When she received the cancer diagnosis that would require surgery in February and an intense round of chemotherapy this summer, ESPN sideline reporter Holly Rowe made sure to set up little goals to get her to the start of the college football season.
Whether it was reporting a feature on a softball player or covering the Big 12 basketball tournament as she had done for years and years, those assignments were what Rowe always looked forward to the most. So if there was an opportunity to continue working and looking forward to the next broadcast, the next big event, Rowe was going to take it. In fact, the surgery to remove a tumor from her chest on a Tuesday, fewer than 24 hours after she was on the sidelines for “Big Monday.”
“The doctor said to me the most important thing in fighting cancer is having a good attitude, so what can we keep you doing that will make you happy?” she told USA TODAY Sports by phone Monday. “When I said it’s work, he looked at my mom and my sister like, ‘Oh, that’s a weird answer.’ But for me, that’s what makes me happy. I love my job so much and they planned around my schedule. It’s been a total team effort.”
Though Rowe is still fighting the disease and has to receive a treatment once every three weeks, another step in her therapy comes Sunday when she returns to college football for Texas-Notre Dame with ESPN’s new prime-time team alongside play-by-play announcer Joe Tessitore and analyst Todd Blackledge.
“That’s my happy place,” said Rowe, who has been with ESPN since 1998. “Going through this has made me such an emotional person. I just appreciate everything more, so I feel like I’m crying all the time out of sheer appreciation and being grateful for the moments I’m enjoying. And now, gosh, here we are at kickoff. It’s going to be neat, but I do want to just get back to doing my job.”
For Rowe, of course, it’s always been about the job, which is why she has been universally respected by coaches and her colleagues. Rowe, for instance, recently read Gus Malzahn’s 2003 book on the “Hurry-Up, No-Huddle” offense and did a FaceTime session with Baylor interim coach Jim Grobe on his “orbit” offensive concepts because she had seen some teams on her upcoming schedule running them on film.
“To communicate with someone effectively, you need to speak their language,” she said. “It’s not so much you want to beat viewers over the head with X’s and O’s, but I need to translate what’s happening on the field or why an injury is important because maybe they're playing nickel defense the whole game and now their nickel is injured and that was their base package to defend the spread option. It helps you put the story into context.”
Of course, Rowe’s dedication to her craft and a lifetime of telling other people’s stories made it awkward for her to be the story when ESPN sent out a news release announcing her surgery. She always believed in advice she got as a novice reporter from legendary New York Knicks and Giants announcer Marty Glickman that fans should always remember the games and the stories, but not the announcers.
But Rowe has gotten more and more comfortable with sharing her fight publicly, regularly posting updates on social media and even a Facebook video on July 20 of her hair being shaved off. At the end she says, in typical jovial fashion, “Welcome to baldness!”
In return, Rowe has found an entire world of support she never knew existed, even in the all-too-often negative space that Twitter sometimes occupies for sports fans.
“I’ve had strangers send me gifts in the mail to help treat cancer,” she said. “Someone sent me books when I went through chemo. These are total strangers and when I sent little messages to say thank you for strangers, a woman said, ‘Holly you’re not a stranger to us. You’ve been in our living room for years and years,’ and I just broke down. It’s precious to me that people are that kind and loving.”
So today was interesting. Had to have a little fun with this and laugh so I don't cry!!! Much love to all cancer... https://t.co/gyTLj4ZGhz
— Holly Rowe (@sportsiren) July 20, 2016
And that doesn’t even take into account the dozens of friends in the sports world that have checked in with her the last few months from Nick Saban to Bobby Knight to Les Miles. But hopefully once the games start Sunday, it will be mostly about football, even as her battle continues.
“The annoying thing about cancer is it does not obey me,” she said. “I’m so annoyed by that. It doesn’t listen to me but you go in every few months and have scans and they can see where it is, if it’s shrinking, if it’s progressing. I’m in a medium rocky patch, but I feel great and very hopeful.”
