OT: Iowa Head Coach's Son to have Tumor Removed Hours Before NCAA First Round Game

Submitted by boliver46 on

Iowa Head Coach Fran McCaffery is dealing with a tough situation:

Not only do his Hawkeyes square off with Tennessee in the NCAA tournament in Dayton, Ohio, McCaffery’s 13-year old son Patrick will have surgery to remove a thyroid tumor just hours before tip off.

Here's hoping Iowa kicks a## in the first game and his son kick's that tumor's a##.

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The Denarding

March 19th, 2014 at 9:49 AM ^

Beat the tumor son...we got this! When you have kids these are the things that wrench your hurt because you can't protect them from chance. Makes win the game mean a hell of a lot more doesn't it?

Joined: 11/29/2010

MGoPoints: 1679

StephenRKass

March 19th, 2014 at 9:58 AM ^

As a father, it had to be very difficult for McCaffery to focus his attention completely on basketball. Yes, you want to win, but your son is in a bad way . . . who cares about basketball at the end of the day?

Joined: 07/15/2008

MGoPoints: 23001

1464

March 19th, 2014 at 11:23 AM ^

Have kids?  There's never an excuse for throwing shit, but I promise if either of my two were super sick, I would have a very short fuse as well.  If I ever lost a kid, I don't know how I could live life without being bitter and venomous.

Joined: 06/21/2010

MGoPoints: 37173

1464

March 19th, 2014 at 12:42 PM ^

Take it from a parent.  I have two perfectly happy, healthy children that I love more than anything in the world.  Most of the time they make me want to throw things through other things.  It's one of the joys of being a parent.

I get your point that McCaffery isn't a ray of sunshine.  I also get that he likely won't ever read any of the comments on here.  However, as a parent, there is automatically a level of sympathy for someone going through medical problems with their kids.  It's very easy to picture yourself in that situation.

Joined: 06/21/2010

MGoPoints: 37173

B-Nut-GoBlue

March 19th, 2014 at 2:17 PM ^

Or if you've paid any attention he actually "lost the team" ever since hes cooled off.  Don't spew shit you know nothing about.  Again, the team seemingly started playing poorly AFTER incidents earlier in the year and when one could assume McCaffrey has been told to cool it.

Joined: 09/30/2011

MGoPoints: 43706

LSAClassOf2000

March 19th, 2014 at 11:40 AM ^

I won't even pretend to know how that must feel in the case of Fran McCaffrey - you have an opportunity to get into something like the NCAA Tournament and perhaps do a little damage and you have something like this going on at home. The stress has to be terrible for him, both work and family. That is awesome that he at least plans to be there for the surgery, and I wish his son and the McCaffrey family all the best for a speedy recovery. 

Joined: 01/07/2011

MGoPoints: 130653

bluebyyou

March 19th, 2014 at 12:41 PM ^

Please let it be benign!  

As a father of a couple of boys, it is hard to describe the pain you feel when something bad happens to your kids. It is why I can never say thank you enough to places like Mott and all the fine pediatric hospitals we are fortunate to have in the US.

Joined: 09/07/2009

MGoPoints: 18607

bronxblue

March 19th, 2014 at 1:16 PM ^

Best wishes to him.  I wonder if this is partially why he seemed a little bit out of it in recent weeks; I'm sure this has been weighing down on Fran.  I think we can all root for Iowa tonight.

Joined: 11/22/2008

MGoPoints: 171793

B-Nut-GoBlue

March 19th, 2014 at 2:12 PM ^

UPDATE: McCaffrey is en route to Ohio after a successful surgery.  Tests will be done over the next few days to determine whether the tumor is benign or malignant.  But again, coach will be with the team tonight which is great news for the student athletes. 

Go Hawks.

Joined: 09/30/2011

MGoPoints: 43706