Neilson Isn’t Letting Down

It began during training camp, with a lethargic feeling and a cough he couldn’t shake. While visiting Anaheim and Los Angeles in November, Flyer Coach Roger Neilson made light of his obvious fatigue and insisted a few days in the sun would restore his energy and make everything right again.

If only it were that simple. If only sunshine and relaxation could cure the multiple myeloma--bone marrow cancer--that has attacked his body.

“For two months I was kind of under the weather. It was a weird thing,” Neilson said. “That was all part of it. That was the start of the immune system breakdown.”

As he spoke, a rectangular pouch holding a pump and powerful cancer-fighting drugs rested against his left hip, feeding a chemical cocktail through a tube threaded into his chest. He was early in his third cycle of chemotherapy and was to be tethered to that pouch for 96 hours, ending today. After that, he will take as many as 23 pills a day for 17 more days. Some days he’s tired enough to nap, but other days he needs only four hours’ sleep. He has not missed a practice or game since getting his diagnosis Dec. 9.

“There’s almost been no change in him. There’s been none in his work habits,” Flyer General Manager Bob Clarke said. “He’s got that strong faith. And I think for a bright man, and he is a bright man, he’s also got a very simple life. His life is hockey. For me, other than seeing he’s getting chemo with a pump and stuff like that, you’d never notice anything’s different. He takes steroids when he’s on the pump, so he’s fired up some days, like he’s had a little too much coffee.

“He talks about the cancer much like any other subject. He’s not afraid or worried or anything. At least if he is, he’s not showing it.”

Nor is Neilson, 65, showing any of the awful side effects of chemotherapy, such as hair loss. “They’ve got me covered with all kinds of pills,” said Neilson, who has joked about wearing goofy wigs if he loses his gray-brown curls. “It’s like a walk in the park.”

More like a race to stay ahead of an insidious foe and make the most of every moment he has. How many moments, no one can know.

Multiple myeloma strikes about 15,000 people a year and causes about 10,000 deaths annually. Two years ago it killed Neilson’s sister, Joan, his only living relative, but doctors told him there’s no genetic link. Her cancer was more advanced, and doctors at Hahnemann University Hospital in Philadelphia have told him he probably will live at least five years and maybe as many as 15. Childless and never married, Neilson has always been fit and active and still rides his well-worn mountain bike to the Flyers’ practice complex.

“If anything he’s been more diligent. I see a strength in his work ethic a little more,” goalie John Vanbiesbrouck said. “Not the fact that he’s on the ice longer, but there’s just more emphasis put on things and he’s trying to get our team built up for the playoffs and get us back to where we can challenge the [New Jersey] Devils. He’s got a lot of endurance, which is really amazing.”

In early March Neilson will undergo a stem cell bone marrow transplant, in which his marrow will be removed, cleansed and returned to his body. Recovery will take about six weeks, mostly in isolation to guard against infection, and he will miss the first round of the playoffs.

But first, he will coach the Flyers against the Mighty Ducks today at the First Union Center, and Sunday he will assist Maple Leaf Coach Pat Quinn in coaching the North American team at the NHL All-Star game at Toronto. He can’t stop. Won’t stop. If he does, the cancer might gain on him.

“If you’re sitting at home thinking about it, that could be tough. I’m here and I’ve got videos to watch and there’s always things to do,” he said. “I’ve added an hour a day doing my mail, and there’s all this All-Star stuff coming up. I work hard anyway with the hockey camps [he runs for coaches and players]. There’s never a quiet moment and I think that’s probably the best thing. I talked to [champion cyclist] Lance Armstrong and he said, ‘Keep busy.’ ”

That has never been a problem for Neilson, long considered an innovator--particularly in the defensive aspects of the game--and a man who has made no enemies anywhere he has worked. If he’s not coaching--the Flyers are his seventh NHL head coaching job and his 440 victories rank ninth best in NHL history--he’s running hockey clinics around the world. Or dissecting game tapes, a habit that won him the title “Captain Video.” Or assembling teaching tapes, as he did Dec. 10, when he told his players about his illness.

First, he informed Clarke. The onetime Flyer tough guy wept until Neilson assured him, “I’m a really strong Christian, and if this treatment doesn’t work out, well, wherever I go, it’s got to be better than Philadelphia.”

Then Neilson showed players a game tape spliced with scenes from “Monty Python,” creating a loose atmosphere he shattered with his almost casual announcement.

“It came right out of the blue. We thought he was going to talk about something else and then he hit us with that,” winger Mark Recchi said. “We all had our concerns early this year. He wasn’t healthy, and you could see it. . . . Everybody respects Roger tremendously anyway. The way he’s handled things, you just can’t believe how courageous he’s been.”

Said Clarke: “Everybody has their own beliefs and their own faith. His in God is a lot stronger than a lot of people’s. He seems to feel there’s a plan for each person and this is part of the life plan that God set out for him, so it makes it easy for him to accept it. I don’t know if I would accept it as easily, but who knows? You hope you don’t have to make that choice. He’s shown a lot of dignity and courage.”

Neilson is embarrassed by such compliments. “If you were sick every day and had to drag yourself into work, that’s courageous. It hasn’t taken courage at all, other than to watch a few of the games on video,” he said. “There’s really been nothing that I couldn’t carry on exactly as I was before.”

He also downplayed the tributes he has received on message boards in rivals’ rinks. “We happened to be playing teams I had coached. It’s died down now,” he said. “Besides, when they did it at the Island, I heard a few boos.”

But the flood of cards, letters and good wishes has touched him deeply, and he responds to them all. The Flyers gave him notes with his picture and a pre-printed expression of thanks, but he almost always adds a few personal words, “because it could be old friends or somebody who’s really done something nice. They send all kinds of stuff. . . . I’ve gotten letters from schools, teams, prisons, churches. Not just hockey people, but everybody who’s had a friend or a relative who’s had this. Every day I get a ton of mail. They all have something to offer. I’ve heard about all the cures. There’s plenty of them. I got a trophy from a girls’ convent school, a basketball trophy. They made me their second father. Now I’ve got 25 daughters.”

And countless friends to help him fight one terrible foe.

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