When Jack Curtis ’26 got his cancer diagnosis in June, his competitive instinct kicked in: he’d grit his teeth and keep quiet until the football season was over, just as he’d managed other injuries. But Stage 2 Hodgkin’s lymphoma isn’t just another injury, especially when it’s beginning to surround the heart.
Then his dad offered some advice: “You need people to help you, not people to hide this from.” So Curtis set up a Zoom call with his team, explaining that this season, beneath the Carleton patch on his jersey, there would be a chemo port. On weeks when he’d be receiving treatments, he wouldn’t be able to practice, and his status on Saturday would be a game-day decision.
If anyone was skeptical about having a starting quarterback who couldn’t practice, they didn’t show it. Support poured in. When Curtis needed a ride to Mayo Clinic for treatment, wide receiver Rye Storrs ’26 grabbed his car keys—and stayed all 12 hours, cracking jokes to pass the time. When he didn’t have the energy to cook, his roommate’s mom drove to campus to make pancakes, Curtis’s favorite, for the whole house. When medical bills piled up, friends and strangers alike donated $50,000 to a GoFundMe.
All the while, Curtis made sure to keep up with his coursework. On days he was bedridden from chemo, he reviewed notes sent by classmates. When his strength returned, he met with professors, working through missed lectures and assignments. “School was rough,” he recalls. “I could’ve taken the term off and still graduated in spring, but I wanted to do this. I wanted to lead my life and not let the diagnosis define who I am and what I can and can’t do.”
This kind of determination earned him accolades, including being named a finalist for the 2025 Gagliardi Trophy and 2025 MIAC Offensive Player of the Year, after finishing the season with 3,120 yards and 29 touchdowns, becoming Carleton’s all-time leader in passing yards, completions, and passing touchdowns. And he hopes it’ll propel him to graduate school, where he plans to study aerospace engineering.
When Curtis rang the bell on December 19, marking the end of treatment and beginning of remission, his teammates were, as always, with him. The moment echoed a scene a month earlier: Curtis surrounded by teammates after the final game of the season, too weak to do anything but sit on the ground, needing his fellow Knights to lift him and help him off the field.
“When I was sitting in that chair in the hospital, I needed something to hold on to. For me, that was wanting to play football with my best friends. I implore anyone going through similar things, healthwise or otherwise, to find people to hold on to. Find your ‘why,’ find your reason to tough it out, because we’re stronger than we think.”