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Chris LowMar 10, 2025, 11:00 AM ET
Shut
- School soccer reporter
- Joined ESPN.com in 2007
- Graduate of the College of Tennessee
The primary time I laid eyes on Chris Lofton, all through a preseason exercise at Tennessee, my ideas reflected the ones of the recruiters who so grossly whiffed on him all through a mythical occupation at Mason County Prime Faculty in Maysville, Kentucky.
Yeah, he may just shoot with that slight backward lean, however there was once at all times a “however” jumbled together there someplace.
As Lofton would playfully chide me years later, “Too quick. Too sluggish. No longer fast sufficient. Could not dribble neatly sufficient. Could not protect.”
Little did I do know on the time that Lofton’s middle and need for luck would make any perceived shortcomings moot, to mention not anything of the braveness and selflessness that helped make him a legend for Volunteers fanatics and past.
One of the crucial loved athletes in College of Tennessee historical past, Lofton met a brutal state of affairs head on and kicked its butt with out ever feeling sorry for himself, and did in order discreetly as imaginable as a result of he by no means sought after to turn into a distraction to his teammates.
It is been 17 years since Lofton performed his senior season at Tennessee after being identified with testicular most cancers, and no longer even his teammates knew all he needed to undergo to get again at the court docket with them. His tale might be advised in the course of the SEC Storied documentary “Volunteer for Existence,” which can premiere Monday at 7 p.m. ET at the SEC Community and be to be had to flow on ESPN+.
“I simply by no means sought after it to be about me, the focal point to be on what I used to be going thru,” Lofton advised me quickly after his record-setting school occupation was once over following the 2008 season. “My teammates did not deserve that. We would labored too arduous, all people, to get the place we had been to let my private struggles perhaps deliver us down.”
The one individual at the group Lofton advised of his state of affairs was once his roommate on highway journeys, Jordan Howell. Tennessee’s training personnel and management went to nice lengths to stay Lofton’s most cancers therapies quiet. Only a few other folks knew simply how agonizing that summer time previous to his senior season was once as he underwent surgical treatment and grueling radiation therapies. He misplaced 20 kilos and spent many nights vomiting violently and tearfully praying at the telephone together with his folks, Franklin and Kathleen Lofton. They desperately sought after to be round Knoxville extra as their handiest kid confronted the problem of his existence, but additionally did not need to arouse suspicions that one thing was once amiss.
“If I may have taken the most cancers myself, I might have,” Kathleen mentioned.
Tennessee’s Chris Lofton was once the SEC Participant of the 12 months as a junior in 2007, main the Vols to the NCAA event. Tennessee Athletics
Lofton was once named the SEC Participant of the 12 months as a junior and was once featured at the Nov. 21, 2007 quilt of Sports activities Illustrated going into his senior season. The Vols vaulted to No. 1 within the nation that season after beating Memphis in a memorable No. 1 vs. No. 2 matchup, and whilst Lofton was once a key a part of that group, his frame merely would not permit him to be what he was once earlier than the most cancers therapies.
After averaging 20.8 issues and taking pictures .479 from the sphere as a junior, he averaged 13.4 issues and shot .345 over the primary 17 video games of his senior 12 months.
Lovers and media started to brazenly query if groups had found out find out how to protect Lofton and puzzled if he was once melting beneath the drive of such lofty expectancies, particularly after he had gotten off to any such sluggish get started that season.
If handiest that they had recognized.
That is the wonderful thing about Lofton’s tale. He by no means as soon as mentioned a phrase, by no means made excuses and was once at all times entrance and heart on every occasion media individuals wondered him concerning the dip in his numbers.
It was once tough for me after finding out of Lofton’s most cancers prognosis previous that season — and after assembly with him individually and getting my superiors’ blessing at ESPN to stay the tale quiet — to listen to all of the theories about what was once incorrect with Lofton.
Via all of it, he by no means flinched.
“You are in a typhoon, popping out of a typhoon or on the point of pass right into a typhoon,” Lofton mentioned. “It is one of the vital 3.”
As I glance again on Lofton’s stories and the best way he plowed thru all of it, there have been a large number of classes that stand out.
For one, there are occasions once we all want lend a hand. Although Lofton’s ordeal was once most commonly personal, he had super improve from then-Tennessee trainer Bruce Pearl, instructor Chad Newman, Tennessee’s whole clinical personnel, Lofton’s Knoxville-based minister Tim Miller, Howell and then-Tennessee athletic director Mike Hamilton, amongst others.
Hamilton was once an unsung hero with the best way he helped navigate the entire procedure and stay Lofton’s needs for privateness at the vanguard. Hamilton died Nov. 9, 2023 — he additionally had most cancers. For instance of what Lofton supposed to him, Hamilton and his spouse, Beth, drove to a Nashville highschool to be interviewed for the documentary. Frail and getting ready for surgical treatment that he was hoping would save his existence, Hamilton died not up to 3½ months later.
Former Kentucky trainer Tubby Smith was once skewered for no longer recruiting Lofton, who led his group to a highschool state championship in Kentucky as a junior and a runner-up end as a senior. But Smith was once prepared to be interviewed to talk about Lofton’s adventure, which says so much about each Lofton and Smith.
Lofton mentioned in all probability essentially the most enduring lesson for him was once that we by no means know why issues occur the best way they do and, as he mentioned, how God is operating in our lives. Lofton’s most cancers was once detected after he failed a drug check all through the 2007 NCAA event. Gamers are picked randomly to be examined after each and every spherical. The check published top ranges of hCG, a hormone that serves as a trademark of being pregnant in girls, steroid use or most cancers. On this case, it published a tumor marker.
Probably the most first issues I heard months later, which proved to be misguided, was once that Lofton had failed a check as a result of he had used an NCAA-banned complement. Having coated about 90% of the video games Lofton had performed in his occupation and getting to understand him and his personality, I stored telling myself, “No approach.”
I as soon as requested Lofton if he ever puzzled what would possibly have took place had he no longer been decided on for that drug check.
“I simply comprehend it stored my existence,” he mentioned.
Lofton on the rite the place Tennessee retired his jersey in 2023. Randy Sartin/USA TODAY Sports activities
I realized so much from Lofton all through that point and later on as we changed into pals. He is essentially the most unassuming and humble celebrity I have ever coated.
You spot it at his early life camp each summer time in Maysville. You spot it at public purposes when he quietly slides out and in with out in need of to be the focus. You spot it at eating places when he is consuming together with his folks.
As soon as, when I used to be with my very own circle of relatives at a cafe, Lofton and his folks got here in. My heart son, Adam, was once 7 on the time and an enormous Lofton fan, with a poster of the Tennessee celebrity on his bed room wall. Adam was once in the toilet when Lofton walked into the eating place. I realized Lofton head that approach quickly after. I became to my spouse and mentioned, “Watch this.”
Inside a minute, Adam got here tearing out of the toilet screaming, “Dad, Chris Lofton is in the toilet. Chris Lofton is in the toilet!” The entire eating place was once guffawing. Adam had performed in a early life basketball sport previous that day and was once nonetheless dressed in his jersey. I requested him what Lofton mentioned to him, and Adam beamed, “He sought after to know the way we did as of late and if I had a good time.”
Who did not have amusing staring at Lofton play, seeing how a lot pleasure he dropped at such a lot of other folks, even the ones outdoor the orange persuasion? In some ways, he was once the face of Tennessee’s resurgence in basketball within the mid 2000s, which will nonetheless be felt as of late.
His No. 5 jersey was once retired Jan. 14, 2023, as he joined Bernard King, Ernie Grunfeld, Dale Ellis and Allan Houston as the one males’s basketball gamers in Tennessee historical past to have their numbers retired.
And whilst Lofton is highest remembered for enjoying thru his most cancers prognosis and remedy, he additionally was once a super participant for the Volunteers. He stays the SEC’s all-time chief with 431 3-pointers, and when he graduated in 2008, he was once 3rd all-time amongst NCAA gamers. I have by no means noticed a school shooter at his measurement (6-foot-2) together with his vary and the facility to get off a shot regardless of how carefully he was once contested.
It is not possible to know the way a lot a job his most cancers performed in derailing his goals of taking part in within the NBA. Lofton had an extended and filthy rich skilled occupation in a foreign country.
Something I do know needless to say is that he hasn’t ever used it as an excuse.
He took on one in all existence’s toughest blows and stored firing away — on occasion from 35 toes.
Chris Low was once an govt manufacturer for the “Volunteer for Existence” documentary.
