Fifty Southern Illinois players will wear helmets decals with a loved one’s initials and the colored ribbon of the type of cancer they battled Saturday night for the team’s annual Blackout Cancer game at Saluki Stadium. (Photo by SIUSalukis.com)
By Barry Bottino
Throughout the fall, Matt Orbany oversees hundreds of jerseys, game pants and helmets in various colors and sizes for the Southern Illinois football program.
When the Salukis take the field Saturday, Oct. 5 against Illinois State in Carbondale, the team’s black Under Armour jerseys will have a special meaning to Orbany, every player on the SIU roster and dozens of families in the Carbondale region.
Saturday will mark the 14th annual Blackout Cancer game, a partnership between SIU Athletics and the Southern Illinois Healthcare Foundation to raise awareness and money to support cancer patients in 16 counties.
All proceeds from various events, including player jerseys that are auctioned off and adorned with the names of community members impacted by cancer, will go to an SIH fund that helps patients and families with expenses such as prescriptions, transportation, nutritional needs, fuel costs and treatment-related medical bills.
Orbany, who works with SIH and Under Armour in planning the jerseys each year, was personally impacted when, in 2014, his 9-year-old brother Michael died after battling a malignant brain tumor, known as medulloblastoma.
“Doing this hits home. I love this game and promoting this game,” Orbany said. “It’s been 10 years, but I’ll always carry that with me. I think of him every time the Blackout comes up.”
This year’s jerseys are black with a camouflage pattern down the side, Orbany said, and will feature the Blackout Cancer logo on the front chest.
New player decals
In addition, 50 different SIU players will wear helmet decals with the initials of a loved one who battled cancer and a colored ribbon signifying that specific type of cancer.
The idea is a takeoff on the University of Connecticut’s cancer awareness game, which featured colored ribbons on the sides of UConn’s helmets specific to each player’s loved one they wanted to honor.
“This is my third season here. I always want to do something different,” Orbany said. “(The decals are) definitely something more personal.”
For junior defensive ends Caden Reeves and Louis Wilbert, the opportunity to honor a loved one is special.
Reeves will have “NT” over a light blue ribbon signifying prostate cancer. The initials honor his grandfather Noel True, who battled the disease when Reeves was a youth growing up in Basehor, Kansas.
“He’s beaten it, thank God. He’s a fighter,” said Reeves, who called his grandfather, “the hardest worker I know. He’s a good ol’ Kansas farm boy.”
Wilbert, a Memphis native, will wear the “KW” and a pink ribbon to honor his mother, Katina, a breast cancer survivor.
“My mom battled breast cancer and was diagnosed when I was in high school, my 10th grade year. She fought through it, and she beat it,” Louis Wilbert said. “After the game, I can give her a piece of something from the game.”
Fighting for others
When discussing the annual event this week, SIU head coach Nick Hill said it offers everyone in the program perspective on life.
“There are people with real world problems out there. It doesn’t take long to just open your eyes, have some awareness and get off the phone,” he said. “Go to the grocery store, go anywhere. There’s somebody there that can (help you) stop feeling sorry for yourself about losing two games in a row.
“You can stop having a pity party about something going on in your life. It’s always a good time to reset your perspective,” he said.
For Reeves and Wilbert, that perspective comes from meeting the families after the game who placed winning bids on their jerseys.
“Seeing them at the end of the game, knowing who you played for is just a good feeling,” Wilbert said.
The winning bidders on Reeves’ 2023 jersey made a personal connection to the player and his family.
“They ended up finding my parents and said how appreciative they were that I was able to represent their loved one,” Reeves said. “It’s pretty special.”
Barry Bottino is a co-founder of Prairie State Pigskin and a 19-year veteran of three Illinois newspapers. He has covered college athletics since 1995.
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