Godspeed, Brian Pritchard

One of the best parts of this job is meeting some of you. No, I take that back. It is THE best part of this job.

I started in the days of "letters to the editor." When the connection to readers was pretty much a one-way deal. You got what we gave you and that was that. You wrote a "letter to the editor" and it may or may not have made it into the paper.

Now, we can talk. Really talk. And I love it. For that reason, I'll always remember one post last fall.

Through the most harried circumstances, I was lucky enough to meet Brian Pritchard last fall. I say "meet," but we only talked on the phone and e-mailed a few times.

I met Brian because I nearly ran into his mother-in-law, Sandy Harter.

After an Iowa victory last fall, she jumped out of the stands during the postgame and threw her 5-f0ot-ish frame in front of Iowa quarterback Ricky Stanzi to deliver a bracelet that read "Just Try And Ruin My Day."

Stanzi's wrists were covered in wristbands from cancer patients. This started to surface in '09, when he talked about visits to the UIHC to see Jenna Waters, then a 4-year-old cancer patient.

Brian Pritchard grew up in Center Point and was always a Hawkeye fan. Last fall, he was also fighting non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

The wristband said "Just Try And Ruin My Day."

“It was something I started telling myself in college,” Brian said. “Of course, the colors were obvious.”

The band is black with “Just Try And Ruin My Day” written in gold letters.

Brian didn't make it. Cancer claimed his life Tuesday.

Brian and his wife, Stacey, have had a running blog on Brian's fight. Here's the link.

Read Stacey's latest post. This is something I couldn't gather the strength to write in a million years.

Such spirit, such strength.

Visit the blog, leave a note. Say a prayer. Keep Brian in your thoughts. He's one of you.

Sandy delivered the bracelet. Last time I talked to Ricky, the Insight Bowl, he had it on.

Godspeed, Brian Pritchard and family.