Baskin's Blog: Despite illness, Glenville coach Ted Ginn Sr. to see son play in Super Bowl for 49ers

CLEVELAND - It’s something many parents take for granted: the ability to sit in the stands and watch your child play a sport.

Imagine having your son make it all the way to "the" game - the Super Bowl. The proudest moment any father could fathom.

Especially sweeter when not only your son, but another local kid that you watched since pee-wee football. Then the gift to coach them on an amazing high school team and see them grow into young men at Ohio State.

Just a few weeks ago the prospect of Ted Ginn Sr. even leaving University Hospitals was a long shot. This Sunday he will watch his son Ted Jr. and his former player at Glenville Donte Whitner try to win the Super Bowl for the San Francisco 49ers.

It will be the first time Ginn Sr. will see Ginn Jr. play live this season.

"Right now doctors say I'm going in the medical books. I'm a miracle. I didn't even know I was that sick,” Ginn Sr. said.

Test after test came up empty. After one lengthy stay at the hospital, it took a second trip for doctors to see Ginn Sr. had a tumor on his pancreas.

"Doctors get worried if something is wrong in your head first, then your pancreas,” said Ginn Sr., who is 40 pounds lighter than he was in August.

Ginn spent almost 60 days in the hospital. It was a scare of a lifetime.

"People ask me how could I do it? I had a purpose. I had to live. There are too many people that depend on me, especially my family. I couldn't give up like that."

So hard to believe that man, who has committed his life to helping thousands of kids from Cleveland have a better life, now needed help just to stay alive.

The survival rate for a pancreas tumor is not one of the things you want to do a Google search to get the answer. The tumor was not cancerous, but the procedure to remove it is not a process any person would want to endure. 

Ginn Sr. was still weak when we talked to him at his house last week. He was cleared by doctors to go to the Super Bowl.

Clevelanders will feel great pride when they watch Ginn Jr., Whitner, and St. Edward grad Alex Boone play in the Super Bowl. But, the football miracle will be sitting in the stands. He has watched him play hundreds of times in his life, but this one will mean a little bit more.