Tylee Craft’s battle with a rare form of lung cancer lasted around 31 months. His impact on those around him, including his teammates and coaches with the UNC football program, will endure much longer than that.
His talent on the football field was undeniable, so much so that Craft drew the UNC coaching staff down to the small town of Sumter, South Carolina – about an hour’s drive east of Columbia – to watch him play. Mack Brown made him a scholarship offer, and Tylee Craft became a Tar Heel when he arrived on campus in January of 2020.
But Craft’s life would change forever two years later: cancer had been found in his lungs, forcing him to step away from the field. And yet, everyone around Craft noted how his enthusiasm for life and for football still shone through his monumental struggle.
“That’s a guy you always want to be around,” quarterback Jacolby Criswell, who came to Carolina in the same recruiting class as Craft, said last week. “Always laughing, always a guy that you can rely on. He’s not gonna say anything bad. Probably the most respectful person in this building.”
Craft’s friends also admired his courage and perseverance throughout his treatment, which included multiple rounds of radiation and chemotherapy at UNC’s Lineberger Cancer Center. Craft routinely took time out of his days to visit other, younger patients at the hospital, spreading cheer to those who needed it most. And yes, he also attended meetings at the Kenan Football Center and showed up at games – home and away – with his teammates. Criswell even said Craft likely snuck in film sessions while bedridden in the hospital.
“It gives you strength to be like, ‘OK, if I’m hurting, he’s going through something way worse than I am,'” Criswell said. “‘I’m making excuses. He’s not making one excuse.'”
That strength particularly moved head coach Mack Brown, whose own family has been touched by cancer multiple times over.
“I never heard him gripe one time about anything,” Brown said. “He wouldn’t even admit he was sick when he was throwing up. He’d say, ‘I’m good, I’m good.’ He is a blessing from God for Sally and I for the last three or four years, and for this team.”
Tylee Craft and Mack Brown watch a UNC football practice. (Image via UNC Athletic Communications)
The football program celebrated Cancer Awareness Week against Georgia Tech at Kenan Stadium on Saturday. The timing was poignant: Craft’s condition had worsened in the past week, necessitating his return to the hospital. To honor Craft, his fellow receiver and South Carolinian J.J. Jones came to Brown with an idea: wearing Tylee’s No. 13 jersey, complete with the Craft name on the back.
And so it happened that Jones caught a touchdown pass from Criswell in the back of the end zone on Saturday wearing No. 13. The other wide receivers, who spent more time with Craft than anyone else on the team, will share that honor moving forward.
“From what I’ve heard, the receivers want to rotate that jersey,” Brown said, “and [have] somebody wear it every game for the rest of the year.”
Craft died on Saturday morning, shortly after entering hospice care. His teammates and coaches were informed after the conclusion of Saturday’s game, though Brown said he’d had a bad feeling throughout the day. Craft’s family was honored on the field during a break in the action, and his mother September shared an emotional embrace with Brown. The head coach had to wipe away tears as he moved back to the sideline.
Here was the moment Mack Brown embraced Tylee Craft’s mom at the end of the first quarter.
Afterwards, the CW cameras captured Mack wiping away tears on the sideline.
( 🎥: @TheCW_Sports) pic.twitter.com/T0Q1SdvmnC
— Josh Graham (@JoshGrahamShow) October 12, 2024
“If I could swap places with him today, I would,” said Brown. “One hundred percent. I don’t want my family to die before I do.”
But Tylee Craft’s story doesn’t end here. The kid from Sumter’s legacy will live on. Stickers with his jersey number are everywhere, from the base of the Old Well to the Tar Heels’ football helmets. They also bear a familiar rallying cry, one the football program has used since Craft’s diagnosis more than two years ago: Tylee Strong.
Now, another word has been added to that refrain:
Tylee Strong, Forever.
Featured image via UNC Football on Twitter
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