A life interrupted

Five months ago, Victor Ellis didn't look like a man stricken with cancer.

In a photo taken at a November fund-raiser held on his behalf before an Alabama football game in Tuscaloosa, Ellis looks like he could still strap on the shoulder pads and return to the linebacker position he once occupied. He's standing tall and proud, wearing a black Izod V-neck sweater over a white dress shirt and smiling into the camera. He looks like a young man with far more living to do.

Sadly, Ellis' life, filled with positivity and full of so much promise, ended late Tuesday night.

The former Alabama football standout died at 28, succumbing to cancer in his hometown of Chattanooga, Tenn.

Ellis' former teammate and his best friend, running back Ahmaad Galloway, was at his side at Memorial Hospital. Their friendship serves as testament to the bonds that form through sports. When Galloway was married last April, Ellis wore a tux and served as his best man. When Ellis was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer after developing a persistent cough last summer, Galloway stepped in to help.

He accompanied his friend to chemotherapy treatments and organized a fund-raiser along with Blair Brown, the president of the Russell/Muscogee County chapter of the University of Alabama National Alumni Association.

The event that originated through their tireless work produced an amazing outpouring of support. Former Alabama football legends mingled with the masses at the ''Tailgating with the Legends'' event set up near Denny Chimes before last November's home game with Louisiana-Monroe. Brown told me that $30,000 in donations were raised for Ellis in just two hours.

Ellis, who served as an honorary game captain for that home game, had an unspeakably difficult fight against tumors that had formed in a lung, a kidney, his chest cavity, spine and pelvis. You couldn't see any of that in the photo that Brown shared via e-mail, the one that showed Ellis looking so happy and carefree not so long ago.

"Victor told me on several occasions that it meant a lot to him for you all to come out and support him like you did,’’ Brown wrote in an e-mail to A Club members Wednesday. "He was very grateful to the Alabama family. We were honored to know him and call him our friend.''

We can only hope that Ellis is at peace now, free of the pain that attacked his body. We must also remember the good work done last fall for a good man.

To see a slideshow from last fall's fund-raiser, log on to: http://www.flickr.com/photos/25115406@N08/show/