Norm
07-30-2001, 01:29 PM
A family's mission
By Alan Tays, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Sunday, July 29, 2001
Perhaps there is no way to know how the parents of Marc Buoniconti felt on Oct. 26, 1985, when they were told their youngest child had been paralyzed and might die. Unless you have been through it yourself, the true depth of the emotion cannot be felt.
But repeat the words Marc's father, Nick, used last week. Listen to them coming out of your own mouth, and try to pretend they apply to your child.
"When I saw Marc, I wasn't sure whether to pray for him to live or die."
Marc Buoniconti did not die. But he did not get up on his own, either, and because of that, his father has dedicated his post-football life to raising money for researchers seeking a cure for spinal-cord injury.
In six days, Nick Buoniconti will be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The former Miami Dolphins middle linebacker made it because of what he accomplished in 15 years (1962-76) in the NFL.
In the ceremony at Canton, Ohio, Nick, 60, will be introduced by Marc, 34. Marc will speak of his father's determination, which on the football field helped him succeed despite his size (he played at 5-foot-11 and 220 pounds), and off the field has helped him raise millions for The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis.
"He wasn't going to let his little boy just lie there on that bed," said Gina Buoniconti Bruce, 38, Marc's sister and Nick's daughter, "without trying to help him in any way he could."
Family learns about the injury
On the last Saturday in October 1985 -- "a beautiful fall day," Nick remembers, he and his wife, Terri, were visiting the New Jersey farm of Rich Catanacci, Nick's former college roommate at Notre Dame.
"That was one of the few weeks when my son Nick, who was playing for Duke, and my son Marc, who was playing for The Citadel, both had away games. If they were playing at home, we would go to one of the home games."
Both sons were linebackers in the mold of their father. Nick Jr.'s Duke team was playing at Maryland. Marc's Citadel team was at East Tennessee State. Gina was a University of Florida student.
"We were sitting there having a glass of champagne and I turned to my buddy's nephew and said, `Listen, why don't you turn on the TV and try to pick up some scores,' " Nick recalled. "No sooner had I said that, than the phone rang."
It was Louis Bantle, the chairman of U.S. Tobacco. Buoniconti was the company's president. "I thought it was something business-related," Buoniconti said.
Bantle told Buoniconti to call a neurosurgeon in Tennessee. "Marc's had a serious accident." When Buoniconti made the call, "The doctor didn't even introduce himself. All he said was, `Your son has dislocated his neck. He'll be a quadriplegic for the rest of his life.' "
Gina and Nick Buoniconti Jr. received the same shocking news. Gina later recalled how ironic it had been that when she was called to the phone at Burdines, she had been telling a fellow employee how accident-prone her family was, how her brothers, when they were younger, always seemed to be breaking this bone or that bone. Nick Jr., a co-captain of the Duke team who had just come off the field after a 40-10 loss at Maryland, wondered why he needed to call a doctor about an injury to Marc. Surely it was just a routine football injury, he thought. "Nothing catastrophic."
But the news he received from a doctor at the Johnson City Medical Center was the same as his father had received and it was, indeed, catastrophic. "Right there on the phone he told me that Marc had broken his neck and he was paralyzed," Nick Jr., 37, said.
"You can imagine what a traumatic experience it is to have to hear that about a family member."
Marc's childhood
"He was a pain in the butt," is how his father describes Marc as a kid. "Before he got hurt, he was the biggest troublemaker anybody ever . . . " Marc never got into serious trouble, but he always had his parents wondering what the next mischief would be. Nick shook his head as he recounted the story of Marc and some friends streaking in the girls' locker room in grammar school. "And he had a mask on," Nick said, "Like people didn't know" who he was. "There was always something going on with him."
"I always remember him being there," Marc said of growing up in Miami with a father who was a famous football player and a lawyer, too. "Even though my mom was the one who had the day-to-day responsibilities of three kids, my father was there and he always was a person you could talk to." (Terri Buoniconti, mother of Gina, Nick Jr. and Marc, is divorced from Nick and could not be reached for this article.)
Sports were a big part of the Buoniconti kids' life, Marc said, but there was never any pressure to follow their father's path. "He was the first one to tell us, `If you don't like football, don't play,' " Marc said.
Nick said he was surprised when Marc decided to attend The Citadel in Charleston, S.C. "I never expected that he would go to a military school," Nick said.
"I had a challenged high school academic career," Marc said. "I was a little more rebellious than my brother or sister. I really needed the discipline."
Marc's career and the injury
The Buonicontis tried to attend their sons' home games whenever they could. Nick still remembers the pride he felt going to the first game Marc started, against Virginia Military Institute during Marc's sophomore year.
"He didn't know I was coming up," Nick said. He went to the locker room before the game and found Marc outside, talking with some friends.
"Dad, what are you doing here?" Marc asked.
"Aren't you starting this week?"
"Yeah."
"You think I'd ever miss it?"
"That was the game he made defensive player of the week in the conference," Nick said. "He was a very good player. Who knows where it could have taken him? Whether he could have played in the NFL, I don't know, but he was well on his way to being a damn good football player."
Marc's football career ended on a third-and-4 play from the East Tennessee State 40-yard line midway through the first quarter of a game The Citadel would win 28-21. Running back Herman Jacobs took a pitch from quarterback Keith Harris and tried to run through a hole in the right side of the offensive line. Jacobs was hit first by Citadel linebacker Joel Thompson, who cut his legs out from under him, then by Marc. Marc's body appeared to go limp immediately after the hit.
The exact nature of the hit and Marc's physical condition going into the game became the subject of a lawsuit by the Buonicontis against The Citadel. They said the school failed to detect or warn Marc about an existing spinal condition that made it dangerous for him to continue playing football. They said the school should not have had Marc wear a strap connecting his face mask to his shoulder pads.
The school said the injury was caused by an illegal "spear" tackle -- Marc hitting Jacobs with the top of his helmet. The Buonicontis reached an $800,000 settlement with the school and trainer Andy Clawson, but continued his case against the football team's doctor, E.K. Wallace Jr. After a 23-day trial, a jury took three hours to rule against the Buonicontis.
"Marc's injury was a result of poor medical care at The Citadel," Nick said. "Marc and I have never blamed football for his injury."
The transfer to Miami
Marc was taken by ambulance to Johnson City Medical Center. He was listed in critical condition and neurological tests were done, but there was no question he would have to be moved somewhere else for long-term treatment.
"If they had seen one spinal-cord injury, I'd be surprised," Marc said. "But they were very upfront with us: `We are not a trauma hospital. You'd better move him or your son is going to die.' It was as simple as that."
"The pulmonary doctor at the time came to me and said, `Nick, you have to get Marc moved out of here immediately. His lungs are filling up with fluid,' " Nick said. " `He'll get pneumonia and he'll die. We do not have the facilities to take care of him.'
"That's when I went on a search."
Nick began a quest to find the finest care available for his son. He or his representatives talked to people at the National Institute of Health, Yale University, Duke University, New York University -- anyplace with a reputation for first-class medical care and research -- and they all came back with the same message -- that the best trauma hospital that they knew of in the country was right in Miami at Jackson (Memorial Hospital), and Dr. Barth Green was the leading neurosurgeon for spinal-cord injuries in the country.
Two days after the accident, Marc was flown from Tennessee to Miami by air ambulance.
Dr. Green and Miami Project
It's a common misconception that the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis was founded as a result of Marc's injury. It actually began a few months before Marc was injured. A prominent Washington-area developer, Donald Misner, was paralyzed in a car accident in the Bahamas. He was flown to Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, where he met Green.
Green had been involved in spinal-cord-injury research, but he told Misner he was so frustrated by the lack of money available to fund research, he was "ready to give it up."
"He said, `Well, it's a bad time, because I just became paralyzed this week,' " Green recalled. " `What can we do to change your mind?'
"I said, `I'll tell you something. I'd like to mount a massive project to try to cure paralysis and model it after the Manhattan Project or the moon-shot project. If I could raise a million dollars, I could go out and hire the most fabulous scientists and get them equipment and we could be well on our way to curing paralysis.'
"That was about 16 years and $100 million ago."
Much of that money has been raised by the Buoniconti family, who started the Buoniconti Fund, the fund-raising arm of the Miami Project.
"He promised his son that he would work tirelessly to get him out of the chair," Green said. "And he has kept his promise. I don't think there has ever been an athlete who has been so committed."
There still is no cure for paralysis caused by spinal-cord injury. But there has been progress. "I think the most significant thing, Green said, "has been the scientific documentation that the adult nervous system can repair and regenerate and reconnect."
Green has been the subject of some criticism in the medical community by those who believed he was giving false hope to spinal-cord-injury patients. "It was OK to talk about curing cancer or gonorrhea or heart disease, but the second you say paralysis, people would say you're nuts," he said.
"Today, I can tell you, the most conservative scientists and physicians say yes, it's a feasible goal."
Aftermath
In addition to his longtime role on HBO's Inside the NFL, Nick Buoniconti continues to raise funds for spinal-cord research. He jokingly calls himself "the insurance salesman you don't want to see."
Gina, who lives in Dade County, and Nick Jr., who lives in Orlando, also are active in the Buoniconti Fund.
Marc lives in a condo in Coral Gables, where he has 24-hour nursing care. He gets around in a motorized wheelchair he operates with his mouth.
Although he shares his father's belief that he did not receive proper treatment at The Citadel, he believes the military-style training and discipline helped him cope with his injury.
"At The Citadel, they teach you to be able to overcome unwinnable situations," he said. "I believe that training allowed me to be able to channel my emotions in a different way and be able not to accept it, but to deal with my injury in a more positive way."
It wasn't easy, though. "I went through what everyone goes through with a traumatic injury," he said, "you go through denial and you go through anger and you go through depression."
For the first six or seven months after the accident, he needed a ventilator to breathe. Weaning himself off that, being able to take one unaided breath at a time, then two, then three, was the most difficult thing he ever did, he said.
"It's nothing short of suffocation."
Occasionally he has dreams about walking. "That makes me feel really good, that I'm still dreaming about walking," he said. "That means I really believe in it.
"But I want the real thing."
In his highly visible role as a spokesman for the Miami Project, Marc meets new people all the time. Often people will instinctively extend their hand to shake his, then awkwardly wonder if they've done the right thing.
Nick uses this anecdote to illustrate yet another reason he admires his son. "He'll tell them, `Not yet, but that's what we're working on. I'll get there soon.' "
al_tays@pbpost.com http://www.gopbi.com/partners/pbpost/epaper/editions/today/sports_2.html
By Alan Tays, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Sunday, July 29, 2001
Perhaps there is no way to know how the parents of Marc Buoniconti felt on Oct. 26, 1985, when they were told their youngest child had been paralyzed and might die. Unless you have been through it yourself, the true depth of the emotion cannot be felt.
But repeat the words Marc's father, Nick, used last week. Listen to them coming out of your own mouth, and try to pretend they apply to your child.
"When I saw Marc, I wasn't sure whether to pray for him to live or die."
Marc Buoniconti did not die. But he did not get up on his own, either, and because of that, his father has dedicated his post-football life to raising money for researchers seeking a cure for spinal-cord injury.
In six days, Nick Buoniconti will be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The former Miami Dolphins middle linebacker made it because of what he accomplished in 15 years (1962-76) in the NFL.
In the ceremony at Canton, Ohio, Nick, 60, will be introduced by Marc, 34. Marc will speak of his father's determination, which on the football field helped him succeed despite his size (he played at 5-foot-11 and 220 pounds), and off the field has helped him raise millions for The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis.
"He wasn't going to let his little boy just lie there on that bed," said Gina Buoniconti Bruce, 38, Marc's sister and Nick's daughter, "without trying to help him in any way he could."
Family learns about the injury
On the last Saturday in October 1985 -- "a beautiful fall day," Nick remembers, he and his wife, Terri, were visiting the New Jersey farm of Rich Catanacci, Nick's former college roommate at Notre Dame.
"That was one of the few weeks when my son Nick, who was playing for Duke, and my son Marc, who was playing for The Citadel, both had away games. If they were playing at home, we would go to one of the home games."
Both sons were linebackers in the mold of their father. Nick Jr.'s Duke team was playing at Maryland. Marc's Citadel team was at East Tennessee State. Gina was a University of Florida student.
"We were sitting there having a glass of champagne and I turned to my buddy's nephew and said, `Listen, why don't you turn on the TV and try to pick up some scores,' " Nick recalled. "No sooner had I said that, than the phone rang."
It was Louis Bantle, the chairman of U.S. Tobacco. Buoniconti was the company's president. "I thought it was something business-related," Buoniconti said.
Bantle told Buoniconti to call a neurosurgeon in Tennessee. "Marc's had a serious accident." When Buoniconti made the call, "The doctor didn't even introduce himself. All he said was, `Your son has dislocated his neck. He'll be a quadriplegic for the rest of his life.' "
Gina and Nick Buoniconti Jr. received the same shocking news. Gina later recalled how ironic it had been that when she was called to the phone at Burdines, she had been telling a fellow employee how accident-prone her family was, how her brothers, when they were younger, always seemed to be breaking this bone or that bone. Nick Jr., a co-captain of the Duke team who had just come off the field after a 40-10 loss at Maryland, wondered why he needed to call a doctor about an injury to Marc. Surely it was just a routine football injury, he thought. "Nothing catastrophic."
But the news he received from a doctor at the Johnson City Medical Center was the same as his father had received and it was, indeed, catastrophic. "Right there on the phone he told me that Marc had broken his neck and he was paralyzed," Nick Jr., 37, said.
"You can imagine what a traumatic experience it is to have to hear that about a family member."
Marc's childhood
"He was a pain in the butt," is how his father describes Marc as a kid. "Before he got hurt, he was the biggest troublemaker anybody ever . . . " Marc never got into serious trouble, but he always had his parents wondering what the next mischief would be. Nick shook his head as he recounted the story of Marc and some friends streaking in the girls' locker room in grammar school. "And he had a mask on," Nick said, "Like people didn't know" who he was. "There was always something going on with him."
"I always remember him being there," Marc said of growing up in Miami with a father who was a famous football player and a lawyer, too. "Even though my mom was the one who had the day-to-day responsibilities of three kids, my father was there and he always was a person you could talk to." (Terri Buoniconti, mother of Gina, Nick Jr. and Marc, is divorced from Nick and could not be reached for this article.)
Sports were a big part of the Buoniconti kids' life, Marc said, but there was never any pressure to follow their father's path. "He was the first one to tell us, `If you don't like football, don't play,' " Marc said.
Nick said he was surprised when Marc decided to attend The Citadel in Charleston, S.C. "I never expected that he would go to a military school," Nick said.
"I had a challenged high school academic career," Marc said. "I was a little more rebellious than my brother or sister. I really needed the discipline."
Marc's career and the injury
The Buonicontis tried to attend their sons' home games whenever they could. Nick still remembers the pride he felt going to the first game Marc started, against Virginia Military Institute during Marc's sophomore year.
"He didn't know I was coming up," Nick said. He went to the locker room before the game and found Marc outside, talking with some friends.
"Dad, what are you doing here?" Marc asked.
"Aren't you starting this week?"
"Yeah."
"You think I'd ever miss it?"
"That was the game he made defensive player of the week in the conference," Nick said. "He was a very good player. Who knows where it could have taken him? Whether he could have played in the NFL, I don't know, but he was well on his way to being a damn good football player."
Marc's football career ended on a third-and-4 play from the East Tennessee State 40-yard line midway through the first quarter of a game The Citadel would win 28-21. Running back Herman Jacobs took a pitch from quarterback Keith Harris and tried to run through a hole in the right side of the offensive line. Jacobs was hit first by Citadel linebacker Joel Thompson, who cut his legs out from under him, then by Marc. Marc's body appeared to go limp immediately after the hit.
The exact nature of the hit and Marc's physical condition going into the game became the subject of a lawsuit by the Buonicontis against The Citadel. They said the school failed to detect or warn Marc about an existing spinal condition that made it dangerous for him to continue playing football. They said the school should not have had Marc wear a strap connecting his face mask to his shoulder pads.
The school said the injury was caused by an illegal "spear" tackle -- Marc hitting Jacobs with the top of his helmet. The Buonicontis reached an $800,000 settlement with the school and trainer Andy Clawson, but continued his case against the football team's doctor, E.K. Wallace Jr. After a 23-day trial, a jury took three hours to rule against the Buonicontis.
"Marc's injury was a result of poor medical care at The Citadel," Nick said. "Marc and I have never blamed football for his injury."
The transfer to Miami
Marc was taken by ambulance to Johnson City Medical Center. He was listed in critical condition and neurological tests were done, but there was no question he would have to be moved somewhere else for long-term treatment.
"If they had seen one spinal-cord injury, I'd be surprised," Marc said. "But they were very upfront with us: `We are not a trauma hospital. You'd better move him or your son is going to die.' It was as simple as that."
"The pulmonary doctor at the time came to me and said, `Nick, you have to get Marc moved out of here immediately. His lungs are filling up with fluid,' " Nick said. " `He'll get pneumonia and he'll die. We do not have the facilities to take care of him.'
"That's when I went on a search."
Nick began a quest to find the finest care available for his son. He or his representatives talked to people at the National Institute of Health, Yale University, Duke University, New York University -- anyplace with a reputation for first-class medical care and research -- and they all came back with the same message -- that the best trauma hospital that they knew of in the country was right in Miami at Jackson (Memorial Hospital), and Dr. Barth Green was the leading neurosurgeon for spinal-cord injuries in the country.
Two days after the accident, Marc was flown from Tennessee to Miami by air ambulance.
Dr. Green and Miami Project
It's a common misconception that the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis was founded as a result of Marc's injury. It actually began a few months before Marc was injured. A prominent Washington-area developer, Donald Misner, was paralyzed in a car accident in the Bahamas. He was flown to Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, where he met Green.
Green had been involved in spinal-cord-injury research, but he told Misner he was so frustrated by the lack of money available to fund research, he was "ready to give it up."
"He said, `Well, it's a bad time, because I just became paralyzed this week,' " Green recalled. " `What can we do to change your mind?'
"I said, `I'll tell you something. I'd like to mount a massive project to try to cure paralysis and model it after the Manhattan Project or the moon-shot project. If I could raise a million dollars, I could go out and hire the most fabulous scientists and get them equipment and we could be well on our way to curing paralysis.'
"That was about 16 years and $100 million ago."
Much of that money has been raised by the Buoniconti family, who started the Buoniconti Fund, the fund-raising arm of the Miami Project.
"He promised his son that he would work tirelessly to get him out of the chair," Green said. "And he has kept his promise. I don't think there has ever been an athlete who has been so committed."
There still is no cure for paralysis caused by spinal-cord injury. But there has been progress. "I think the most significant thing, Green said, "has been the scientific documentation that the adult nervous system can repair and regenerate and reconnect."
Green has been the subject of some criticism in the medical community by those who believed he was giving false hope to spinal-cord-injury patients. "It was OK to talk about curing cancer or gonorrhea or heart disease, but the second you say paralysis, people would say you're nuts," he said.
"Today, I can tell you, the most conservative scientists and physicians say yes, it's a feasible goal."
Aftermath
In addition to his longtime role on HBO's Inside the NFL, Nick Buoniconti continues to raise funds for spinal-cord research. He jokingly calls himself "the insurance salesman you don't want to see."
Gina, who lives in Dade County, and Nick Jr., who lives in Orlando, also are active in the Buoniconti Fund.
Marc lives in a condo in Coral Gables, where he has 24-hour nursing care. He gets around in a motorized wheelchair he operates with his mouth.
Although he shares his father's belief that he did not receive proper treatment at The Citadel, he believes the military-style training and discipline helped him cope with his injury.
"At The Citadel, they teach you to be able to overcome unwinnable situations," he said. "I believe that training allowed me to be able to channel my emotions in a different way and be able not to accept it, but to deal with my injury in a more positive way."
It wasn't easy, though. "I went through what everyone goes through with a traumatic injury," he said, "you go through denial and you go through anger and you go through depression."
For the first six or seven months after the accident, he needed a ventilator to breathe. Weaning himself off that, being able to take one unaided breath at a time, then two, then three, was the most difficult thing he ever did, he said.
"It's nothing short of suffocation."
Occasionally he has dreams about walking. "That makes me feel really good, that I'm still dreaming about walking," he said. "That means I really believe in it.
"But I want the real thing."
In his highly visible role as a spokesman for the Miami Project, Marc meets new people all the time. Often people will instinctively extend their hand to shake his, then awkwardly wonder if they've done the right thing.
Nick uses this anecdote to illustrate yet another reason he admires his son. "He'll tell them, `Not yet, but that's what we're working on. I'll get there soon.' "
al_tays@pbpost.com http://www.gopbi.com/partners/pbpost/epaper/editions/today/sports_2.html