
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, November 15, 1993                   TAG: 9311150057
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: PENN HILLS, PA.                                LENGTH: Medium

DYING MAN HOLDS ON UNTIL SON GRABS RECORD PASSES FOR HIM

A gravely ill father who left his bed to attend his son's last football game at Carnegie Mellon died hours after returning home, his son said Sunday.

At a ceremony honoring senior players and their parents, wide receiver Jarrod Siket wheeled his 48-year-old father, Joe, across the football field and hugged him before the game against NCAA Division III rival Case Western Reserve.

The receiver then caught two touchdown passes, bringing his season total to a school record-breaking nine, as Carnegie Mellon won 56-0. Early Sunday, after an evening at home with family members, Siket's father was dead.

"From everything the doctors had told us the last couple years, he was going pretty much day to day. We were all pretty much amazed he had made it as long as he did," Jarrod Siket said.

Doctors had told the father he didn't have long to live because of diabetes and the strain from kidney dialysis treatments five times a week. The former postal worker was blind and paralyzed from the neck down.

The younger Siket doesn't expect to be drafted or catch on as a free agent in the pros, so Saturday's game may have been his last.

"I didn't believe it before, but I know now that's all he was hanging on for," he said of his father. "With everything working out the way it did, there's no way it could be any better. . . . It makes it all that more important.

"People say it's just a game, but I really believe he wanted to be there for that."

After the game, when the family was gathered at its home in suburban Pittsburgh, Joe Siket spoke privately with each member. Jarrod Siket said his father spoke with him last.

"I think he knew what he was doing," the son said. "He thanked me for getting him the records and I told him, `That didn't mean anything to me. You being at the game is what counted.' "

by CNB