Surgery not deterring woman from cheering for beloved Buckeyes

A New Smyrna Beach resident — and lifelong Ohio State fan — had brain-cancer surgery delayed until after the Buckeyes played Clemson in the CFP semifinals. Now she expects to watch the national championship game on Monday.

Her Ohio State Buckeyes are underdogs to Alabama by a touchdown or more, depending on the odds board. But Connie Cox isn’t flinching at the challenge.

Nor is she backing off the challenge of completing missionary work far, far away, where the odds are also daunting.

Piece of cake, both of them, compared to the hurdle recently thrown in front of her.

On Dec. 26, the 57-year-old New Smyrna Beach resident was diagnosed with glioblastoma, the worst form of brain tumor and considered one of the worst cancers overall, if not the worst. Surgery was quickly scheduled for the next day at Jacksonville’s Mayo Clinic.

And then postponed.

Less than a week later, on

New Year’s Day, Connie’s Buckeyes were playing Clemson in the semifinals of the College Football Playoffs. And one of her entrenched memories from childhood involved a ClemsonOhio State bowl game — the

1978 Gator Bowl in Jacksonville

— that brought a dramatic end to the career of legendary Buckeyes’ coach Woody Hayes.

“I just wasn’t ready to do the surgery,” Cox said this week. “I knew we were playing Clemson and the curse of Woody Hayes was hanging over me. I couldn’t take a chance of missing that game.”

The twilight years of Hayes’ great career were cut short in after he threw a punch at Clemson’s Charlie Bauman, who ended up on the Ohio

State sideline after intercepting a Buckeyes’ pass.

Cox, who like all longtime Ohio State fans, speaks glowingly of the many positive sides of Woody Hayes, has learned all too well about receiving a haymaker. She’ll take the first step in beating back the odds with brain surgery at noon Friday in Jacksonville.

She hopes to be home by Sunday and also hopes she’ll be able to watch the national championship game between Alabama and Ohio State.

“I heal quickly,” she said. “I plan on being somewhere comfortable to watch Monday night’s game.”

A good attitude, as positive as possible during such times, is considered a key to surviving any terrible diagnosis. In that respect, Cox goes about this like a two-touchdown favorite.

“I’ve been blessed my whole life,” she said. “God has blessed me and He still is. It’s the most powerful energy I’ve experienced my whole life. I have support from all the angels around me. All my friends and family are distraught, but I say, ‘Come on, guys, you gotta get a little bit tougher.’ ”

Cox grew up in Columbus, Ohio, making her a natural Buckeyes fan from birth. She spent two years at Ohio State before transferring to UCF in Orlando, where she majored in education and later taught physical education at a few stops in Central Florida, including a stint at New Smyrna Beach High.

Cox’s mother lives in New Smyrna Beach, her dad in Mount Dora. She has a brother, Rick, and a sister, Misty, a longtime high school girls’ basketball coach, most notably at Boone High in Orlando.

Cox left teaching in

2004 and the next year began working at the New Smyrna Beach municipal golf course, where she served as a starter. She also played a lot of golf, which had a role in her eventual cancer diagnosis.

“My golf game was going to hell,” she said. “I couldn’t get off the tee. I bought a new driver, but still couldn’t. And I was starting to lose vision in my left eye.”

The Dec. 26 MRI told her why.

Her new challenges bring obvious attention to shortterm goals, but a certain long-term goal is fueling her drive to beat back the prognosis and deliver more than one miracle.

Through her church in Port Orange — Covenant United Methodist — she has been on mission trips to Africa, specifically the village of Gaitu in Kenya.

A couple of years ago, she made it her personal mission to raise funds to build the village a muchneeded medical clinic. According to friends, Cox’s “missions” are beyond the normal definition.

“She is exhausting to keep up with, yet you find the energy to keep going because she is such an inspiration,” said longtime friend Cindy Casey. “Everything she does is for someone else. I don’t think she has a selfish bone in her body. Connie gives everyone 120 percent of herself all the time.”

That energy and desire has been injected with a sense of urgency. The mission was grounded in 2020 because of the pandemic, and while Cox doesn’t know when the path will clear, she’s convinced it will.

“I’m on a mission from God. I’m hopeful and looking forward to getting a lot of things accomplished,” she said.

The recent outpouring of support from friends — both from her adopted home state and back home in Ohio — is something she’s redirecting, in part, to her dream of that Kenyan medical facility.

A GoFundMe page had surpassed the $4,000 mark as of Thursday (Connie

Cox Gaitu Village Foundation).

“I didn’t know how I was gonna do it, but now it’s so clear,” she said. “I think

I’m the miracle that’s going to happen. I know one thing — I will finish my project. I’m gonna make sure I keep my word.”

And she hasn’t forgotten about another approaching desire.

“I’m rooting for my Buckeyes. I want that national championship, too,” she said. “I want the whole enchilada.”