Duke became a winner in tragedy

DURHAM, N.C. -- On a warm Friday in August, just four days after fall practice opened, Duke coach David Cutcliffe had to prepare yet another one of his men for heartache.

Punter Will Monday would soon learn his mother, Judy, had been hospitalized with a blood clot.

Cutcliffe arranged for team chaplain James Mitchell to drive Monday two hours back home and told Monday he should take all the time away he needed. Monday had no idea how he would ever play football again.

He walked out of Cutcliffe's office and saw roommate Lucas Patrick waiting. Monday dissolved into tears.

"I didn't know what to do," Monday recalled recently.

Patrick knew what to do. He needed to help.

Patrick went back to their apartment and packed a bag for Monday to take with him, finding the right shampoo and toothpaste, while also matching the appropriate shoes and shirts.

"You do what you have to do for people you love," Patrick said. "I tried to do whatever would be needed to make everything easier."

There would be no easy way to deal with what came next. Monday and his family soon learned Judy, 57, had cancer in her lungs that spread to her brain. They were told she would need to undergo radiation and begin taking a daily chemotherapy pill, but there was no way to completely eliminate the cancer.

Faced with a grim diagnosis, Judy was adamant about one thing: Her son had to return to Duke. That would make her happiest of all, she said.

It turns out, being back with the football team ended up being the best decision Monday could have made, because Duke players have been put in the unenviable position of helping each other through incredibly emotional, trying circumstances over the past two and a half years.

In July 2012, Duke nearly lost receiver Blair Holliday following a horrific Jet Ski accident that left him in a coma. Since then, Holliday has made a miraculous recovery. But the suffering inside the Duke football family has lingered.

Assistant coach Jim Collins lost his wife, Geri, to cancer in December 2012; former Duke quarterback Brandon Connette learned his mother needed emergency surgery for brain cancer three days after the ACC championship game last year; Monday learned about his mom, and also grieved the loss of his grandmother and uncle; and running back Shaquille Powell recently learned his 7-year-old brother, Malachi Briggs, has Stage 4 cancer.

In between the grief and loss, something else happened: Duke football became a winner.

That cannot be a coincidence.

Cutcliffe will not ever forget seeing Holliday in the hospital, tubes snaking all over his body. Doctors laid out the worst-case scenarios. "I was preparing for a funeral," Cutcliffe said.

Thankfully, his worst fears never materialized. While Holliday started to slowly improve, his accident galvanized his teammates. Linebacker David Helton, one of Holliday's best friends, decided he would spearhead an effort to raise money to help cover medical costs.

Holliday always used to tell teammates, "Every day is a holiday!" Helton created T-shirts with the phrase and sold them around campus. Why? "I wanted to do something," Helton said, echoing what Patrick said about helping Monday.

Young men, many still teenagers, started thinking outside themselves. Those bonds were reflected on the football field. Holliday provided an inspiration for teammates during the 2012 season, as Duke went to a bowl game for the first time since 1994.

The inspiration grew into something stronger -- the foundation for the rejuvenated Blue Devils program. Duke has won 19 games over the past two seasons and was named Coastal Division champion in 2013.

With a win over Arizona State in the Hyundai Sun Bowl next week, Duke will have consecutive 10-win seasons for the first time in school history.

"Those situations and those tragedies definitely brought us closer together," said receiver Jamison Crowder, who saved Holliday from drowning after their Jet Skis crashed into each other. "We knew as a team we had to be there to support each other. That helped us out when we played on Saturdays, too, just being tight, building that bond we had through those tragedies. We trusted each other." Tragedy built character, but it also built a team.

Cutcliffe made sure of it, setting the example for his players to follow.

When Connette learned his mother had to have emergency surgery shortly after the ACC championship last year, he was on a flight home to California within two hours. He stayed with his mom for three weeks but returned to the team in time for the Chick-Fil-A Bowl against Texas A&M.

Though being back with his teammates helped make him feel somewhat normal again, Connette had serious doubts about whether he could go to school so far away from his mother, father and six siblings. He stayed for the spring semester, but remembers Cutcliffe telling him, "Any time you think you feel like you need to go home, just let me know and I'll get you there."

Connette made a few trips back home while juggling classes and spring football, where he pushed Anthony Boone harder than ever for the starting job.

"I could not have done the things he did," Patrick said. "He made Anthony better that whole spring. On the football field he was tremendous, in the locker room he was tremendous. I think it weighed on him more than we knew. I think he was strong for us even as we were strong for him."

Connette could not keep going on this way. He decided to transfer to be closer to home. Duke held a team meeting so Connette could say goodbye. He stood behind a podium and looked out at his teammates. He managed to get two words out before he broke down.

"Nobody needed an explanation," Boone said. "Family first."

"It was really hard," Connette said. "There were so many guys on that team that I had an amazing relationship with, including the coaching staff. It was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do."

Connette ended up at Fresno State, but he remains an integral member of "Duke Gang," the moniker players began using to describe their team last year. He remains in touch with Boone, Monday, Patrick and many more teammates. And he still keeps tabs on how his former team is doing.

Just last month, he flipped on the television in the Bulldogs' locker room to the Pitt-Duke game and urged his new teammates to cheer right along with him. "A lot of programs claim they have a family atmosphere, but at Duke, I genuinely believe I'm a part of that family," Connette said. "Even now, I still get texts and calls from teammates, past coaches, fans. They're still keeping up with me, making sure my mom is all right. That's what makes me look back and think how much of a family it really was because even when you're gone, they're still praying for you."

There is more to that belief.

There is faith, one of the four pillars Cutcliffe preaches: faith, future, family, football.

"God had a reason for bringing me to Duke," Monday said. "I didn't know it at the time, but this is it. God brought me here because this family was supposed to help me through this difficult time. I'm so grateful. I really am. Everything the guys have done for me, it's just unbelievable. I'm at a loss for words."

Many are at a loss for words when they try to explain how Holliday survived. Not only did he defy the odds, he continues to attend school at Duke and is around the football team on a daily basis. Crowder says seeing Holliday helping out at practice "is a living testimony to prayer."

Cutcliffe calls it a miracle.

"These are all young men equipped to handle what they have been dealt," Cutcliffe said. "It has been so gratifying to watch them grow closer together. They truly are a team." A team brought together for a purpose.

"Although it's tragic that so much stuff has happened to people involved with Duke, I think there's a reason for it," Connette said. "If this would have happened to me somewhere else, I don't know if I would have handled it as well as I did. So I think it was God's way of putting me around people that would be able to help me out."

Though the prognoses for Judy Monday, Nancy Connette and Malachi Briggs remain uncertain, they and their families remain resolute.

The same goes for the entire Duke football family. They already have seen tragedy turn into triumph. Their faith must endure.