Very few people know the extent of Jim Donovan's fight with cancer since 2000.The Plain Dealer
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the last of a three-part series profiling WKYC broadcaster and Browns radio voice Jim Donovan. The 66-year-old Donovan is starting his 24th season as the Browns play-by-play man. That ties him with the late Gib Shanley for the longest tenure of play-by-play in team history.
JIM DONOVAN, PART 1: The kid with the cassette tape recorder and the big dream.
JIM DONOVAN, PART 2: He gets the Browns job, and the fans love him
CLEVELAND, Ohio – For Jim Donovan, it didn’t start out like cancer. No clue it was cancer. No strange bumps, nothing much out of the ordinary.
“It was during training camp in 2000,” said the Browns’ radio broadcaster. “I just didn’t feel that good, pretty tired. I went to one of those 24-hour walk-in places. They ran a blood test.”
As Donovan awaited the results, he thought about how he rarely was sick. He was 43 years old. Probably nothing to worry about – even after he sat there for more than 30 minutes.
“We’re going to take the blood test again,” the doctor said. Donovan still wasn’t that concerned.
After the second test, they told him, “You have a very elevated white blood cell count. You either have an infection, or you’re showing signs you have leukemia.”
Donovan felt his heart sink. His legs “turned to rubber.” He kept thinking … leukemia … how can it be leukemia? He didn’t feel very sick, except for an upset stomach. And whose stomach wouldn’t be churning hearing that news?
His next stop was his family doctor, more blood tests, more of the same results … white blood cells going up. He was diagnosed with CLL (chronic lymphocytic leukemia).
“An alarm went off in my head,” said Donovan. “My dad had that. He was very understated about it. I remembered him saying, ‘I have this thing called CLL.’”
This conversation happened after Donovan had just done his first national NFL game for NBC. That was in 1987.
“I’m sorry, didn’t see the game,” Jim Donovan Sr. told his son. “I was in the hospital. My mouth sort of blew up. But I’m OK. I’m not going to die from it.”
Then Donovan remembered his uncle also had CLL. Now he had it.
Donovan’s father was right. He didn’t perish from CLL. But he later developed pancreatic cancer and died at the age of 63. Donovan was very aware of how a family medical history can be passed down from one generation to the next.
“I became neurotic about my blood count,” said Donovan. “I kept waiting for it to go down. I kept thinking it was a mistake because I didn’t feel any different.”
But the numbers didn’t lie. Something was very wrong. After about two years, they began treating it with chemotherapy,
“The first sessions were bad,” he said. “They hooked me up to an IV for one week a month – five days. And that went on for six months. It worked right away. I went into remission and it lasted three years.”
At his home overlooking Lake Erie, Doug Dieken recalls the toughness Jim Donovan showed over the years during the radio broadcaster's battle with cancer.
Donovan only told his family and a few people close to him about his condition. To this day, he remains private. This is one of the few times he’s gone public with the long duel with leukemia and later melanoma.
“Around 2005, it (leukemia) came back,” said Donovan. “It was more aggressive. The leukemia got smart to the old drugs, and they had to use new drugs. This time, I got really sick. I went into about 75% remission. It didn’t last long.”
His Browns radio partner and close friend Doug Dieken knew about Donovan’s medical condition.
“He’d tell you he was getting some treatments,” said Dieken. “But it wasn’t complaining. Only thing he’d say was ‘I’m really tired today.’ Jimmy is a warrior, a very positive guy.”
During the various chemotherapy treatments, Donovan was being told he’d eventually need a bone marrow transplant.
“I was dead set against it,” he said. “They talked about me being in the hospital for something like six months. I’d be away from work. It was overwhelming. I kept wanting to treat it the way we’d been doing.”
In 2008, Donovan’s condition became more dire. Lots of fatigue and other problems from the CLL.
“I was off (from WKYC) for most of the summer,” he said. “Nothing was said publicly. I came back in time for the Browns preseason games. That was in 2008. I remember because it was the summer when Brett Favre was traded to the Jets. … Crazy how I remember things that way. I remember Favre had a press conference in Cleveland about being a Jet.”
He also was being told he would soon need a bone marrow transplant.
“I kept putting it off,” he said. “I was taking chemo, they tried different drugs. But it wasn’t working.”
Joshua Cribbs runs for his second touchdown on a kick return during the second quarter of the game between the Cleveland Browns and the Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium on Sunday October 20, 2009. Browns radio broadcaster Jim Donovan was very ill during that game, but you'd never guess listening to him call the electrifying runs of Cribbs.The Plain Dealer
THE AMAZING GAME, THE HARSH TRUTH
Near the end of the 2009 season, the Browns had a game in Kansas City.
“I was doing the Browns sideline reporting back then,” said Andre Knott. “Jimmy had something like a 103-degree fever that night (before the game). He was in terrible shape.”
Now a member of the Guardians TV broadcast team, Knott was told to be ready to pinch hit for Donovan the next morning.
“The night before the game, Doug (Dieken) went and got one of the team doctors to come to my room,” said Donovan. “I was really sick and had a fever. The doctor said he’d watch me. The next morning, I felt awful as I went up to the booth in Kansas City.”
Donovan doubted he’d be able to broadcast the game. He expressed his concerns to Dieken, the former star left tackle for the Browns.
“You’re probably going to get a jolt of adrenaline,” said Dieken. “You’ll be fine during the game, But after, look out.”
Dieken was right. Donovan had one of his best games of the season with the Browns beating Kansas City, 41-34. Joshua Cribbs had remarkable kickoff returns of 100 and 103 yards for touchdowns. Jerome Harrison carried the ball 34 times for 286 yards and three touchdowns.
Donovan was so absorbed with the game, the pain and fatigue went away. For three hours, he felt wonderful.
“On the team plane going home, it was like Christmas,” said Donovan. “Everybody was so happy, But I crashed. I got home and then went to the doctor’s. I knew at that point, I was going to have to get the transplant.”
Knott said many on the flight to Cleveland knew Donovan was very sick.
“Jimmy is a nervous flyer,” said Knott. “You’d never know it because he likes to talk to people, tell stories, walk around on those chartered flights. It’s his way of dealing with flying. But that night, he just sat there.”
Jim Donovan and Doug Dieken have supplied the radio coverage for the Browns since 1999 until the end of 2021. Dieken has now retired. Jeff Yakawiak, Special to cleveland.com
ALMOST DIED, LOOKING FOR HOPE
There was no choice. Donovan realized he needed a bone marrow transplant or he was likely to die from leukemia. Donovan learned they put a sample of your blood on a world bank looking for a donor match. It would be another year – the spring of 2011 – until a donor was found.
“There were two,” said Donovan. “One in this country, one in Germany. Both perfect, 10 out of 10. They did the one in this country. They don’t tell you who is the donor. They admit you to the hospital. They bombard you with chemotherapy until your immune system is all the way down to zero. It’s lethal stuff.”
Donovan recalled all the nurses and doctors in masks and gowns, the kind later seen worn by medical people during the COVID pandemic.
“There was a whiteboard in the room and they kept track of how it was going until I was ready,” Donovan said. “I was there about 10 days before the transfusion. The donor gave it in Nashville. Then they brought in the marrow transplant in a bag, and they give it to you with an IV.”
The transfusion itself was a success.
“But that night, I ran a high fever … 104,” said Donovan. “It went on for three days. I was having hallucinations. I remember telling a nurse I thought I’d die.”
The nurse told Donovan, “Don’t say that. We’ll figure it out.’”
They did figure it out. One of the antibiotics had triggered a reaction. The medication was changed. Donovan’s transplant was on June 7, 2011. His goal was to call the first Browns game – September 11, 2011.
THE MOLE ON THE EAR LOBE
For a few months, all went well.
“When you come home after the transfusion, you go see doctors about three times a week for all kinds of testing,” said Donovan. “That included a dermatologist. I had this patch on my earlobe. They tested it and it was melanoma. I was in a bad spot because I had no immune system.”
The news was shocking. After all he’d been through, now a mole on the ear lobe? A bad mole? Really?
Many who have had a serious bout with cancer can tell you this: There are times when the physical pain is matched by the emotional strain of more bad news. That was how Donovan felt a few weeks before the 2011 season when the ear lobe became an issue.
“They did the surgery to remove the mole,” he said. “They were worried about it (the melanoma) spreading. If it spread, it would ruin the transplant. We were devastated. We thought we had been through the transplant and everything else – now the mole came up.”
“We had to sweat it out for a week before the pathology report (on the mole) came back,” said Donovan. “It didn’t spread. I did the Browns opener. I missed one game in San Francisco. I got pneumonia. You’re very vulnerable to that after the transplant.”
Knott remembers all of this as “a scary time. Jimmy was getting hit with one thing after another. But he said very little about it. Jimmy is an incredible guy.”
Nev Chandler and Jim Donovan "are two of the toughest guys I've ever been around," according to Doug Dieken. Plain Dealer Historical Collection
A REAL DEFINITION OF TOUGHNESS
“I played in the NFL for 14 years and never missed a game,” said Dieken. “I played with a lot of tough guys. But the toughest guys are not always on the field.”
Dieken was paired up with Nev Chandler when the Browns’ play-by-play man (1985-93) was struck with colon cancer. Chandler died on Aug. 7, 1994, at the age of 47.
“Jimmy and Nev are the two toughest guys I’ve ever been around,” said Dieken. “Nev and Jimmy would come into the booth. They had been drained all week by cancer treatments, and they’d still crank up the energy.”
Dieken smiled and shook his head, thinking about it. He sees many similarities between the two.
“They both bring so much enthusiasm to the game,” said Dieken. “I’d sit there like a bump on a log and I’d get my energy from their energy. I’d want guys like that on my team any day.”
For Donovan, there are trips to the doctors and repeated checks of his blood count. He also regularly visits the dermatologist. Anyone with his history knows cancer can return.
“It’s always there,” said Donovan. “I’m always being examined and things like that. It comes with the territory.”
Donovan takes joy in hearing from people who have walked down the same road.
“There are times when I can help people going through it,” he said. “I didn’t know a lot about leukemia when I got it – or about the transplant. Now, I’ve been there. For example, the 100-day mark is a huge milestone. People write me to say they got to 100 days … or the one-year mark. We can celebrate together.”
Jim Donovan, his wife Cheryl, left, and daughter Meghan have helped each other during Donovan's long battle with cancer.The Plain Dealer
IT’S ‘WE’ WHEN IT COMES TO CANCER
Donovan’s wife, Cheryl, and his daughter, Meghan, have been a team during the entire ordeal. They have been through treatments, the setbacks, side effects, doubts and the flat-out frightening times.
“I met Cheryl at the old Arcade in downtown Cleveland,” said Donovan. “She worked at a barber shop on the third floor. My best friend, Jim Hooley (at WKYC) was a stickler about his TV hair, and she used to cut his hair.”
This was in 1988 when Donovan was a 32-year-old sportscaster. Hooley and Donovan needed green ties for a St. Patrick’s Day show and planned to shop together.
“Hooley said to meet him at the old Arcade staircase,” said Donovan. “He said if he wasn’t there, he’d be at the barber shop on the third floor. That’s where I found him. Cheryl was cutting his hair. We met in 1988 that day, and got married in 1989.”
The wedding was 11 years before the first leukemia diagnosis.
Early in their marriage, the Donovans lived in Westlake. Cheryl loves horses. Same with Meghan, who works in the University of Akron sports information department. They spent a lot of time at the stable, caring for and riding horses. Finally, they decided to buy a place where they could live and keep the horses.
“Cheryl took me to this 12-acre hay field,” said Donovan. “We rode around in a golf cart. She was talking about building a home, a barn. ... I didn’t get it and told her that. I grew up in Boston playing street hockey. She looked at me and said, ‘I get it.’ She designed this place, and it’s beautiful.”
Donovan will help take care of the horses. They own two and board a third at the barn. The place is tranquil, green hills and with chirping birds supplying the backdrop.
“Cheryl has been a rock through all of this,” said Donovan. “When it happens to you, you’re stunned. You just don’t know what to think or say. You need someone in the room with you to ask questions, to listen … and to be your advocate.”
Donovan’s voice cracked as he talked about his wife and daughter.
“Sometimes, you need someone to fight for you,” he said, “When you go through something like this, your voice isn’t as strong as it is on a fall Sunday afternoon at the Browns game. Plus, she had to take care of everything at home.”
Then the Donovans added a new member to the family. His name is Dallas Gentry, a corrections officer from Wise, Virginia.
“After a year, you can say you’d like to meet or correspond with the donor,” said Donovan. “The donor doesn’t have to do it. But he did. Dallas came for Thanksgiving (in 2012) and it was unbelievable. We had the greatest holiday you could ever have.”
Gentry has visited the Donovans several times over the years. They also went to his home in rural Virginia.
“You could have made a Hallmark movie out of it,” said Donovan. “I am so grateful to all the people who have been with me through all this.”
JIM DONOVAN, PART 1: The kid with the cassette tape recorder and the big dream.
JIM DONOVAN, PART 2: Donovan gets the Browns job, and the fans love him
JIM DONOVAN, PART 3: The series ends with the personal story of Donovan’s decades-long battle with cancer and the comfort he finds with his family and on his small horse farm.
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