A young cancer patient who inspired millions of college football fans in 2013 with a 69-yard springtime sprint in Nebraska has died of the disease, officials said Wednesday.
Jack Hoffman, a freshman at the University of Nebraska at Kearney and an aspiring attorney, was 19.
“Jack may no longer be with us in person, but his legacy lives on in the work of the Team Jack Foundation, in the lives of the children and families we’ve helped, and in the hope he gave to so many,” said a statement from Team Jack, a foundation that raises money for cancer research in the young man’s honor. “Jack Hoffman, you will always be our hero.”
Hoffman was just 5 when he was diagnosed with brain cancer, and his treatment for the ultimately fatal disease took center stage in 2013 during the Nebraska Cornhuskers’ spring football game.
Near the end of the extended practice, the Huskers ran Hoffman out on the field in full uniform.
Longtime Nebraska quarterback Taylor Martinez took a shotgun snap, handed the ball to 7-year-old Jack and helped direct the boy to run downfield at Memorial Stadium.
The little boy sprinted 69 yards to the end zone, with an escort of Huskers joyously running alongside the young cancer patient.
His lead blocker, fullback C.J. Zimmerer, hoisted Jack in celebration as soon as they crossed the goal line.
Video of the TD run has gained more than 9 million views on the athletic department’s YouTube channel since it first dropped nearly 12 years ago.
Jack's story became widely known and led to an Oval Office meeting with President Barack Obama.
The team's community outreach operation had known of Jack coming into that season.
The program’s director of football operations at the time, Jeff Jamrog, said it wasn't until a day before the 2013 spring game that he and then-assistant coach Rich Fisher hatched the idea to bring Jack on to the field.
"It was the loudest cheer I've ever heard in Memorial Stadium, shoot, maybe ever," Jamrog told NBC News on Thursday. "It was a pretty awesome moment. And then from there, it just went viral, worldwide."
Jamrog, now the head football coach at NAIA Midland University in Fremont, Nebraska, said he last spoke with the young man in December.
"I talked to him right before Christmas, just to wish him 'Merry Christmas,' and I could tell, in his voice, that it didn't sound good," Jamrog said. "I was pretty worried then. He fought a hell of a battle."
The University of Nebraska said it is “heartbroken by his loss” but forever inspired by the youngster’s “courage, fight, and inspiration.”
“Small in stature, but not in heart,” the university’s statement said. “Your legacy will live on forever Jack.”
The young man was preceded in death by his father, attorney Andy Hoffman, who died of brain cancer in 2021.
