Several hours before ESPN.com broke the story about Chris Lofton's battle with testicular cancer, our newsroom received a phone call from a "reliable source" saying the Vol basketball player was in fact dealing with the disease.  The caller didn't have the story "on the record" or official, so we immediately began making phone calls to try and verify the news.

Little did we know, we were chasing a secret that was more than a year old.

In this day and time, it is simply amazing that Chris Lofton kept his fight with cancer from the public.  One text message, one bulletin board post, or one call to a sports talk show, and the story, accurate or not, would have spread like wildfire.  Chris was diagnosed with cancer, had surgery to remove it, received radiation treatments, and played his entire senior season with UT, and no one knew.  He chose to keep his personal battle personal, and his small circle of family and friends backed him all the way.

Coach Bruce Pearl says Chris' #5 jersey will one day hang in the rafters of Thompson-Boling Arena.  Read the ESPN story and you'll see why his performance on the floor is only part of the reason it deserves to be there. 

Well done Chris.