Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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Silent Fight Safeties coach Bob Elliott quietly conquered kidney failure in 2012 B By Wes Morgan ob Elliott's scarred body tells a tale of a 15-year battle to stave off premature expiration, and a box of pills in the Notre Dame safeties coach's office serves as a more public reminder of everything the 60-yearold and his family have been through since his first brush with death in 1998. Elliott, the son of former Michigan head coach and Iowa athletics director Bump Elliott, was diagnosed with a rare form of blood cancer that year when he was the Hawkeyes' defensive coordinator and heir apparent to legendary head coach Hayden Fry. The condition took Elliott out of the coaching game, and doctors told him there was a 50 percent chance he wouldn't survive even with bone marrow transplant. But Elliott did survive, as he did when the cancer reappeared a couple years later when he was attempting to jumpstart his coaching career as an assistant overseeing the Iowa State secondary from 2000-01. It seemed as if no future medical problem could possibly rattle the stoic instructor after he hurdled the grave twice. Two weeks after being hired at Notre Dame on Jan. 21, 2012, Elliott once again confronted a serious physical attack. Fighting Irish head coach Brian Kelly had sent Elliott home until after National Signing Day because there was really nothing he could contribute so late in the recruiting process. That's when Elliott underwent the normal series of tests every coach has administered in the offseason, though his were more extensive due to his previous medical history. "I have a whole army of doctors that I need to see every once in a while, so we tried Elliott's sister, Betsy, gave him the great news that she was a donor match a couple days before Thanksgiving and then successfully donated one of her kidneys Feb. 6. Photo courtesy notre dame media relations Blue & Gold Illustrated 2013 Football Preview ✦ 29 28-31.Bob Elliott.indd 29 6/25/13 8:32 AM