Jim Calhoun has faced his share of challenges in his 22 years as head coach of the UConn men's basketball team. But one of the most difficult obstacles he's had to overcome was on a ride home from Storrs over a month ago, when he had to inform his wife, Pat, and the rest of his family that he had cancer - for the third time.
"You start putting things about your family and some of the other things [in your head]," Calhoun said. "Because no one takes the least case; you always take the worst-case scenario."
Calhoun announced at a press conference Friday, May 30, at Gampel Pavilion that a cancerous lump was found in his neck in late April. Doctors determined the 66-year-old Hall of Fame coach had squamous cell cancer, one of the most common forms of skin cancer, and surgery was performed May 6 at the UConn Health Center.
The mass, along with almost 40 lymph nodes and part of his salivary gland, were removed and later tests showed the cancer was gone.
Starting June 24, he will undergo six weeks of radiation treatment that was deemed precautionary by Dr. Jeffery Spiro, his physician who attended the press conference.
"To the best of my knowledge the coach is cancer-free now," Spiro said at the press conference. "Based on the findings of the surgery we will often recommend [radiation] treatment as a type of insurance; just a precaution, if you will."
Calhoun's battle with skin cancer is his second, after being treated in 2007. He also was diagnosed and cleared of prostate cancer in 2003.
During his first bout of cancer, Calhoun missed 16 days of action. But aside from a few events in the summer, both he and Spiro expect him to be on the sidelines this season.
"I want to coach basketball at UConn," Calhoun said. "I'm hopefully not going any place."
This past season, in which the coach missed several games because of illness, Calhoun said he began to feel fatigued more than usual. A few weeks after UConn's loss to San Diego in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, he found a lump on the right side of his neck, around where skin cancer cells where removed from his cheek a year ago. Subsequent tests revealed the cancer.
As he had done two times before, Calhoun was ready to fight.
"Whatever it's been in my lifetime, I've always taken [the mindset of], 'OK. I may not be happy, I may not even be optimistic, but I'm going to fight this. I'm not going to let this thing beat me,'" Calhoun said. "[Leaving basketball] never entered the picture."
Calhoun appeared in good health during the press conference - despite a large scar on his neck that started around his jaw line - and six days after surgery was on a plane to Oregon for an annual golf tournament.
"I want to stress that when all is said and done, I don't think all of this is going to have any significant long-term impact on his overall quality of life and certainly not on his ability coach basketball," Spiro said.
Calhoun certainly wants to be part of what could be a special year at UConn. The Huskies will Return every starter from a 24-9 team and expecting one of the nation's top recruiting classes. But, more importantly, he wants to be around to see his other family grow.
"The things that bring me so much joy - spending time with my family, being involved with my children and grandchildren's lives, having a job that I love and enjoy coming in to work every day - I didn't want to lose any of that," Calhoun said.
Contact Justin Verrier at Justin.Verrier@UConn.edu.
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