Published: June 9, 2025
Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
Mike Cassity — known simply as “Coach” to everyone — has spent 43 years as a college football coach at 18 universities, including nine as defensive coordinator. Twelve years ago, while coaching in the Southeastern Conference at the University of Kentucky, his life took an unexpected turn when what he thought was simple back pain led to a devastating diagnosis: multiple myeloma, an incurable bone marrow cancer.
“The room started spinning. I was trying to get my balance. I couldn’t think of anything,” he said, describing the moment he received his diagnosis.
To a lifelong athlete who lived a healthy lifestyle, the news was especially shocking. Coach had always been the picture of health — a runner who took care of his body and lived what he thought was all the right ways. Now, he was playing a game against the most powerful opponent he’d faced in his life.
“My girlfriend did some research,” Coach said.
That research led them to seek myeloma treatment in Little Rock, Arkansas.
The initial treatment was grueling: a stem cell transplant that kept him hospitalized for over a month. His hair fell out, including his eyebrows, and his strength waned. But Coach approached his cancer battle with the same discipline and determination that defined his coaching career.
A friend who also had faced a cancer battle advised Coach to walk every day.
Coach took this counsel seriously, starting with small laps around his hospital bed, then venturing into the hallway, and eventually throughout the hospital.
Doctors told Coach that recovery typically takes 100 days, but he set a more ambitious goal: 64 days — the time remaining until the first day of fall practice at Western Kentucky University, where he was coaching at the time. Against the odds, he made it.
Multiple myeloma can be particularly challenging, because it adapts to treatments.
According to Coach, “This cancer about every three years figures out the regiment and it comes back.”
During one recurrence, his arm snapped in half while working out, requiring a steel rod insertion. Another time, during his second stem cell transplant, a childhood virus resurfaced, creating a life-threatening situation.
Coach remembers that harrowing moment, packed in ice as medical staff rushed around him.
“I closed my eyes and said, ‘Please, Lord, give me more time on this earth to help others,’” he said.
In 2019, facing another recurrence, Coach was offered a new option: an immunotherapy drug called talquetamab that was still in clinical trials. He was initially skeptical.
“That sounds like last-ditch effort,” he said.
But he decided to try it after his Norton Cancer Institute oncologist, Don A. Stevens, M.D., in Louisville, Kentucky,, assured him that he could return to traditional chemotherapy if needed.
The results transformed his life. Instead of exhausting chemotherapy regimens that left him fatigued and bloated from steroids, Coach now receives a simple shot every two weeks and occasionally a 20-minute infusion of a bone-strengthening drug.
“I’ve lost the weight from the steroids. I’ve got more energy, and it’s really been a blessing to me,” he said. “The immunotherapy is a way of conquering cancer, extending life. It greatly increased my quality of life.”
This improvement allowed Coach to return to the sidelines after a four-year retirement. Though he acknowledges he’s not “perfect,” the immunotherapy has given him back the energy to pursue his passion and live life fully.
Throughout his cancer journey, Coach has developed deep relationships with his care team at Norton Cancer Institute. From the registration staff to the nurses on the fifth floor to Dr. Stevens., he knows them all — their stories, their families, their lives.
“I’ve been to three other facilities, and — don’t get me wrong — they all treated me great,” Coach said. “But when I came here and met the team, they got to know me.”
Coach credits his survival not just to medical advances, but to his unwavering positive attitude — a mindset he’s instilled in his three sons and one daughter throughout their lives.
“When you wake up in the morning, you don’t control gas prices, grocery prices. But what you do have control over is your attitude,” he said. “And no matter how bad a night I might have, I’m going to wake up the next day with positive attitude.”
Coach approaches each day with gratitude and purpose, whether he’s coaching, hunting, fishing, or exploring Louisville’s bourbon tours with his girlfriend Karen during their “Sunday fun days.”
“All of us have an hourglass with sand running through,” Coach said. “I don’t know how long yours is, mine is, or anyone else’s. But tomorrow morning will be the first day of the rest of your life. What are you going to do with it?”
For Coach, the answer is clear: Keep fighting, keep coaching, and keep inspiring others with his story of perseverance and hope.