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USF Learns, In Football And Life, 'Finish Strong'

Jeff Wagner

Jim Leavitt visits Jeff Wagner at Moffitt Cancer Center after USF defeated Auburn. Leavitt read a letter from Wagner to the players before the game, and players say it helped inspire that win.

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By Joe Henderson The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 9, 2007

TAMPA - It was late on the night before the University of South Florida football team was to play Auburn University last month. As is his custom, Coach Jim Leavitt gathered his team for a meeting before sending his players off to their rooms. They talked about the game and the challenge of facing a program like Auburn.

Then Leavitt pulled out a two-page letter and began to softly read to his players. It was from Jeff Wagner, a USF alumnus and longtime backer of the program. Most of the players had never met or even heard of Wagner, but the room became eerily quiet as they heard of his struggle to overcome a second bout with leukemia.

His words were relentlessly upbeat, though. He urged the Bulls to face the challenge against Auburn with confidence and determination. Then Leavitt read the letter's closing line.

"Finish strong."

"It was very quiet after that," USF kicker Delbert Alvarado said. "You could tell people were thinking about it. Personally, I was inspired."

Indeed, "finish strong" has become a mantra for the Bulls. Most players and coaches now wear rubber wristbands that Leavitt ordered with that phrase.

"I didn't do it for motivation. I just want us to understand how important life is. That's real. We talk about other things for motivation. Here's a person who has been a great supporter of the University of South Florida, and I wanted them to understand how precious life is and what it is to battle in life," Leavitt said.

"Forget football - football is a game, football will come and go. Our lives are so much bigger than that."

Maybe it wasn't meant to inspire, but it did anyway.

In tight games against West Virginia and last week at Florida Atlantic, players say you could hear "finish strong" up and down the USF sidelines.

When Alvarado struggled against Auburn, missing four field goal attempts, he told himself to "finish strong" as he was heading out for a kick to send the game into overtime. It sailed through, and the Bulls won in overtime.

"I didn't know the guy from Adam before, but now I think about it a lot," linebacker Ben Moffitt said. "Finish strong. [Wagner] is in the fight of his life, and he's telling us to finish strong. It has really become a special inspiration. His determination and focus is amazing."

At practice on Monday night, "we were running sprints at the end. I was pretty tired, but I thought about him. It's like, if he can do it, then I can certainly put more effort into it. I can finish strong. That's a simple saying, but it's a great saying. It's something to live your life by."

'Hit The Lottery' With Illness

Jeff Wagner - USF, Class of '86 - recently underwent a bone marrow transplant. He says doctors are hopeful it will help him overcome acute myeloid leukemia.

"Doctors say I'm doing exceptionally well," he said.

He spends most of his time at his home in North Tampa, close enough for rides to the Moffitt Cancer Center at USF when he needs checkups or treatments. He is on long-term disability from his job in sales and recruiting with Monster Worldwide. That gives a guy a lot of time to think.

It's actually his second bout with leukemia, but it's a different kind. Almost five years ago, he was stricken with acute lymphoblastic leukemia - a disease more commonly seen in children. An avid runner and triathlete, Wagner resumed his activities after treatments eradicated the disease.

"It had been four years since I was diagnosed," he said. "I thought I was over it. Getting it again in a new form felt like I had hit the lottery."

USF players have become far too familiar with death in recent months. Freshman running back Keeley Dorsey died on campus during a workout in January, not long after basketball player Bradley Mosley died from a rare form of cancer. Former player Javon Camon died during an indoor football game in March. In May, Sun Dolls coach Caroline Wiren died while giving birth.

That bigger picture is what Leavitt had in mind that night when he read Wagner's letter.

"You make a difference in lives of people regardless of what happens with our season. I believe people already have been affected," he said. "That's very powerful. It makes guys pause and think - what is my relationship with the Lord? What is this all about? How is my relationship with myself? Life is but a vapor. You'd better hold on to it."

Maybe that's why the news about Wagner's struggle hit so hard.

Wagner had served on the search committee that led to the hiring of former athletic director Paul Griffin at USF. When Griffin helped launch USF's football program, Wagner formed a friendship with Leavitt. When doctors told Wagner he was sick again, one of his first calls was to Leavitt.

He invited the coach to church. Leavitt agreed.

Although the speaker that night at the Grace Family Church in North Tampa was R.V. Brown, a dynamic minister who has worked with leading sports figures including Super Bowl champion coach Tony Dungy, Leavitt wasn't really listening.

"It was bigger for me just sitting with Jeff," Leavitt said. "That's why I went. I felt like I needed to sit with Jeff and be with him."

Wagner remembered something else Leavitt said that night.

"He said, 'I really believe God has a plan and there's a reason for me to be here,'" he said.

Leavitt thought about his friend's battle often during the summer as Wagner went through rounds of chemotherapy. Wagner was thinking about other things.

"There are a lot of USF alums like me," he said. "We didn't have a lot of school pride when we were on campus, which is why I think it's so important what's happening with our football team now. Maybe I'm reliving some of my college days a little bit, but it's just so neat to see.

"I want our school to have pride. I was so hoping we could beat Auburn and move into the Top 25. I had to do what I could to help."

So he started writing.

When he was done, he wrote those words: finish strong.

Letters Keep On Coming

Wagner doesn't leave the house much now because his immune system is just beginning to rebuild after all his treatments. The risk of infection is high. So he follows the team on television, as he will Saturday when the Bulls face rival Central Florida at Raymond James Stadium.

And he has kept sending letters - notes, really.

He will write out two or three of them each week to players or coaches. He has also sent copies of a movie on DVD, "Facing the Giants" - the story of a high school football team that overcame the odds.

"He sent me a picture other day with the words 'keep fighting' on it," USF defensive coordinator Wally Burnham said. "I read it, then I took it back up to my office and sat down to read it again. It's hard not to tear up when you see something like that."

But Jeff Wagner will have nothing to do with tears. He continues his regimen of 30 pills per day to ward off attacks on his weakened immune system, and he plans for the day that he can attend games for his beloved Bulls in person.

There has even been a suggestion he can one day join the team on the field and lead a cheer from one side of the stadium to the other: "Finish. Strong. Finish. Strong." He would like that.

"I know there's a higher purpose for me," he said. "I don't want to sound like a religious zealot, but I really do put my faith and trust in the Lord."

As the undefeated Bulls climb higher in the polls - they currently are ranked No.5 in the national Associated Press and USA Today rankings - the story of Wagner's inspirational notes and presence will spread. So will his gospel of never surrendering, never giving up, never giving into fear or dread.

No matter what life throws at you, never quit.

It's a message that is never far from kicker Alvarado's mind. Not long after hearing Leavitt read the letter the night before the Auburn game, Alvarado went to his barber and had the words "finish strong" cut into the hair on the back of his head.

"I'd really like to speak with him and meet him face to face. He has really affected me in a good way," Alvarado said. "If you hear his story and it doesn't affect you, I don't know if you have blood flowing through your veins.

"I believe everything happens for a reason. God doesn't make mistakes. All this that's going on is not coincidence, in my opinion. There's something behind it. God has us in his hands."

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