Tackling Cancer
Football communities rally together to help change and save lives
by Mike Sonntag, Let’s Play Football Co-Publisher
Look around any football program, be it high school or college, and you will likely find a slogan or mantra the members of the team, coaching staff and fans buy into and make their own.
You will see it on t-shirts, wristbands, written on the walls of the locker room, or printed on season tickets. Notre Dame has its famous “Play Like a Champion Today,” Alabama has “Roll Tide,” closer to home St. Thomas has “F.A.M.I.L.Y” and the University of Minnesota has “Row the Boat.”
Whatever the slogan, at some point they were likely created by a coach or player with hopes of making a positive difference for the team through its meaning. 
In 2012 an initiative with the slogan “Tackle Cancer” was created by the Minnesota Football Coaches Association (MFCA) and Randy and Roseann Shaver from the Randy Shaver Cancer Research and Community Fund (RSCRCF) with the hopes of making a positive difference through not just a team, but every school and community in the state of Minnesota.
Now in its 13th year the results of the initiative are “nothing short of a miracle, and a story that must be told” said MFCA Executive Director Ron Stolski.
To date the Tackle Cancer initiative has raised an amazing $3,500,000 for the RSCRCF according to the MFCA website.
Dave Nelson
THE BEGINNING
Randy Shaver was a well-established sportscaster for KARE-11 and had built his Prep Sports Extra segment into the most watched coverage of Minnesota high school football. In 1994 Randy was asked by Leukemia and Lymphoma Society to host their golf fundraiser. He and his wife Roseann worked to help raise money for Leukemia and Lymphoma Society until 2002. In 1998 Randy was diagnosed with Stage IV Hodgkin’s Disease.
He made his cancer fight public, and stayed so passionate with his Prep Sports Extra he scheduled his treatments around his broadcast. “I never missed airing a Prep Sports Extra show” Shaver exclaimed.
In 2003 Randy and Roseann formed RSCRCF after his cancer battle. They have hosted a celebrity golf event and gala at Rush Creek Golf Club in Maple Grove ever since.
In the spring of 2011 Dave Nelson, an MFCA Hall of Fame coach from Minnetonka was diagnosed with prostate cancer. Shaver through his years hosting KARE-11 Prep Sports had covered Nelson’s Blaine and then Minnetonka teams for years and they formed a friendship.
“In June of 2011 my wife Maureen and I were invited to the RSCRCF Gala” Nelson recalled. “During the Gala’s program, many different individuals and groups were recognized for their contributions to Randy’s Foundation.” 
Impacted by the passion and support of RSCRCF event, Nelson began thinking of how his Minnetonka football program could contribute.
Then Nelson was approached by a local businessman who needed all the rock removed from his condominium complex.
“I brought the idea to our players and we agreed to the project. It took 50-60 players and many dads over three days to complete the. We called it Rock Cancer and raised $5000 which we donated it to Randy’s foundation.”
It was at that point Nelson believed more could be done on a statewide level. In 2012 Nelson and the MFCA Executive Board met with Roseann Shaver.
“We discussed bringing the idea to all high school coaches in Minnesota, and Tackle Cancer was born!” Nelson said.
CREATING A THEMED GAME
It did not take long for schools and communities to embrace the idea after the MFCA took the idea to their coaches. Many fun ideas began to show up at high school stadiums across the state. 
Schools and Booster Clubs sold pink t-shirts and wrist bands and set out buckets around the stands for donations.
Student sections hung pink streamers around the stadium to make it a festive atmosphere while players and coaches wore pink socks, used pink tape, and wore pink gloves to participate in the cause.
Even further, some schools have created competitions with opposing schools where the coach of the team who raised more funds has his lawn mowed by the opposing coach.
Often family members of coaches and players who are cancer survivors are celebrated at the Tackle Cancer Game.
During his Prep Sports Extra Randy Shaver introduced Tackle Cancer games as part of the highlights which further promoted the initiative.
Presently you can find where all the scheduled Tackle Cancer games are planned on the MFCA and RSCRCF websites.
“Nelson always preached to players to do something bigger than yourself” Shaver said. “And that message was sent to the community.”
BIG DEAL WHEN IT HITS CLOSE TO HOME
Our own talented Let’s Play Football photographer Libby Auger has been very involved with Tackle Cancer since its inception at St. Cloud Cathedral and St. John’s University. Auger, wife of a football coach and mother of a football player, is also a cancer survivor having beaten Breast Cancer in 2011.
“When you learn of your diagnosis your biggest fear is not being there for your kids” Auger recalled. 
Her two children attended St. Cloud Cathedral high school during the early years of Tackle Cancer. The head coach was Hall of Fame coach Dean Taylor. Taylorhad won state championships at Sartell High School in the early 1990’s, then came out of retirement to coach Cathedral.
Unfortunately, in 2012 Taylor was forced to step aside from coaching due to long term health issues after his long cancer battle.
“Dean was the most positive guy you’d ever meet, and the kids loved him!” Auger said. “The Cathedral community really rallied around Taylor and Tackle Cancer night was a big deal.”
Taylor passed away in April 2016.
When cancer hits close to home as it did at St. Cloud Cathedral, efforts like Tackle Cancer do not require a lot of coercing the community into helping as the disease touches us all in one form or another.
We can find stories like this all over Minnesota.
MONEY RAISED OVER THE YEARS STAYS HOME
The results of the Tackle Cancer Initiative have been incredible with yearly increases every year, except for the pandemic year of 2020.
The MFCA’s goal in the first year was to raise $100,000 (which they exceeded with $120,661). This year (per the MFCA website) the goal is to raise $600,000. Tackle Cancer is not limited to just high school football in Minnesota.
The Minnesota Vikings, The University of Minnesota, and the schools who participate in the conferences of the MIAC, NSIC, and UMAC also put together events to raise funds through Tackle Cancer. “St. John’s University through the efforts of Cindy Fasching (wife of head coach Gary Fasching) and Libby Auger have been doing and incredible job through the years” Randy Shaver said. “They consistently raise $20,000 each year.”
How the money is dispersed through the RSCRCF is also an important part of the success. According to Randy Shaver everything for our events is generously donated with $0.92 of every $1.00 made goes to cancer research projects and patient aide projects here in the state of Minnesota. “
We basically have two employees, Roseann, and an assistant” Shaver said.
Sponsors who raise over $30,000 are invited to an annual allocation meeting. The MFCA for their large contributions normally send 3-5 representatives to listen to 40-45 presentations from cancer researchers to state-wide patient aid projects and decide where the raised money goes.
“Much of the research is ongoing that we fund, some are new, but many are ones we have funded for a while, research takes time and money.” Shaver said.
Libby Auger believes the fact the cancer money and research stays right here in Minnesota is a key component to the success of Tackle Cancer.
“It is a big deal and I think a lot of people feel that way. It hits home whether sub-consciously or not and it means a lot.” Auger said.
What started as an idea to make a difference through coach Dave Nelson, the slogan and success of Tackle Cancer has become part of the fabric of Minnesota Football in the last 12 years and is here to stay.
All sports, not just football teach life lessons to the young athletes participating.
Dave Nelson had it right in teaching his players to do something bigger than themselves, it is amazing how this message has spread throughout Minnesota.
If you have never attended a Tackle Cancer themed game and would like to donate, we have posted a link to the Tackle Cancer donation site on our website www.letsplayfootballmn.com.