Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, September 21, 1993 TAG: 9309210013
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DOUG DOUGHTY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
It was bound for former UVa offensive guard Bob Olderman, who is fighting for his life at St. Joseph's Hospital, where he has spent most of the past month in intensive care.
Coach George Welsh and nearly a dozen members of his coaching and training staffs visited Olderman on Thursday before the Cavaliers' game against the Yellow Jackets at Grant Field.
"It was hard to see a guy who weighed 280-something when he was with us and now has tubes running in and out of a hole in his chest," said UVa offensive coordinator Tom O'Brien, who was Olderman's position coach from 1982-84. "He probably doesn't weigh much more than 130 to 150 pounds.
"It's tough to deal with. It reminds you of the frailty of the human condition."
O'Brien, one of the Virginia coaches who visited the hospital, said the UVa staff learned of Olderman's medical problems less than a week before the Georgia Tech game.
"When we found out, he wasn't supposed to live through the night," O'Brien said. "They have a name for it, Castleman's disease, but the nurse told us they didn't really know what it was."
O'Brien and several other UVa coaches were under the impression that Olderman has a form of cancer. However, a former teammate said Olderman's father described the disease as a non-cancerous lymphoma, with only 50 known cases in the world.
Olderman's father could not be reached for comment.
"Bob was married for the second time about three years ago," O'Brien said, "and shortly after that he had an operation for something like this."
Olderman, 31, was a first-team All-ACC selection for the 1984 UVa team that finished 8-2-2 and beat Purdue in the Peach Bowl. He was drafted by Kansas City in the fourth round of the National Football League draft and started for the Chiefs in 1985.
A back injury hampered Olderman's progress, and he subsequently was cut by Kansas City and the Denver Broncos. The father of an 8-month-old son, he has been in the real-estate business in his hometown of Atlanta.
"He can't talk very well because of all the tubes," O'Brien said, "but I called him Friday and he was very upbeat after the game. They had to tape the game for him because the hospital doesn't have cable TV, but he was able to listen on radio."
The Virginia-Georgia Tech matchup brought back memories for Olderman, who was ejected from the 1983 game at Grant Field for fighting.
"I had to go out there on the field and try to restrain [Jim] Dombrowski and Olderman," O'Brien said. "Bob asked me before the game, `Are you going to go out there and fight again.' I believe he still holds the record for the helmet throw at Grant Field."
\ MOTIVATION: Duke coach Barry Wilson, whose Blue Devils visit Virginia on Saturday at 1 p.m., said he will show his team videotapes of the past three Duke-UVa games - won by the Cavaliers 59-0, 34-3 and 59-28.
"I want our kids to look at our games with Virginia until they throw up," Wilson said at his weekly news conference Monday, "and see that we can do a heck of a lot better with Duke and not worry so much about X's and O's of Virginia."
\ NO FLORIDA STATE TALK: A caller to Welsh's radio show Sunday night raised an issue that many have mentioned privately - namely that the Cavaliers could be 5-0 when they visit Florida State on Oct. 16. After Duke, UVa plays host to Ohio University and then has an open date.
"I can't believe it," Welsh said. "We've just got to ignore it. . . . I know that that's what these commentators are being paid for, but it's kind of ridiculous to be talking about the Heisman Trophy and games that are five weeks down the road. They liked us last year, too, when we were 5-0."
\ IN THE OPERATING ROOM: Fifth-year senior Bill Edwards, projected as a starter at right guard, will undergo arthroscopic knee surgery today for a torn cartilage. It is not clear whether the injury is related to the broken leg Edwards suffered in a pick-up basketball game during the summer.
Edwards is expected to miss at least two games, and he may have trouble getting his job back from another fifth-year senior, Peter Collins. Welsh said Collins "has done admirably well" in his first year as a regular.
\ MORE INJURIES: Safety Percy Ellsworth finished Thursday's game despite a dislocated right shoulder that was popped back into place by the UVa medical staff. It is expected that Ellsworth and linebacker P.J. Killian, who aggravated a knee injury that sidelined him for the first two games, will be available Saturday.
by CNB