5/5/2004

Tug McGraw Foundation Announces New Research Center at the Brain
Tumor Center at Duke

By JIM SHAMP <jshamp@herald-sun.com
The Herald-Sun
May 5, 2004
<http://www.heraldsun.com>www.heraldsun. com

DURHAM -- Fans grieved across America when former baseball pitcher
Frank "Tug" McGraw Jr. died of a brain tumor Jan. 5.

But McGraw's legacy gets a boost of a different kind today with
announcements in Durham and Philadelphia of a $5 million, five-year
grant to the Duke University Medical Center's Brain Tumor Center,
from a foundation named for the former Mets and Phillies hurler.

The Tug McGraw Foundation grant will establish the Tug McGraw Center
for Neuro-Oncology Quality of Life Research at Duke. Housed within
the brain tumor facility, the new center will pioneer research into
quality-of-life decisions that accompany brain cancer, according to
the new center's director, Bebe Guill.

McGraw was known for his optimism. He helped the "Miracle Mets" whack
the heavily favored Baltimore Orioles for a shocking 1969 World
Series five-game victory. He started the Mets' battle cry of "Ya
gotta believe" four years later, when the New York basement dwellers
rose from last place in August to take the National League pennant.
Though he was traded to Philadelphia after the 1974 season, he stayed
there to pitch 10 seasons, including the final out that notched the
Phillies' only World Series win, in 1980.

The 59-year-old southpaw was known as the father of the screwball --
and of offspring that included country music star Tim McGraw, a fact
that also made him the father-in-law of equally stellar country
warbler Faith Hill. The elder McGraw, who lived in suburban
Philadelphia, left two other sons, a daughter and four grandchildren.

In a life filled with humor and drama, McGraw was even known for his
quirky relationship with Tim. Tim's mother, Betty Trimble, wrote in
her 1996 book, "Tim McGraw: A Mother's Story" that she became
pregnant when she and Tug had an affair while he was playing for a
Jacksonville, Fla., minor-league team. Tim loved sports as a child,
but never knew until he learned by accident at the age of 12 that his
dad was Tug McGraw. After a few years of rocky communication between
the famous father and famous-to-be son, Tim said he came to terms
with the foibles of his father and they became friends.

McGraw originally underwent brain surgery last March. Surgeons at the
H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute at the University
of South Florida in Tampa removed a tumor, but it returned. He got
further treatment at Moffitt, but he subsequently sought help in
Durham from renowned Duke neuro-oncologist Henry Friedman.

"We talked about the importance of hope," Friedman recalled of his
initial discussions with McGraw last fall. "There was instant
rapport. I told him about the first time I saw him in person. It was
in a Dodgers game, and he beat Sandy Koufax. It was amazing -- he
remembered the date of that game."

That game was especially memorable for McGraw because it was only his
second major league win, on Aug. 26, 1965 -- and Koufax had enjoyed a
13-0 lifetime record against the Mets until squaring off with McGraw
that day. McGraw described it in his 1974 autobiography, "Screwball."
He completed another autobiography just before his death, "Ya Gotta
Believe! My Roller-Coaster Life as a Screwball Pitcher and Part-Time
Father, and My Hope-Filled Fight Against Brain Cancer."

Friedman said McGraw's "hope-filled fight" against cancer brought him
to Duke three times. In the treacherous arena of brain cancer,
however, hope doesn't always come with a cure, noted Guill. [Guill is
the wife of Ron Landfried, associate editor of The Herald-Sun's
editorial pages.]

"Hope is always appropriate -- always," she said, "and always
necessary. And we always hope for a cure, but that's not all we hope
for. Hope has so many dimensions, and it can change daily -- even by
the minute. And that's appropriate. People can't live without hope,
and shouldn't be asked to. We ask them to live with hope and give
them tools for coping, even with all the uncertainties that come with
a brain tumor diagnosis."

McGraw died at son Tim's home in Tennessee, outside Nashville. "But
we communicated almost every day," said Friedman. That's not unusual
in the Duke facility's relationships with its patients, said Guill,

"At any given time we're following about 2,000 pediatric and adult
patients," she said. "We don't want people hanging out at Duke. We
want them at home with their families, not in a sterile hospital
setting. So this is a very normal way for us to do business."

Most of the brain tumor center's patients are seen as outpatients,
said Guill, and the staff directs their care along with oncologists
in their home communities, often involving daily communication.
Besides the Duke attending physicians, the support comes from nursing
staff, quality-of-life specialists, educators, counselors, social
workers and others.

"It takes all these people, involved day in and day out, helping
patients and their families manage the side effects of the disease
and helping them live well," she said. "It's a challenge, but again,
it goes back to the issue of quality of life, where people can be
most comfortable, nurtured and surrounded by people they love."

Almost 200,000 people in the United States are likely to be diagnosed
this year with any of the 120 kinds of brain tumors. And the
incidence is rising. Duke's brain tumor center is known not only for
the work of Friedman but also for his colleagues: neurosurgeon Allan
Friedman, no relation, and pathologist Darrell Bigner. Each year the
facility's staff sees more 800 new patients, usually from at least 35
states and 10 countries. Besides private donations, the federally
designated cancer center gets more than $10 million in grants from
the National Institutes of Health.

Guill said the Tug McGraw Center enables the Duke program to
undertake "a balanced research program that will take the science
forward in understanding what works when for people dealing with
brain cancer -- the physical, social, spiritual, sexual, cognitive
domains that have never been adequately explored for these people."

Another segment of the grant is being earmarked as the Tug McGraw
Diamond Scholars program. It will provide scholarships to college
junior and senior varsity baseball and softball players planning to
enter medical school.

The other phase of the grant program will fund three to five
neuro-oncology quality-of-life research studies per year at other
universities throughout the country.

The Tug McGraw Foundation is establishing a research advisory
committee, headed by Guill, to oversee grant applications and review
the winning research programs.

"This is really new," said Guill. "Quality-of- life research is really
in its infancy. That's what's so exciting about what the Tug McGraw
Foundation makes possible. We'll finally be able to make headway into
this arena."