North Carolina State University Athletics
PEELER: Bible Diagnosed With Leukemia
11/23/2009 12:00:00 AM | Football
BY TIM PEELER
RALEIGH, N.C. – One of the things that NC State's players know about offensive coordinator Dana Bible is that he always has them prepared for the unexpected.
It was a shock then for the Wolfpack team when it slowly began to hear the news Monday afternoon that Bible, who has worked for head coach Tom O'Brien for the last 11 years at Boston College and NC State, has been diagnosed with acute promyelocytic leukemia and will be undergoing treatment for the next 30 days at UNC Hospitals Cancer Center in Chapel Hill.
"He is always going to have you prepared for whatever is coming," said senior offensive lineman Julian Williams. "That's what makes him a great coach."
But, in a season when the Wolfpack had lost so many players to injuries, no one expected this news about the veteran assistant coach. Bible, like many other members of the team, had been feeling under the weather as the Wolfpack practiced in rainy conditions prior to and after the game against Clemson. He went to see the team doctor on Thursday evening and was told to report to the doctor's office the next day.
By Friday evening, long after O'Brien and the rest of the football team had arrived at the team hotel in Roanoke, Va., for Saturday's game at Virginia Tech, Bible was at Raleigh's Rex Hospital waiting for an ambulance to take him to Chapel Hill for a series of tests.
He offered to drive up for the game Saturday morning, but O'Brien told him to take care of himself. Bible missed the game against the Hokies, the first time in 34 years that he has ever missed a practice or game, according to O'Brien.
"He has 30 days of [chemotherapy] treatment," O'Brien said Monday at his weekly press conference. "At the end of 30 days, we will know where we have to go from there. He is still undergoing tests.
"All we really know is that he will be there for 30 days as they try to knock it out."
Bible has been admitted to the hospital and is requesting privacy as he begins treatment, O'Brien said.
"I'd like everyone to respect the family's request for privacy during this time, but prayers are welcome and certainly needed at this point," said the coach.
Bible, 56, is in his second stint as an assistant coach at NC State. He was originally hired by then-head coach Tom Reed in January, 1983, to coach wide receivers. Soon after he was hired, returned to Cincinnati for his long-planned wedding to the former Nancy Huber, and quickly returned to Raleigh to help finis off Reed's first signing class.
During those first three years here, Bible mentored All-ACC wide receivers Haywood Jeffires, Danny Peebles and Nasrallah Worthen.
He left NC State in 1985 and was hired by O'Brien as offensive coordinator at Boston College in 1998.
The two had known of each other for years, since they had both attended the same high school, St. Xavier in Cincinnati. They first officially met when Bible was living with O'Brien's future brother-in-law while he was an assistant coach at Cincinnati.
"We have known each other for a long, long time," O'Brien said.
O'Brien has entrusted his offense to Bible since they reunited at BC, allowing him to call all the offensive plays.
On Saturday, those duties were handled by running backs coach Jason Swepson.
"We tried to do the best job we could on Saturday, which was difficult going to Blacksburg with all this going on," O'Brien said.
Over the weekend, the Wolfpack players were told only that Bible did not make the trip and was under-going tests. Monday morning, O'Brien told quarterbacks Russell Wilson and Mike Glennon, who work most closely with Bible, and then informed the team Monday afternoon following his press conference.
"This is tough news to hear," said senior safety Bobby Floyd."I don't work as closely with Coach Bible as some of the offensive players, but he is such a fiery personality on the field that you can't miss him.
"You know he is a family man and you know this has to be tough news on him and his family, and our thoughts are with them and with him."
This week, when the Wolfpack plays its season-finale against North Carolina at Carter-Finley Stadium, the offensive coaches will put together an offensive game plan by committee.
O'Brien has also temporarily hired former graduate assistant Jay Civetti, who is now the offensive coordinator at Tufts, to help the Wolfpack in practice this week. Tufts' season is over and Civetti, a former offensive lineman at Trinity College who worked for five years as a graduate assistant at Boston College and NC State, is available immediately.
"He has the best knowledge of our offense," O'Brien said. " We can hire him temporarily just to help us get through this week of practice and everything else. We will try to put together a game plan as best we can and go play a game on Saturday."
But O'Brien noted that the thoughts of the entire Wolfpack program will be with his long-time friend.
"He is a tough old guy," O'Brien said. "He'll fight it. If he has a chance to beat it, he will beat it."
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
