Bellbrook graduation 2012
Fairfield Senior 2012 graduation
Kroger Aquatic Center opens
Award-winning columnist Tom Archdeacon — an old-school storyteller in a brand-new venue — writes about sports, the city, southwest Ohio and anything else that catches his fancy… or yours.Home > Blogs > Through the Arch > Archives > 2009 > July > 04
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Blake LaForce, Vandalia Butler football star, dies at 18
Blake LaForce — the 18-year-old former Vandalia High football star and state power lifting champion who rallied a town, a school and tens of thousands of other people as he fought his way through a herculean medical battle the past 19 months — has died.
Surrounded by his family, he passed away around 2 p.m. Friday afternoon, July 3, at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.
“It was time,” Mark LaForce, his dad said Saturday afternoon. “I kissed him on his lips one last time, told him how much we all loved him and how proud we were of him and he went to meet his Creator.”
Initially diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblast Leukemia (ALL) in November of 2007, Blake underwent a successful born marrow/stem cell transplant in May of 2008 and seemed on the road to recovery last summer.
But in mid-August, he developed toxoplasmosis, a devastating infection in the central nervous system, that, as Mark put it, “shut down all his motor skills. All of a sudden he could no longer walk, talk, eat or drink. It’s been that way since.”
Even so, Blake had been slowly working his way back from that when, this past March 26, he had a pulmonary hemorrhage — bleeding lungs — and had been in the intensive care unit since then as he dealt with a series of medical issues. The latest was a severe problem with his ever-fragile skin.
Mark — who has written a daily journal about his son since the ordeal began (www.CaringBridge.org/visit/blakelaforce/journal) — described it in his July 2 entry:
“The skin is our largest organ and this is the major issue we have now. It happened upon him rapidly this week. Blake’s skin is almost like a burn victim’s skin now, so the risk of infection increases. It is another one of God’s miracles because Blake is actually very stable and not even on any pain medications, which is unbelievable. There are what seems an endless number of hurdles on Blake’s journey and we are in awe of his stamina, true grit and resolve….”
After Blake’s death Friday, Mark wrote: “The LaForce family is at peace and and rejoicing the fact that our strong son has a new everlasting life in a much better place.
“No more suffering, sorrow and pain.”
He then singled out TEAM BLAKE, the family members, friends Butler classmates and strangers who had taken up Blake’s’ cause over the past year and a half:
“We do not know how to thank you. Stay the course Blake started for us because he was a good servant and is (still) making a difference.”
To his son, he wrote:
“Dearest Blake, Mission Accomplished, Son. We will see you again and you are with us every minute of every day. Your smile and personality is etched in our minds forever. You are the ‘man’ in this family and have showed all of us the way. We love you so very much now and forever.”
Exact details are pending, but Mark said the visitation will be late Tuesday afternoon and early that evening July 7. On Wednesday morning there will be a celebration of life service at the Christian Life Center, 3489 Little York Road. The telephone there is: (937) 898-8811.
TweetThe Greatest NASCAR Souvenir?… (and a cool Richard Petty video)
It was 25 years ago today that I got one of my most memorable sports souvenirs ever.
Or, maybe not.
As I used to do every year on the Fourth of July, I was covering the Firecracker 400 stock car race at Daytona International Speedway. And the 1984 race turned out to be one of NASCAR’s most celebrated moments ever.
Richard Petty won the 200th and final race of his long, legendary career that day as President Ronald Reagan watched from one of the speedway’s overhead suites.
Reagan had given the command to start the race while he was still airborne in Air Force One. And when his plane finally did touch down at the Daytona airport right next to the track, a classic photo was made of it landing in the background while Petty’s No. 43 Pontiac made its way around the track.
With three laps to go, I remember Doug Heveron lost control of his car just past the tri-oval. His Chevrolet went airborne, rolled and landed upright again. He wasn’t hurt.
Meanwhile Petty and Cale Yarborough were slamming their cars together at full throttle as they raced back to the start/finish line after the yellow flag was waved.
Petty beat him to the line by six inches and then cruised the final two caution laps on fumes. He actually ran out of gas before the checkered flag but coasted across the line.
“We all shook hands and then the President and I talked,” Petty would say later. “I think it blowed his mind that Cale and I were really running into each other at 200 m.p.h..”
I was outside his pits as the race ended and in the jubilation that followed, my fellow sportswriter and good friend, the late Shelby Strother joined me and we edged our way in with Petty’s crew and helped push the out-of-fuel race car into Victory Lane.
When Petty headed across the speedway to meet Reagan, we followed. Another sports writer — Norm Froscher from Gainesville — was somewhere up ahead of us. As we worked our way through the phalanx of security, we eventually were able to follow Petty — and a few yards behind him, Norm — up the the long flight of outer stairs to the press box.
Petty was smoking one of his trademark thin cigars as he started up the steps. Supposedly Norm — also known for his cigars — was puffing away, too.
Petty dropped his cigar on one of the top steps before going through the door to the press box and suites. Norm probably did, too.
A couple of minutes later when I got to that point on the stairs I saw the ground-out but still-smoldering stogie. I picked it up, tamped it out and carefully wrapped it in a napkin.
Today I still have that now-crumbled cigar in a sealed plastic bag.
Sportswriters aren’t supposed to get autographs and I never, ever do. Well, except for that day. Petty signed my media credential.
I have it with the cigar.
Of course the way Shelby used to delight in telling the story, I had really picked up Norm Froscher’s cigar.
I’m not sure.
But even if it is Norm’s, it’s made for a good tale all these years and, after all, that’s all a storyteller is ever looking for.
Tweet
