Jack Hoffman, the young Nebraska football fan who ran for a touchdown during the 2013 Cornhuskers' spring game and became a catalyst for pediatric brain cancer fundraising, died Wednesday after a 14-year battle with cancer, according to the Team Jack Foundation. He was 19.
Hoffman was diagnosed with a cancerous glioma when he was 5. Doctors told the family that most of his golf ball-size tumor could not be removed. But his father, Andy Hoffman, did exhaustive research and found a doctor in Boston who extracted more than 90% of the tumor.
Jack's favorite player was Nebraska running back Rex Burkhead, and before the surgery, Andy reached out to Nebraska hoping his son could meet him.