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Buckeyes to honor former captain
Ron Springs remains in coma after surgery
Friday, October 19, 2007 5:00 PM
Ohio State football players will wear small "23" decals on the backs of the helmet Saturday during their game against Michigan State in honor of Ron Springs, a running back for the Buckeyes from 1976 to '78 who is in a coma in a Dallas hospital after unsuccessful surgery. His son Shawn, a member of the Washington Redskins, played for Ohio State from 1994 to '96. Ron Springs was a captain for Ohio State his senior year.
OSU notebook: Team to honor Springs with decals
Saturday, October 20, 2007 7:27 AM
By Tim May
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Tony Gutierrez associated press
Former Ohio State captain Ron Springs had big plans for homecoming today before a surgical procedure gone awry a week ago in Dallas left him in a coma.
"We talked for a long time just a couple of days before he went in for that surgery (to remove a cyst from an arm), and Ron was very excited about coming back here to be a part of the football team's captains' breakfast," family friend John Johnson said yesterday.
Coach Jim Tressel still plans for Springs to be part of it. The players' helmets will bear a "23" decal, the number Springs wore from 1976 to 1978. The Big Ten rushing champion in 1977, he was a captain in '78 before moving on to the Dallas Cowboys, where he gained renown as the primary blocker for Tony Dorsett.
His son, Shawn Springs, a former Ohio State All-America cornerback and current Washington Redskin, has been at his father's side all week. He has been unavailable for comment but has been in contact with Johnson in Westerville.
"He wanted to let coach Tressel and the Buckeyes know the family truly appreciates the honor of them wearing his father's number," Johnson said. "That goes for all of us who love Ron Springs."
Ron Springs remains on life support in a Dallas hospital.
Helping Fight a Battle for a Friend Who Can?t
By KAREN CROUSE
Published: November 22, 2007
IRVING, Tex., Nov. 21 ? Every time Everson Walls sees his former Dallas Cowboys teammate Ron Springs, he flicks him on the forehead, slaps his cheeks, jabs at his jaw; anything to get a reaction.
My Sportsman: Everson Walls
An ex-Cowboy offers a teammate a part of himself
Posted: Thursday November 29, 2007
By Richard Deitsch
Sports Illustrated will announce its choice for Sportsman of the Year on Dec. 3. Here's one of the nominations for that honor by an SI writer. For more essays, click here.
The average weight of an adult human's kidney is approximately one-quarter pound. It is roughly four inches long, 2.5 inches wide and shaped like a fist. The kidney is a miraculous organ, performing a number of functions to keep your blood clean and chemically balanced. Most of us have two kidneys. Everson Walls has one. His other kidney sits in the body of Ron Springs, his teammate from a quarter-century ago.
Walls made his sacrifice on Feb. 28. In doing so he became the first pro athlete in history to donate an organ to a teammate, and became my Sportsman of the Year. What makes a man want to give a part of himself to another man? Not a piece of his income, mind you, and not his time, but a body part. "What was tough for me to accept was being labeled a hero," says Walls. "I want everyone to know that's not why I did this. What I did for Ron was unconditional. I did it for him and for his family. I did it because I saw how my friend was suffering."
Wife of former Cowboy Springs filing malpractice suit
Ex-Cowboys player has been in coma since October procedure
01:17 AM CST on Tuesday, January 22, 2008
By BARRY HORN / The Dallas Morning News
[email protected]
The wife of former Dallas Cowboys running back Ron Springs plans to file a lawsuit in state court Tuesday charging medical malpractice.
The news was released Monday by a public relations firm representing attorney Les Weisbord, whose law firm's Web site references him as "the pitbull" of the Texas malpractice bar.
The public relations firm said those being sued will be revealed at a news conference this afternoon. Weisbord was unavailable Monday.
Ron Springs' wife, Adriane, is expected to be at the news conference at the George L. Allen Sr. court building along with former Cowboys player Everson Walls and Springs' son Shawn.
A follow-up lawsuit will be filed in federal court to challenge Texas' $250,000 non-economic damages cap on malpractice awards, the public relations firm said.