James Conner's cancer hit Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi in multiple ways

PITTSBURGH — Before he became the head football coach here and before his star running back was diagnosed with cancer, Pat Narduzzi received a letter.

Written by one of his father’s former players at Youngstown State, the letter detailed how Bill Narduzzi’s fight against Hodgkin lymphoma inspired this former player in his own battle against the disease. Bill, who died from this cancer in 1988, died while Pat was in college.

“I had to deal with it in my own family, and then it happens right here in my football family,” Narduzzi says. “I talked to (James Conner) about that.”

Mapping James Conner: Pitt RB's body traces path to hell and back

Narduzzi also gave him a copy of the letter written about his father; Conner still has it at his house.

“It’s about how they fought through it and just how much of a great person his dad was,” Conner says. “I know it had to have been tough on coach with me being one of his players. It seems like he can't escape it.”

Narduzzi accompanied Conner to some of his chemotherapy treatments, sitting patiently as the toxins dripped into the running back’s body. The coach who hadn’t recruited Conner — he inherited him when he got the Panthers job in December 2014 — grew close to the young man battling the same disease that cost him his father.

Still, Narduzzi never doubted that Conner would survive.

“The ‘What if he didn't beat this cancer?’ was never an option,” Narduzzi says. “At least for me and I know for James and a lot of his family. Never had that what if. Never worried about what if. … I kept telling everyone he’s coming back. My wife looked at me one day and said, ‘What if he's not? You keep telling him he's going to come back, he's coming back. What if he doesn’t?’ ”

Narduzzi just knew. Conner would come back because he had to.

“That's just the power of positive thinking and believing and having faith in, this thing’s going to work out,” Narduzzi says.