Gophers pitching coach Todd Oakes has passed away

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Very sad to hear, my thoughts and prayers go out to his family as well as the entire Gopher baseball family. T.O. was a great man and fought his ass off for years. Rest easy T.O.
 



Goldy Gopher said:
Very sad to hear, my thoughts and prayers go out to his family as well as the entire Gopher baseball family. T.O. was a great man and fought his ass off for years. Rest easy T.O.
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Very well said. He fought this horrible disease off twice. One of the most remarkable things about TO was his attitude and demeanor. He never really seemed to change, he was always so kind, humble, if you saw him in his hospital bed, office, or at an LLS event.

Last year fall when he had his strike out cancer day at a Gopher football game, our tailgate group wanted to help out and raise money for it. I had told him at Light the Night that I had a present for him, and he said no need, I already gave him Gopher balloons. I told him it was something bigger, he asked, "a Cadillac?" I told him it wasn't that big, somewhere in the middle. When I gave him the $500 from our tailgate, he acted like it was $500,000, he was so grateful. He raised so much for the Leukemia Lymphoma society when he was in remission, and had cancer, I believe the total was over $150,000, with Strike Out Cancer and his Man of the Year campaign.

He's one of the best people I had the pleasure of knowing. Cancer just takes the best people, my heart is just broken.
 


Todd just received a national Chairman Citation for all of his amazing work:

<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/167340491" width="640" height="360" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen></iframe>
<p><a href="https://vimeo.com/167340491">BIG NEWS FOR TODD!!!</a> from <a href="https://vimeo.com/user34400712">Shannon Blake</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>

Strib Article:
http://www.startribune.com/todd-oakes-gophers-longtime-pitching-coach-dies/380993791/
 

GopherLady said:
Very well said. He fought this horrible disease off twice. One of the most remarkable things about TO was his attitude and demeanor. He never really seemed to change, he was always so kind, humble, if you saw him in his hospital bed, office, or at an LLS event.

Last year fall when he had his strike out cancer day at a Gopher football game, our tailgate group wanted to help out and raise money for it. I had told him at Light the Night that I had a present for him, and he said no need, I already gave him Gopher balloons. I told him it was something bigger, he asked, "a Cadillac?" I told him it wasn't that big, somewhere in the middle. When I gave him the $500 from our tailgate, he acted like it was $500,000, he was so grateful. He raised so much for the Leukemia Lymphoma society when he was in remission, and had cancer, I believe the total was over $150,000, with Strike Out Cancer and his Man of the Year campaign.

He's one of the best people I had the pleasure of knowing. Cancer just takes the best people, my heart is just broken.
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X2 What a great person. They just don't get any better. My High School teammate and friend. It just doesn't make any sense. Just finished his book about his battle the other day. . RIP TO
 


R.I.P. Todd Oakes.
Ski-U-Mah!!!

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Blackhammer said:
X2 What a great person. They just don't get any better. My High School teammate and friend. It just doesn't make any sense. Just finished his book about his battle the other day. . RIP TO
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I never had a chance to get my copy autographed by him :(.

GophersInIowa said:
This was made about a week ago

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This may be the toughest thing I've ever watched. He truly loved and cared about so many, and impacted their lives so much.
 


GophersInIowa said:
This was made about a week ago

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That was awesome. I have talked to a couple of his teammates here at Nebraska and they talk about him the same way his players did in the video. The best quote was the one saying he was the only guy that could represent Christ and be a bad ass at the same time. TO had a very good career here with the Huskers. In his two years here, he went 16-4 and was second team all big 8 his senior year, for a terrible Nebraska team.
 

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