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Former offensive tackle of the Minnesota Golden Gophers Nick Connelly died Wednesday at the age of 22 years.
Connelly died after three months of fighting cancer. His father, Chuck Connelly, confirmed the news of the death of his son Burkitt's lymphoma with a message he posted on Twitter Wednesday:
"On Wednesday, September 19, 2018, Heaven needed a proper tackle and Nick Connelly got the call. Nick was diagnosed with Burkitt's lymphoma in June 2018. Burkitt's cancer is very rare and aggressive. Nick won the battle with aggressive chemotherapy until the cancer became resistant to all chemotherapeutic treatments. Nick was a beautiful, strong young athlete with a very kind heart and a big smile. Nick loved his friends, hunting duck, geese, deer and pheasants with his father and brothers and eating moms cooking. Nick also enjoyed playing football for his Minnesota Golden Gophers team. Nick's other pleasures included mountain snowboarding, meat cooking and cooking. Nick attended River Valley Church in downtown Minneapolis.
Our hearts break and are devastated by Nick's loss. We want to thank the thousands of family members, friends and strangers from across the country who gave their prayers, kindness and love to Nick and our family. Nick and we were stunned and grateful for the amount of public notice for Nick's support.
Thank you!"
The Minnesota Golden Gophers football program paid tribute to the former offensive lineman with a Tweet stating, "Golfers are mourning the loss of former striker Nick Connelly, and our thoughts are with his family and friends through this difficult time."
Connelly has retired from football after suffering a concussion in a football match against Purdue in 2017. He debuted in five games for Minnesota as a second year in redshirt before the injury to the head that ended his career.
Minnesota football coach P. J. Fleck began his press conference on Tuesday with a statement about Connelly's fight against cancer (transcription via Fox9), which he says he was informed about five weeks ago:
"I just want to make sure everyone knows, from our family to theirs, from our football family, from our university, from our state, we ride with Nick, and our thoughts and prayers go with him. and his family fight you. Whenever you have cancer, it is one of those battles that none of us would like a family member to have and experience personally. He has an incredible resolution and he is a wonderful human being. I know that he has a lot of teammates praying for him and supporting him.
"I just wanted to start with that and make sure we all have a humble heart of that kind and offer our condolences to his family."
It is not known if Fleck knew that Connelly was near the end when he made this statement.
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