in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and Steve Megargee in Knoxville, Tennessee.

___

More AP college football: http://apnews.com/tag/Collegefootball and http://www.twitter.com/AP_Top25

Jim Vertuno, The Associated Press

The Austin-American Statesman and USA Today co-published a stunning report on the untimely death of Texas Longhorns and Ole Miss Rebels quarterback alum Jevan Snead, who took his own life in September. Snead suffered from CTE. He was just 32 years old. From the Statesman and USA Today’s long-form report:“[Nearly] a decade after the peak of Snead’s football career, his family and close friends believe the sport he so dearly loved unraveled him. By his early 30s, he fought symptoms of dementia, struggled with depression, and could scantly recall mundane details of the previous day or even the thrill of bygone victories. Snead’s post-football descent deepens questions about the dangers of a beloved American pastime and what experts say routine head trauma does to the brains of young players weekend after weekend during football season. It has put the issue of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, known as CTE, on center stage for Snead’s loved ones, who have now devoted themselves to educating parents and youths about the dangers and the need for top-line safety gear.

SneadSeptember 2, 1987 – September 21, 2019

Jevan Snead, ex-Ole Miss quarterback, dies in Texas at 32

• Originally published by The Associated Press on September 23, 2019

AUSTIN, Texas — Jevan Snead went to Mississippi to rekindle a promising football career that had stalled at Texas. By the time he left the Rebels, with a year of eligibility remaining, he ranked among the most prolific passers in school history.

Snead was found dead in Austin, Texas, on Saturday night by officers responding to a call about a deceased person near downtown. He was 32.

A police spokeswoman said the death was not considered suspicious. Police and the Travis County medical examiner’s office provided no further information Monday.

Gifted with a strong arm and speed, Snead went to high school in Stephenville, Texas, and became one of nation’s top recruits. He signed with Texas in 2006 shortly after the Longhorns won the national championship behind quarterback Vince Young.

Snead had previously committed to Florida and his switch to Texas made it appear he’d be the likely successor to Young, who left the Longhorns for the NFL. But Snead couldn’t win the starting job over Colt McCoy, who would go on to a record career with the Longhorns over the next four seasons.

After limited playing time in 2006, Snead transferred to Ole Miss and found success.

He sat out the 2007 season and started for the Rebels in 2008 and 2009, leading them to Cotton Bowls victories both seasons. In 2008, Mississippi beat eventual national champion Florida and finished the season on a six-game winning streak.

Snead passed for 5,394 yards and 46 touchdowns at Mississippi. Both marks rank in the top 10 in school history.

“I loved Jevan,” former Mississippi coach Houston Nutt said Monday. “He had a great work ethic, great attitude and would do anything for his teammates. He was such a tough guy and had some of his best moments in the biggest games … We had two great years together.”

Snead earned his college degree and skipped his senior season to enter the 2010 NFL draft, but he wasn’t selected. He eventually signed as a free agent with Tampa Bay.

“It didn’t go exactly the way I had hoped, but I’m here now. I’m here to make the best of it,” he told The Associated Press in 2010.

Snead was cut later that year.

“He had his heart set on being an NFL quarterback,” Nutt said. “I really thought he would make it if he got in the right team.”

North Carolina coach Mack Brown recruited Snead to Texas. He called him “a great young man, who we enjoyed having as part of our program at Texas before he moved on to Ole Miss.”

___

Contributing to this report were AP reporters Jamie Stengle in Dallas; David Brandt in Phoenix; Aaron Beard in Chapel Hill, North Carolina; and Steve Megargee in Knoxville, Tennessee.

___

More AP college football: http://apnews.com/tag/Collegefootball and http://www.twitter.com/AP_Top25

Jim Vertuno, The Associated Press

The Austin-American Statesman and USA Today co-published a stunning report on the untimely death of Texas Longhorns and Ole Miss Rebels quarterback alum Jevan Snead, who took his own life in September. Snead suffered from CTE. He was just 32 years old.From the Statesman and USA Today’s long-form report:“[Nearly] a decade after the peak of Snead’s football career, his family and close friends believe the sport he so dearly loved unraveled him. By his early 30s, he fought symptoms of dementia, struggled with depression and could scantly recall mundane details of the previous day or even the thrill of bygone victories.Snead’s post-football descent deepens questions about the dangers of a beloved American pastime and what experts say routine head trauma does to the brains of young players weekend after weekend during football season. It has put the issue of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, known as CTE, on center stage for Snead’s loved ones, who have now devoted themselves to educating parents and youths about the dangers and the need for top-line safety gear.

How Teddy Roosevelt helped save football

By Katie Zezima

May 29, 2014 at 8:00 a.m. EDT

In 1905, President Theodore Roosevelt – an avowed football fan – summoned coaches and athletic advisers from Harvard University, Yale University and Princeton University to the White House to discuss how to improve the game of football, “especially by reducing the element of brutality in play,” The Washington Post wrote in an Oct. 10, 1905 article.

The changes inspired in part by Roosevelt were the first steps in a long line of reforms to make football safer.

Football at the time was particularly dangerous and violent. In 1905 alone, at least 18 people died and more than 150 were injured playing football. According to the Washington Post, at least 45 football players died from 1900 to October 1905, many from internal injuries, broken necks, concussions or broken backs.

“Nearly every death may be traced to ‘unnecessary roughness.’ Picked up unconscious from beneath a mass of other players, it was generally found that the victim had been kicked in the head or stomach, so as to cause internal injuries or concussion of the brain, which, sooner or later, ended life,” The Post wrote on Oct. 15, 1905.

Football at the turn of the 20th century was more akin to rugby. The ball was roughly the size of a watermelon. Forward passes were not allowed, leading to short lateral tosses, large scrums of players jockeying for the ball and vicious hits.

Roosevelt liked football and apparently thought being roughed up wasn’t necessarily a bad thing (“I believe in outdoor games, and I do not mind in the least that they are rough games, or that those who take part in them are occasionally injured,” Roosevelt said at the time).

But Roosevelt, a Harvard graduate, had a personal stake – his son was injured while playing as a freshman at Harvard, “bleeding profusely” from a cut over his eye – and the nation was aghast at the number of young men who died or were seriously injured playing the game.

People were especially shaken by the November 1905 death of Union College halfback Harold Moore, who died of a cerebral hemorrhage after being kicked in the head while trying to tackle a New York University player. A cartoon in the Cincinnati Commercial Tribune showed the Grim Reaper atop a goal post.

“There’s this social and political movement that rises up to outlaw the sport. It’s led by the president of Harvard and a number of other well-known figures. They equate football with homicide and think it has no place in civilized society and they just want to get rid of it,” said John J. Miller, author of “The Big Scrum: How Teddy Roosevelt Saved Football.”

Columbia, Duke and Northwestern suspended their football programs. Secretary of War William Howard Taft said he would “make an example of any West Point cadet who plays rough football” and have him dismissed if necessary.  According to The New York Times, Harvard President Charles Eliot said that football was “more brutalizing than prizefighting, cockfighting or bullfighting.” Other schools switched from football to rugby. Roosevelt wanted to reform the game but complained in a letter that Eliot wanted to “emasculate” it.

Roosevelt again called Harvard, Yale and other football coaches and officials to the White House in December 1905, “with a view to such modifications of the rules as would eliminate its brutal features,” the Post wrote.

Roosevelt was, in many ways, trying to negotiate between two factions: Harvard coach William T. Reid, Jr., who wanted to reform the game, and Yale Coach Walter Camp, known as the “father of American football,” who did not, said Miller.

A committee was formed after the 1905 season – spurred in large part by Moore’s death – to look at changing the rules. Reid played a prominent role, as did Paul Dashiell, then the head coach at the U.S. Naval Academy, whom Roosevelt conscripted to sit on the rules committee.

Roosevelt, Miller said, played a big role behind the scenes. But Michael Oriard, a football cultural historian and retired American literature professor at Oregon State University, said in an interview that Roosevelt’s role in reforming the sport has become exaggerated over the year.

“Roosevelt’s actual impact was not nearly as big as some people would claim,” said Oriard, a former Kansas City Chiefs offensive lineman. Was it not for the death of Moore, Oriard said, “things would not have changed.”

The rules were changed for the 1906 season, but confusion reigned. The Post recruited the head coach at Swarthmore College to write a series of articles called “How to Play Football.”

The new rules allowed for forward passing of the ball – adding the position now known as wide receiver and turning football into the sport we’re now familiar with. Allowing the forward pass opened up the game, spreading the players out across the entire field. It was a change designed to eliminate packs of players scrambling and viciously vying for the football, which is where many injuries were sustained. The new rules stopped the game when a player fell on the ball in order to eliminate heaps of men trying to get the ball, and allowed the ball to be kicked down the field.

It took a few years for the rules to shake out, Miller said. In 1913, a university in rural Indiana cemented its football legacy by demonstrating a proficiency at the passing game, establishing the gridiron legend of Notre Dame. In 1920, the National Football League was founded.

The most important safety feature we now have – helmets – were not required until much later. The NCAA made helmets mandatory in 1939, according to “The Anatomy of a Game: Football, the Rules and the Men Who Made the Game,” by David M. Nealson. The NFL required helmets in 1943. The NFL has not mandated helmet models that have shown in tests to be better against shielding the head against hits that can cause concussions.

The White House’s prior role in reforming football was not known to the current administration. Administration officials were not aware of Roosevelt’s efforts to impose greater safeguards on football until planning for the summit was underway, according to a White House aide.

Juliet Eilperin contributed reporting. 

Corby Robertson-1965  Cotton Speyer-1967  Craig Arledge-1970  Dan Adams-1970  Dan Steakley-1969  Danny Baker-1973  David Anderson

David Ballew-1968  David E. Arledge-1968  David Jefferies-1963  David Kristynik-1958  David McGrath-1976  David Milan 1971

David Richardson-1967  David Russell-1958  David Studdard-1974  Dean Campbell-1967  Deene Gott-1957  Delano Womack  Dennis Ladd-1970

Denny Aldridge-1965  Derrell Oliver-1960  Deryl Comer-1965  Dick Watt-1965  Don Allen  Don Talbert  Donald Burrisk-1970

Donald Crosslin-1969  Donnie Wigginton-1967  Doug English-1971  Doug Gelder-1970  Dr. Joe Reneau  Duane Simmons-1970

Duke Carlisle-1960  Dwight Jefferson-1975  Earl Campbell-1974  Earl Hudson-1963  Ed Padgett-1958  Ed Small-1964  Eddie Jinkins-1969

Eddie Philllips-1967  Ernie Koy-1961  Frank Bedrick-1962  Frank Denius  Fred Bednarski-1954  Fred Sarchet-1971  Garland Kennon-1954

Garry Brown-1961  Gary Frazier-1970  Gary Mcintosh-1966  Gary Moore-1963  Gary Reissig-1970  Gary Yeoman-1970  Gene Bledsoe-1963

Gene Powell-1964  George James-1974  Glen Frantzen-1965  Glen Halsell-1966  Glenn Blackwood-1975  Greg Lott-1964  Happy Feller-1967

Harold Philipp-1960  Henry Barton-1970  Hix Green-1960  Howard Goad-1962  Ivey Suber-1973  Jack Collins-1958  Jack Freeman-1966

Jack Howe-1962  James Besselman-1960  James Gresham-1973  Jay Arnold-1970  Jeff Crozier-1973  Jeff Nesrsta  Jeff Zapalac-1968

Jerrell Bolton-1968  Jerry Prichard-1964  Jerry Sisemore-1969  Jim Achilles-1967  Jim Bob Moffitt-1956  Jim Kay-1967  Jim Leahy-1963

Jim Lemmon  Jim McIngvale-1969  Jim Rose-1958  Jim Wax  Jim Yarbrough-1974  Jimmy Ball  Jimmy Gunn-1967  Jimmy Johnson-1972

Jimmy Williamson-1966  Joe Bob Bizzell-1973  Joe Galiga-1962  Joe Norwood-1966  Joe Samford-1973  Joe Williams -1955  Joey Aboussie-1971

John Genung-1959  John Seals-1958  Johnnie Johnson-1976  Johnny (Lam) Jones-1976  Jon Aune-1976  Judy Brooks for Leo Brooks-1965

Julius Whittier-1969  Kade King-1968  Kevin Henry-1973  Lance Taylor-1976  Larry Black-1969  Larry Miller-1972  Lee Hensley-1960

Lee Lyles-1969  Les Studdard-1977  Lewis Rowlett-1974  Linus Baer-1964  Lionell Johnson 1973  Lonnie Bennett-1970  Mack Lawrence-1965

Mack McKinney-1966  Manuel Mehos-1972  Mark Akins-1970  Mark Covey-1974  Mark Halfmann-1970  Mark Hamilton  Mark McBath-1976

Marvin Bendele-1965  Marvin Kristynik-1962  Mickey Smith-1954  Mike Campbell-1966  Mike Cave-1967  Mike Cotton-1958  Mike Crommens-1970

Mike Crosswhite-1973  Mike Dean-1967  Mike Hardage-1971  Mike Janda-1976  Mike McCullouch-1970  Mike Perrin-1965  Mike Presley-1971

Mike Reeves-1965  Mike Rowan-1973  Mike Speer-1968  Mike Sullivan-1966  Mike Zabransky-1970  Mikiel Featherston-1972  Morgan Copeland-1973

Pat Kelley-1970  Pat Williamson-1962  Patrick Hogan-1971  Paul Kristynik-1966  Paul Robichau-1967  Perry McWilliams-1959  Pete Lammons-1962

Phil Harris-1962  Ragan Gennusa-1963  Randall Braband-1969  Randy McEachern-1974  Randy Peschel-1966  Randy Stilley-1972  Randy Stout-1967

Rene Amaya  Richard Burleson 1972  Rick Davis-1970  Rick Ingraham-1974  Rick Nabors-1967  Rick Sheldon-1971  Rick Troberman-1968

Rick Vacura-1970  Rob Rivierie -1970  Robert Gurwitz-1957  Robert Paine-1968  Robert Rickman-1972  Rodney Kelley-1961  Ronald Landry-1962

Ronnie Miksch-1974  Ronnie Tyler-1968  Ronnie Workman-1970  Roosevelt Leaks-1971  Rusty Allen-1972  Scott Henderson-1967

1973 – Russell Erxleben

Scott Huntington-1975  Scott Mann-1959  Scott Palmer-1967  Sidney Allison  Spanky Stephens  Staley Faulkner-1959  Stan Mauldin-1967

Stephen Adger-1969  Stephen Hildebrand-1960  Stephen Timmons-1975  Steve Campbell-1975  Steve Collier-1974  Steve Cumley-1970

Steve Oxley-1969  Steve Worster-1967  Stuart Peake-1958  Syd Keasler-1967  Ted Koy-1966  Teddy Lilljedahl-1963  Terrance Tschatschula-1975

Terry Boothe -1964  Tim Doerr  Tim Horn-1966  Toby Stolhandske-1972  Tom Harper-1964  Tom Lee-1968  Tom Mankin-1960

Tom Stockton-1961  Tommy Asaff-1965  Tommy Isbell-1971  Tommy Keel-1971  Tommy Landry-1970  Tommy Lucas-1959  Tommy Nobis-1962

Tommy Souders-1965  tommy Woodard-1968  Tony Crosby-1960  Tony Malouf-1967  Walter Rowan-1972  Will Wilcox-1972  Will Wilson-1968

Larry Webb, Longhorn football (68-72), died on 2/3/19 in a hospital bed in the loving arms of his wife, Mary Jane. Larry suffered from CTE. He could not leave his house because of daily nausea, vertigo, and mental decline. He ultimately died from Renal Cell carcinoma and was in hospice since his diagnosis in October 2018.

Mary Jane had him at home until the Wednesday before his death. He was in tremendous pain up until his death, so his passing was a blessing to him and MJ. His brain was sent to Boston for analysis. He was diagnosed with CTE.

Really going to miss Lawrence of Angleton, “Old Catfish Mouth,” said his teammate and best friend, Dr. Dan Terwelp.

Update 01/09/2020 from Dr. Dan Terwelp about Larry Webb

Hi Billy and happy new year. I heard from MaryJane Webb, and the neurologists and pathologists in Boston that examined Larry’s brain completed their work and called her. They found multiple Tao deposits in his frontal lobes.

Tao deposits are proteins that accumulate in patients suffering from CTE and Alzheimer’s disease. They classified him as stage II CTE. Remember, he didn’t die of CTE, but he would have if he hadn’t had Renal Cell Carcinoma (kidney cancer). Mary Jane told them they could use his information for any presentations or research that they were performing. She said we could share this information also with anyone. They had talked about it before he died that he hoped some of this information might help this new generation of athletes. The anniversary of his death is next month. She said she would never be right without Lawrence of Angleton, as we all affectionately called him. He was one of a kind.

Tommy Nobis had the worse kind of CTE.

The San Antonio Express News article by Mike Finger June 2, 2018 .

This combination of photos provided by Boston University shows sections from a normal brain, top, and from the brain of former University of Texas football player Greg Ploetz, bottom, in stage IV of chronic traumatic encephalopathy. According to a report released on Tuesday, July 25, 2017, by the Journal of the American Medical Association, research on 202 former football players found evidence of a brain disease linked to repeated head blows in nearly all of them, from athletes in the National Football League, college and even high school. (Dr. Ann McKee/BU via AP) less

Mildred Whittier’s court date is set for the courtroom in 2022. It has been five years since she filed a lawsuit against the NCAA on behalf of her trailblazing brother, who battles dementia almost five decades after he became the first black football letterman in Texas Longhorns history.

mfinger@express-news.net<mailto:mfinger@express-news.net

Twitter: @mikefinger

As Julius’ roommate, I have written his story and about the black history of Longhorn football.

Article in Dallas Morning News about Greg Ploetz by Kevin Sherrington  in 2015

 Greg Ploetz hasn’t played a football game in more than 40 years, but the scar still shows. An undersized All-Southwest Conference defensive tackle at Texas, he earned it. A “warrior,” one teammate called him. Now, at 65, Ploetz can’t handle crowd noise. Conversations confuse him. Walking is sometimes terrifying. In his tortured mind these days, a crack in the floor looms like a leap across a deep, dark crevasse.

Ploetz — pronounced Plets — suffers from what neurologists call “mixed dementia,” the probable result of head trauma from his days as a 5-11 205-pound lineman at Sherman High and Texas. Doctors can’t tell his wife, Deb, if he’s a victim of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, known as “CTE,” the progressive degenerative brain disease linked with multiple concussions.

One of Greg’s last paintings while struggling with CTE, signed by 250 DKR players

Julius whittier by Millie Whittier

UT ex Julius Whittier battles Alzheimer’s as his sister takes on the NCAA

Mike Finger Sep. 16, 2017 Updated: Sep. 16, 2017 8:33 p.m.

Mildred Whittier did not need to know.

Looking back on it, almost five decades later, she can appreciate her youthful naiveté as a gift of kindness from her big brother. She was only a sophomore at Highlands High School when Julius Whittier went off to college in Austin, and she had no idea he was doing anything out of the ordinary.

Julius was going to attend school, and he was going to play football. Simple as that.

Even if he understood everything that went along with integrating the Texas program and becoming the first black letterman in Longhorn’s history, there was no reason to tell his younger sister.

“I didn’t understand the enormity,” Mildred said. “The fact that he was the first African-American didn’t move me one way or another. I wasn’t caught up in him doing anything historic. He was just my brother.”

Now, all of these years after he left his mark on the football field and in the courtroom, there is something Julius does not need to know. By not mentioning it, Mildred is returning a gift to him and keeping him unaware of another enormity.

Julius has Alzheimer’s disease.

“I never can tell him that,” Mildred said. “I don’t think he has made the connection that you have dementia, that you have Alzheimer’s. He says he’s forgetful. He says, ‘I have to rely on my sister.’ ”

Pushing for change

In a way, others are depending on Mildred, too. In 2014, she filed a class-action lawsuit on Julius’ behalf against the NCAA in U.S. District Court. The suit seeks up to $50 million in damages for players from 1960-2014 who did not go on to play in the NFL and who have been diagnosed with a latent brain injury or disease.

That case is separate from a proposed settlement in which the NCAA agreed to set aside $75 million for brain trauma research and testing for current and former athletes. But that settlement offers no financial compensation to injured players, and the goal of Mildred’s lawsuit is to establish a fund for the supplemental needs of those suffering from the effects of brain trauma.

The lawsuit claims the NCAA “was fully aware of” and “concealed the dangers of” head impacts in football.

As Mildred watches how the 66-year-old Julius’ mind has deteriorated, she remains convinced his days as an offensive lineman and tight end caused it.

“No doubt at all,” Mildred said. “He continually spoke of how he was trained to block, using his head. For someone who was as brilliant and as vital as my brother, it’s just sad. I’ve cried so much, I don’t think I can cry anymore.”

Mildred’s cried with former colleagues and teammates of Julius who have stopped by the north Texas memory care facility where he now lives. She can tell he realizes he’s supposed to know these old friends, but he doesn’t, so he just smiles and laughs.

She has cried with Deb Ploetz, the widow of one of Julius’ UT teammates. Two years ago, Greg Ploetz died at the age of 66, and was found to have been suffering from Stage 4 Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE). Deb, who told the Denver Post her husband would have chosen never to play football “if he knew he would suffer and die like he did,” filed a separate lawsuit against the NCAA last January.

“She wanted to stay in touch with Julius and stay in touch with me,” Mildred said of Deb. “I think she needed somebody to relate to.”

What Mildred and Deb understand is how brain conditions overwhelm not only the patients but also everyone who love them. It begins with a couple of troubling signs, and then a few sleepless nights, and eventually it becomes too much for a man or a woman or a family to bear on its own.

A quick descent

For Mildred, it started in 2012, when the leadership team of Julius’ law firm asked her to attend a meeting. He had been in private practice for more than two decades following his stint as a Dallas County assistant district attorney.

He was only 61 at the time, a year away from his long overdue induction into the Longhorns’ Hall of Honor. The memories of his days at UT, where as a freshman in 1969 he dealt with the often-difficult circumstances of becoming a racial pioneer and then earned his historic varsity letter in 1970, were still vivid.

But other parts of his mind were slipping, and his fellow attorneys noticed. He would drive to a lunch or a meeting, and wasn’t sure where he was supposed to go after that. His bosses told Mildred it might be best if he stepped away from the job.

For a while, Julius continued to live at his home in Oak Cliff, not far from Mildred’s work as a systems analyst for the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. She would stop by to eat lunch with him every day, and before long she was attending to some of his hygienic needs, too.

“He started to wander,” Mildred said. “He was not able to cook on his own safely, manage himself. I suspected (Alzheimer’s) but I didn’t want to face up to it. Telling a brother that has been so full of vitality his whole life, it was not easy for me.”

Then came a fire at Julius’ home, and Mildred used that as a reason to get him to see a doctor. She told him he’d been through a lot of trauma and needed to get “checked up.”

He agreed, reluctantly, and Mildred’s fears were confirmed. He had early-onset Alzheimer’s, and things were only going to get worse.

For a while Julius lived with her in Plano, but in 2016 he moved to the memory care facility. One of his former UT teammates, who has visited the home but asked not to be identified because of the pending lawsuit, confirmed Julius no longer recognizes him.

For the future

Mildred believes this can be prevented. She says one of the main reasons for her suit is because “football is big-time, and we have to do what we can to make sure more people don’t suffer through this.”

When she filed the suit, Julius knew about it, and was all for it. She says he told her he was glad to be in a position to address the problem, and hopefully to find a solution for those who followed him.

He is not aware of the legal proceedings anymore, though. He does not realize he is suffering from a terrible, cruel disease. Medication keeps him drowsy most of the time, and Mildred says his spirits seldom get lifted.

“I am so happy to say that when he sees me, he lights up,” she said. “But then he starts crying. Deep down inside, he understands he might be missing something.”

He does not need to know what it is. Only the rest of us do.

George Sauer

Sauer was an under-utilized receiver in Darrell Royal’s run-heavy offense. His father, a former college star for DX Bible at Nebraska and a former Green Bay Packer, was personnel director of the Jets from 1962-69 when clubs in the upstart American Football League were desperate to find the talent they could lure away from the NFL.

The Jets hit the jackpot with the quartet from Texas.

“All of us wound up being better in the pros than we were at Texas,” Lammons said.

Sauer had an extremely productive career. He was chosen to four all-star teams and was a two-time All-Pro.

In a largely defensive struggle in Super Bowl III, Sauer had eight receptions for 133 yards — more catches and yards than he had for the entire 1963 season at Texas.

In 1970, Sauer walked away from football, turning his back on a sport he called “inhumanly brutal.” In 1972 he penned the introduction to “Meat on the Hoof,” a still controversial expose of the brutality of UT football.

After Sauer lost his father to Alzheimer, he wrote a poem that captured his sorrow and a premonition that he might suffer the same fate — “an old man dances in my mind his broken brain rattles mine.” Sauer never finished his novel. Alzheimer’s began to take its toll.

“He became something of a hermit,” Lammons said.

Sauer passed away in 2013. According to published reports, no one from his college or pro playing days attended his funeral.

https://www.texaslsn.org/george-sauer-conflicted-soul

THE VIDEO OF JIM HUDSON AND GEORGE SAUER STARTS AT THE 2:56 MARK AND THE 8:45 MARK IN THE MOVIE BELOW

James Saxton

Jim Hudson

Hudson and Sauer succumbed to the head injuries and/or mental conditions that have now been linked to the epidemic of concussion-related problems in college and professional football. Most of the news about chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) has centered on the dangers of pro football but Pete Lammons said, “Oh Lord. Mercy. We had a lot more hitting in college practices.”

In 2013 Hudson died from what was first diagnosed as Parkinson’s disease but was later discovered to be a very advanced case of CTE.

Professionals said, “Up until recently, it was the most damaged brain they had seen”. He died in 2013 of dementia; a postmortem study of his brain found that he suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy, the life-altering disease that has beset numerous former NFL players.

In an interview at her home in Austin, Texas, Lise Hudson described her husband’s idyllic post-football life, breeding and training quarter horses, hunting and fishing with their kids. “If you think of the Marlboro Man, he was it,” she said. Then things changed. Jim Hudson went to the wrong school to pick up his daughter; it seemed funny at the time. Years later, hand tremors, financial errors, and a routine trip to the supermarket ended with him wandering lost in a parking lot. Hudson died in 2013 with what was originally thought to be Parkinson’s dementia but was later diagnosed as CTE, which is caused by brain-killing clumps of a protein called tau. Originally studied in boxers in the 1920s, CTE has been linked to repeated head trauma; its prevalence among football players has forced the powers in the game to rethink the rules about how the sport should be played, and who should play it. “I hope it doesn’t kill the game, but that it stops killing the players,” Lise Hudson said. “We’d better get on it and figure it out.”

Some were called “stingers.” Other times he “got his bell rung.”

Roy Jones remembers Jim Hudson

I was George Sauer’s roommate in Moore-Hill Hall and senior manager of the 1963 Longhorn team. One of my favorite memories of Jim was a freshman game (before freshman could play varsity). We got the ball at our own one and on first down, Jim ran a quarterback sneak to have a little room to operate. The QB sneak went for 99 yards and a Shorthorn TD.

Marvin Kubin

The Darrell K Royal Research Fund for Alzheimer’s Disease is advancing innovative research and whole-person care for patients and caregivers through a $250,000 gift to Dell Medical School at The University of Texas at Austin. Dell Med will also be a beneficiary of this year’s DKR Research Fund’s 4th& Goal Gala at ACL Live. The fund’s support pays tribute to the legacy of its namesake, Darrell K Royal, former football coach, UT athletic director, and an enduring part of state lore.

Under Coach Royal’s leadership from 1957 through 1976, the Longhorns transformed into a powerhouse on the gridiron, winning three national championships, 11 Southwest Conference titles, and a 167–47–5 record. The winningest coach in Longhorn football history, he never had a losing season.

But his contributions to the community didn’t stop there. His “Pickin’ Parties” in the 1970s and longtime support of musicians and songwriters — including his friend Willie Nelson — helped spread enthusiasm for live music in Austin, now known as the live music capital of the world.

After Coach Royal was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, his wife, Edith, and family friends founded the DKR Research Fund in hopes of helping others affected by the disease and one day finding a cure. The disease took his life in 2012.

“The sad fact is this disease touches most everyone in our state, and the Darrell Royal family is no exception,” Edith Royal says. “The DKR Research Fund represents a commitment to excellence in Alzheimer’s disease research and care for Texans, the nation and the world.”

With a vast network of supporters throughout the community, the DKR Research Fund, which raised $1 million last year, awards grants to promising research initiatives in Alzheimer’s and dementia, as well as programs supporting and educating caregivers.

“It’s an honor and a privilege to work with Mrs. Royal and help raise funds for neurological research in the state of Texas in Coach Royal’s name,” says Debbie Hanna, president of the DKR Research Fund. “This gift to Dell Med is a sound investment in promising research and meaningful care innovations that will create brighter futures for people with Alzheimer’s and their families.”

My dad played for NAVY ‘61, ‘62… (Rodger Staubachs plebe year) fast forward to 2009, my husband Steve was being inducted into the UT Hall of Honor, Coach Royal was in attendance…

I had explained to dad that Coach Royal was battling memory issues, yet Dad beelined it over to Coach Royal, and wanted to pay respects to him re the ‘64 game. Without batting an eye, Coach Royal reached out to shake hands and told dad, “we were lucky he’ll to get outta there!” It was a magical moment for my dad! Ashley Bryan

 The Tragic Death of NFL Sack Artist Shane Dronett

by Jake Elman | More Articles: NFLPublished onDecember 1, 2020

A teammate of star quarterback John Elway on the Denver Broncos, Shane Dronett appeared destined for greatness.

At 6 feet 6 inches and 300 pounds, Dronett had the size and skills to become the NFL’s next elite sack artist. As they do with so many promising careers, injuries interfered and kept Dronett from joining the upper-echelon of pass-rushers.

This is Dronett’s story, from a capable defensive lineman to a tragic death before turning 40.

Shane Dronett played 10 NFL seasons

The 54th overall pick in 1992, Shane Dronett didn’t need long to impress for the Denver Broncos.

Dronett had 6.5 sacks, forced a fumble, and recovered two loose balls in 16 games and two starts as a rookie. Promoted to the starting lineup in 1993, Dronett had seven sacks, picked off two passes, and forced a fumble in 16 starts.

Dronett played in all 16 games the next season and added another six sacks, giving him 19.5 through three years.

Dronett’s production dipped to two sacks in 13 games in 1995, and he began the 1996 season in Detroit. He didn’t have a sack in seven games or five games with the Falcons that year.

Still only 26, Dronett began reviving his career in 1997 with three sacks off the bench. A starting defensive tackle in 1998, Dronett had 6.5 sacks and four forced fumbles on a Falcons team that lost to John Elway and the Broncos in Super Bowl 33.

Dronett had eight tackles and a recovered fumble in three playoff games. He added 6.5 more sacks in 1999 and played in Atlanta through the end of the 2001 season.

Dronett tragically died in January 2009

Shane Dronett was a professional American football player who played as a defensive lineman in the NFL. Born on January 12, 1971, in Orange, Texas, he had a successful career spanning from 1992 to 2002. He played for teams like the Denver Broncos, Detroit Lions, and Atlanta Falcons, even starting for the Falcons in Super Bowl XXXIII2.

Before his NFL career, Dronett was an All-American college football player for the Texas Longhorns. Tragically, he passed away in 2009, and his death has been linked to chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a condition associated with repeated head injuries.

Shane Dronett retired with 44 sacks and eight forced fumbles in 10 NFL seasons.

Just over seven years after his career ended, Dronett tragically passed away. According to ESPN, Dronett — nine days after he turned 38 — died by suicide in January 2009.

Dan Reeves, who coached Dronett in Denver and Atlanta, remembered the ex-lineman as an “integral part of our football team.”

“He was really a good player. He gave us a lot of depth there. He was a happy go lucky guy. He was fun to be around, was always smiling and was the type of player you look for on a football team.”

Dronett was survived by his wife, Chris, and their two daughters.

Shane Dronett was one of the NFL’s first major concussion deaths

Shane Dronett battled various injuries, including concussions, throughout his career.

Dronett’s family believed the brain trauma played a role in Dronett’s death. According to ProFootballTalk, scientists at the Boston University School of Medicine’s Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy discovered that Dronett suffered from CTE.

PFT reported that Chris Dronett, Shane’s wife, told CNN in 2011 that her husband had problems in the years after he retired. PFT also transcribed the quotes, which included Chris recalling her husband’s struggles in 2006.

“He woke up in the middle of the night and started screaming and told everyone to run out of the house. He thought that someone was blowing up our house. It was very frightening.”

In a 2014 interview with KFDM in Texas, Dronett’s mother, Candace Henry, said CTE and football changed her son forever.

“My son was gone, but his body was there,” Henry said. “His mind was not the mind of my child. It was the mind of somebody I didn’t know.”

The NFL has had various concussion problems and lawsuits throughout the years. Former Chargers linebacker Junior Seau and ex-Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez are among the players who died by suicide and had signs of CTE.

In the U.S., call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255. Or text HOME to 741-741 to connect with a trained crisis counselor at the free Crisis Text Line.