Vanderbilt's Ryals Grateful For Body-Numbing Football Collisions

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Vanderbilt's Chris Ryals covers kicks, exposing himself to body-numbing collisions that often hurl him through the air and slam him to the ground.

He said he not only doesn't mind those encounters, he's grateful for them, because he's lucky to be alive.

Eleven years ago, Ryals was diagnosed with leukemia.

Through 2 1/2 years of strength-draining chemotherapy, and bone marrow and spinal taps, he persevered.

"I just took it day by day; every day there was a battle. Sometimes I won, sometimes I lost."

The disease is in remission, and Ryals is working toward a possible degree in medicine.

"I ask myself each morning what I can do today to show how valuable my life is," he said.

Ryals won't win the Heisman Trophy. He won't be in the NFL. He's a junior who hasn't yet lettered for the Commodores.

But his is a story of personal courage and triumph over a dreaded disease.

"He's special; he has overcome a lot of adversity in his life," said his mother, Karen.

Even before the leukemia, Ryals, the youngest of three sons, was diagnosed with multiple learning disabilities. He also had a speech problem.

"He overcame these obstacles one-by-one," Mrs. Ryals said.

Chris had a grade-point average of 3.6 last semester, the highest on the football team.

When he was 12 years old, he began to experience frequent bouts of nausea for no apparent reason. He got weaker and developed a fever.

When he was diagnosed with leukemia, doctors estimated his chances of survival at 30 percent.

"I knew I could die," he said.

His parents, Bobby and Karen, regularly took him to Children's Hospital in his hometown Cincinnati, to a cancer clinic.

During visits to the cancer clinic at Children's Hospital, he would be given fluids for hours before the chemotherapy treatments. The fluids were necessary to combat the dehydration from the overwhelming nausea and vomiting that followed.

"The day I was diagnosed, these 2-year-old twins were sitting right next to me," Ryals said. "They each had brain tumors. It was awful. They were so cute, so innocent and outwardly, you would never know. These little guys didn't make it.

"When I was going through treatment, so many bad things were happening around me that it was difficult for me to find inner strength. But I did."

His mother said that there were many crises, but she there is one in particular she remembers.

During his years of treatment, he was not allowed to participate in any activities, not even throwing a Nurf football at recess.

"He came home and said: `I'm nobody. Now that I have cancer, I'm nobody. They used to look up to me.' He had lost all his self-esteem. He had been such a good athlete. Now he couldn't even participate in recess."

In time, Karen said, he worked it out as he always did.

"Well," he told his mom, "I'll just have to make it in the classroom."

Then, by the end of eighth grade, Ryals' treatments became infrequent. He spent more time with coaches than doctors. He eventually became an all-state safety at Moeller High School, then signed a grant-in-aid with Vanderbilt University.

There have been scary things happen along the way, reminders that all his life he will be looking back over his shoulder at trouble.

His older brother Trevor had a college buddy who died after his leukemia was thought to be in remission. It was a sobering thought.

There was the time, too, after remission was under way, that three knots appeared on his leg.

"It stopped me in my tracks. I said, `uh oh."'

To this day, Ryals said, no one has told him what they were. They could have been tumors, or bacterial or viral infections, but they were unrelated to leukemia.

He looks back on it with some humor.

"It was almost like the dermatologist wanted to make me a spectacle," he said, laughing. "They even wanted to take me to a national convention of dermatology, so others could see these growths."

Ryals' experiences have allowed him to put football into perspective.

"Football is reflective of life in general," he said. "I love football. I've put a lot of effort into it. At the same time, it's not life or death."