Ohio State Buckeyes, not bucket lists, help keep ALS fighter Patrick Behan swinging
Standing in the north end zone of Ohio Stadium, Patrick Behan looked every bit like the father of prized basketball recruit.
It was about an hour before Ohio State’s showdown with Notre Dame, and the men’s basketball staff had a bevy of candidates lining up for photos with coach Chris Holtmann. What was then a four-man 2023 class was fully represented, as were a handful of players who could someday join them in Columbus. But interspersed with the youth movement was a moment between Holtmann and Behan, whose 6-foot-8 frame towered over the coach.
While the Buckeyes were hosting five players on official visits and two others on unofficial visits, Behan’s visit was a little bit of both. The 34-year-old high school coach and resident of the greater Washington, D.C., area spent the weekend at Ohio State at Holtmann’s invitation. A lifelong Buckeyes fan, Behan is four months into a Lou Gehrig’s Disease diagnosis.
There have been a lot of rough days. This, thankfully, was not one of them.
“It’s a balancing act of energy but it’s also good because you spend so much time dealing with the diagnosis,” Behan said. “You’re always reminded of it. It’s always there physically, and then when you add in dealing with the doctors and having to go places for appointments, it really adds up. When you can do certain things that are outlets, and for me those would be coaching, because I’m not thinking about it when I’m coaching, or when I’m watching Ohio State play Notre Dame with 110,000 people, those are the moments that you need to offset all the other (stuff) with the disease.”
So how does a man from Virginia with no direct ties to Ohio grow up an Ohio State fan and find himself on the sideline for a top-five football showdown? It turns out that the seeds were planted long before he was born – literally.
Buckeye trees lined the streets
There was something special about the Behan family house in Leesburg, Virginia. Living an hour’s drive northwest of the nation’s capital and on the Maryland border, Behan and his family grew up less than hour from Georgetown and the University of Maryland and cheered for their teams. The pavement of N. King Street boasted a bunch of buckeye trees lining the road, as did nearby St. James Preschool, where his mother, Darcy, would eventually become a teacher.
It left an impression on the impressionable youth.
“When he was 5 he realized that the mascot was a buckeye and he became obsessed,” said his older sister, Alexis. “I’m sure he will hate me telling that story. He went to Bucknell and certainly he loves that university but he’s just loved everything Ohio State for as long as I can remember.”
Basketball was a cornerstone for the Behans. Pat’s father, Jeremiah, was his coach. At the house on King, he laid a brick court in the yard so that they would have somewhere to play, and when they eventually moved, a free-throw line was painted on the new driveway. Eventually, Pat would play for Bucknell, where he averaged 7.8 points and 3.8 rebounds in 119 games from 2006-10 before embarking on a brief professional career that included a year in Germany before finding his way into coaching.
His office at St. John’s College High, located in Washington, D.C., boasts a scarlet Ohio State pennant next to a black-and-orange Bucknell one.
“There was something special about Ohio State as a kid you gravitate to,” he said. “Sometimes that’s the kind of thing you stick with it and it’s crazy how it all worked out to be there (that) weekend and all the support from their program was genuine. It was awesome.”
Behan no longer lives in Leesburg or has steady access to buckeye trees, but that hasn’t stopped a few from hanging around.
“We get to the hotel and take stuff out of my bag and I still had a buckeye in my bookbag, which I’ve had in there for the last few years,” he said. “It randomly stays in there. I still have one or two floating around.”
It was in 2018 that Behan first got to know Holtmann and the men’s basketball program when he made the trip to take in a practice the morning of an Ohio State home football game against Indiana. The Buckeyes routinely allow prep coaches to attend sessions to help with their own teams, and Holtmann remembered the name when he read an August 18, 2022 article about Behan’s diagnosis in the Washington Post.
That led to a phone call and a question: What are you doing Sept. 3?
“He invited me to come up and spend the weekend and it went from there,” Behan said. “He was very unlike most college head coaches across the landscape who delegate responsibilities and you may hear from them once, twice if you’re lucky, but he did everything out of the kindness of his heart. Just an awesome dude that took matters into his own hands to make sure it was an enjoyable weekend experience.”
Behan visited ESPN’s College GameDay broadcast, watched practice, spent time with Holtmann in his office, attended the Skull Session at St. John Arena and tailgated before attending the game. He wasn’t considering attending Ohio State like Taison Chatman or Bronny James, two uncommitted recruits who were visiting that weekend, but that didn’t stop unaware fans from encouraging him.
“Me and my buddy, we’re a little bit older but I guess we can pass as prospects,” he said with a laugh. “It’s funny hearing, ‘Hey, come to Ohio State.’ Give me some eligibility and I will.”
Three days after the Notre Dame game, Holtmann posted a photo of the two of them together at the game with the caption, “Patrick is a HS Hoops coach in DC who loves the Buckeyes. He was recently diagnosed with ALS and, like so many, continues his brave fight everyday. What a big time W by @OhioStateFB he was able to enjoy on Saturday night. Keep fighting @BehanStrong! We are behind you.”
Behan family, friends rally around #PunchBack4Pat
When Behan was diagnosed with ALS in mid-May, he became the latest in a lengthy list of family members to contract the disease. By his sister’s count, Pat is the ninth official Behan with ALS with a great-grandmother who was never officially diagnosed almost assuredly pushing the tally to double digits.
It’s not a club anyone aspires to join, but since he received the news Alexis said her brother has tackled it head-on. For starters, he plans to continue coaching as long as possible.
“He has his bad days and right fully so,” she said. “He’s human. But he knows what he wants and he knows what he wants to go after. When he says he’s ready to fight, he means it. He’s ready to fight. ALS doesn’t have a cure, but that’s not stopping him at all.”
Doing so requires a support team, even more than the five-person effort that created behanstrong.com. The website tells Behan’s story and encourages visitors to consider helping make a monetary contribution to combat the significant financial burden that comes with fighting ALS. That yearly price tag is around $250,000, Alexis said, and the family is awaiting a peer medical review to get insurance to cover one medication that costs $40,000 for the first two months alone.
The viral “Ice Bucket Challenge” from 2014 helped the cause, she said, but there’s a lot about the day-to-day struggles both financially and physically that most people aren’t familiar with.
“You go to put something away and it’s like, ‘Oh shoot, I can’t reach that,’ ” Pat said. “Or you can’t tie your shoe. Just things that are supposed to be constant, right?”
Jeremiah passed away in April 2020 just shy of his 70th birthday after fighting ALS. Seven months later, Darcy was diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer. When Pat played for Bucknell, the two never missed a game, Alexis said.
Now as mother and son wage their separate battles, the Behan family is in the midst of fundraising event for Pat that includes an online silent auction running through Sept. 17. More events are planned for the coming months including a social media challenge and a winter gala.
As basketball season approaches, Behan is focused on preparing for his sixth season as the St. John’s coach. He plans to return to Ohio State for the Wisconsin game, a trip he had planned with some of his buddies before Holtmann had reached out about the Notre Dame game. What lies ahead of that is impossible to know, and the family has forbidden using the phrase “bucket list” when it comes to visits or outings.
The pending trip to Columbus is just a chance to go have some fun while cheering on one of his favorite schools. Just like the last one. And hopefully the ones after that.
“Ohio State’s always been the crew for me since I was a kid,” he said. “Very appreciative of the love they’ve shown. If you’re not a Buckeye hoops fan, it should make it a little easier to root for them now.”
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Patrick Behan continues fight with ALS with help from Ohio State
