Benefactors

Place of hope
(continued)

A hero says thanks
Almost immediately after he completed his prostate cancer treatment at UC Davis Cancer Center in September, football legend Jim Otto went to work raising awareness and money to help defeat the disease.

He also donated his famous name and face to the UC Davis Cancer Center’s new television ad campaign. In the ad, Otto talks about how he could have gone anywhere in the world for his treatment — but chose UC Davis Cancer Center.

The football great has thanked his treatment team in other ways, too. On his last day of radiation therapy in September, Otto brought Raiders’ shirts and caps emblazoned with his number, 00, for members of his treatment team. He also posed for pictures and wrote a $25,000 check to the Auburn Endowment, a non-profit foundation that raises money for prostate cancer research at UC Davis.

“Jim Otto was a warrior on the football field, and now he’s a warrior in the fight against prostate cancer,” says Ralph deVere White, director of the UC Davis Cancer Center and Otto’s physician. “His openness about his illness and his recovery is going to make a tremendous difference for a lot of men who may be afraid to even have their prostates checked. We’re lucky to be on his team.”
Considered the best center ever to play the game, Otto was elected into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1980. He now works as director of special projects for the Raiders.

Jim Otto, in white shirt, with his cancer treatment team.