He tossed a football with Les Miles on the Tiger Stadium field and took batting practice at Alex Box Stadium. For John Hawkins, there could not have been a more perfect way to spend a weekend in Baton Rouge.
Until this weekend.
Hawkins, 21, came to Baton Rouge for the first time on a trip paid for by the Make-A-Wish Foundation. The then 15-year-old recently completed a round of chemotherapy and radiation treatments and was thought then to be cancer-free.
Only a few days later did he receive the devastating news that the cancer -- first diagnosed as Stage IV Hodgkin's lymphoma -- had returned.