Ohio State Football Fan Names Brain Tumor ‘Michigan’

"He beat Blue"

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Linebacker Zach Boren #44 of the Ohio State Buckeyes stares down quarterback Devin Gardner #12 of the Michigan Wolverines after a tackle during a game against the Michigan Wolverines at Ohio Stadium in Columbus, Ohio. The Buckeyes won 26-21.

When a young Ohio State football fan finished cancer treatment Friday, he could finally say he beat “Michigan” – his brain tumor that is.

In a nod to one of the greatest rivalries in American college football – the Ohio State University Buckeyes vs. the University of Michigan Wolverines – 12-year-old Grant Reed named his brain tumor “Michigan” to motivate him to overcome the cancer diagnosis he received two years ago. “Michigan sucks,” he told NBC 4.

The passion for The Buckeyes runs in the family; his parents Troy and Denise Reed met as members of the Ohio State marching band. The football team’s coach Urban Meyer even paid Reed a visit in December.

Now doctors say the youngster is in remission; he completed his final round of chemotherapy at Nationwide Children’s Hospital last Friday. As a parting gift, his parents donated two wagons that say “Beat Michigan” to the hospital for other cancer patients to play with.

Complications from chemotherapy have affected Reed’s speech and mobility, but his father is cautiously optimistic about his son’s recovery and ability to beat the disease for good. “We’ve beaten Michigan for the short term, but like any rival, there’s a chance it can come back,” his father Troy Reed told NBC 4.

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