Andy Hoffman, 42, of Atkinson, Nebraska, formerly of Brookings, died Monday, March 1, 2021.
Andy is a former Brookings resident like a lot of people are former Brookings residents. He lived here while going to college. For Andy, it was less than the traditional four years as he transferred here after a brief stint of playing football at Utah State. Andy spent some of his Brookings years as a part-timer in The Brookings Register sports department.
That’s where our paths intersected. I was the news editor and would spend Friday nights working on the Saturday paper or perhaps come in after covering a meeting. Andy would be there writing a game story, previewing a Jacks game or handling the phones. That was when coaches or stat keepers would call in their night’s results, so late-1990s.
Andy was affable, intelligent and a good conversationist. He made any late-night shift better. He wasn’t planning a career in sports writing, but worked at it like he was.
Actually, Andy was a political science major with an aim to become a lawyer. He graduated and went to the University of South Dakota School of Law. Life didn’t reconnect us until late 2016, after his son became famous.
Cancer’s first visit to the Hoffmans
In April 2013, 7-year-old Jack Hoffman lined up in the backfield at the Nebraska Cornhuskers’ Red-White spring game and ran 69 yards for a touchdown. He was on the field because of a relationship the Hoffman family had generated with former Husker Rex Burkhead and the coaching staff as Jack battled pediatric brain cancer.
The moment generated nearly 9 million views on YouTube, led to an ESPY Award for Jack and garnered a White House invitation from President Barack Obama.
Hoffman had formed Team Jack Foundation not long after Jack’s diagnosis. What began as a prayer support group for Jack has become a major fundraising entity for pediatric cancer research, bringing in $8.4 million since 2013. Like the rest of the country, I had seen the inspiring run by Jack Hoffman, but didn’t connect it to my former Register co-worker.
By this time I was working in public relations at the university. Word reached our office that the alum’s work in pediatric brain cancer fundraising would make a great story.
Yes, it did. See STATE, the SDSU Alumni Association magazine, winter 2017 edition.
One of my memorable interviews
I reacquainted with Andy in a brief phone call and made arrangements to visit his north-central Nebraska home on the back end of a Thanksgiving 2016 trip to visit relatives.
We hadn’t kept in contact during those 16 or 17 years since our Register days, but talking at the Hoffman kitchen table was as comfortable as evenings at our desks at the Register. But the conversation was deeper. We talked about running – one of the country’s longest rail trails was no more than a block from his house. We talked about faith – Andy and Bri weren’t walking alone as they petitioned for Jack’s deliverance from cancer. Of course, we also talked about the success Team Jack and Jack had seen in the past few years.
While I have continued to keep up with Team Jack, our paths never crossed again.
I’m confident they will in eternity. Andy’s faith was rock solid.
How does faith fit into this?
Bri posted Andy’s favorite verse in a Feb. 20 blog:
Isaiah 43:2
When you pass through the waters,
I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers,
they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire,
you will not be burned;
the flames will not set you ablaze.
God’s Word doesn’t protect us from all harm. Andy was diagnosed in July 2020 with a rare and aggressive form of brain cancer. Chemotherapy, radiation and treatments at the Mayo Clinic didn’t save him. His condition deteriorated sharply during February, Bri blogged, and on March 1 his earthly life ended.
Andy’s funeral is 10:30 a.m. Saturday at Atkinson Community Center. A prayer service is 7 p.m. Friday at Immanuel Lutheran Church, Atkinson.
Mourners will recall a man who was deeply in love with his family, passionate about finding a cure for pediatric brain cancer, and trusting in a God who, though not healing his body, was still comforting his spirit and saving his soul.
People – the best investment
So here I sit tonight, thinking about the loss that Bri and children Ava, Jack and Reese suffered Andy’s passing.
In Bri’s Feb. 20 blog, she wrote: “Even though Andy’s diagnosis was 7 months ago, we are still in denial that this is happening. We are, however, grateful for the past 7 months as we are thankful for each day that God gives us together here on earth.”
Seven months isn’t very long. I’m thankful to have lived two decades longer than Andy.
One thing those years have taught me is that the window closes sooner than you expect, whether it is an athletic opportunity, a child’s stage of life or the relationship we have with a friend. “Strike while the iron is hot,” a dying church acquaintance told me years ago.
Don’t expect an opportunity to always be there. Invest in those around you. Take time to share your life with those God gives you the opportunity to do so. You will be richer for doing so.
Using that standard, I know Andy died a rich man.
