Tackling For a Cure Has Special Meaning for Colton FitzGerald

When the Eagles take the field Saturday against ULM, it will mark the program’s annual Tackling For A Cure game to help raise awareness for breast cancer. For redshirt sophomore quarterback Colton FitzGerald, the game has special meaning for him and his family as his mother beat the deadly disease.

Breast Cancer Awareness Month occurs each October, and the Georgia Southern Football Team helps raise awareness with a home game in October serving as the designated game. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), each year in the United States, about 240,000 breast cancer cases are diagnosed in women and about 2,100 in men. About 42,000 women and 500 men in the U.S. die each year from breast cancer.

“My mom was diagnosed in 2009 with breast cancer, and it was probably the most heartbreaking thing as a little kid trying to figure out what’s really going on,” FitzGerald said. “I was young, maybe 6. I remember she was not feeling well, going in and out of the doctors, and had some health stuff going on. She kept telling me they were trying to figure it out, but when she went in, they found the tumor. They took a biopsy, which came back as breast cancer, and that’s how we found it.

“As young as I was, I didn’t understand what cancer was, but the part that really got me was when I noticed that her hair started falling out,” FitzGerald continued. “I knew she had surgery. But when her hair started to fall out, I realized that this wasn’t normal and something wasn’t right. I remember we spent Christmas together, and she finally got back from the hospital but was unable to eat. Everything was a liquid diet. I was really confused at the time, but as I got older, I was able to understand that more. 

FitzGerald said the year his mom was diagnosed with breast cancer is ingrained in his memory because that’s the first year he began playing football.

“It was my first year of football, and she’s fighting through cancer,” FitzGerald remembers. It was my first year, and that October month was extremely cool because I have a picture of my team with her, and we’re all wearing our pink socks and stuff, and she’s there with her pink on.”

For FitzGerald, while his mother Misty is part of that group, he’s excited that she got a clean bill of health in 2011, is healthy to the day, and will be in the stands Saturday.

“The Tackling For A Cure game is huge for my family,” FitzGerald said. “That game gets circled every year because my mom wants to come, and she loves watching us play. I know it means a lot to other people, too, just because of how dangerous breast cancer is, and it’s great to raise awareness. My mom lives in California, so she can’t make it out here for every game, but she tries her best, and she loves the Eagles. She’ll send me pictures of her watching us on television from back home, so I know she’s always keeping up with how we’re doing.

“She already told me she got a new jersey made up for Saturday, so I’m guessing it’s gonna be navy blue with a pink number 16,” he continued. “She always does something like that, so it’ll be perfect for this game.”

The Eagles and War Hawks kick off Saturday at 2 p.m. inside Allen E. Paulson Stadium. Tickets can be purchased at GSEagles.com/Tickets.