ATHENS — All things considered, Mark Richt is doing well.
The Hall of Fame coach, three years after his Parkinson’s disease diagnosis, continues to serve as an analyst for the “ACC Huddle” show on ACC Network. He travels the league’s wide footprint for on-site broadcasts, including from Stanford this past weekend.
While Parkinson’s can cause movement challenges such as tremors, stiffness and difficulty with balance and coordination, Richt still can exercise. He is a doting grandfather to his three grandchildren, granddaughters Jadyn (10) and Zoe (six) and grandson Champ (two).
“I still grab Champ and throw him across the room into the pillows on the bed,” Richt, 64, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution last week.
And he has the energy and spirit to throw himself into a bowling tournament to raise money in the fight against Parkinson’s and Crohn’s disease. On Wednesday night at an Athens bowling alley, Richt will host the second annual Dawg Bowl.
Current and present Georgia players will share the lanes with donors. Coach Kirby Smart also is expected to attend.
Proceeds will benefit UGA’s Isakson Center for Neurological Disease Research. The center, named for the late Georgia Sen. Johnny Isakson (who lived with Parkinson’s), is at the forefront in the treatment of Parkinson’s, including researching its link to gut inflammation conditions such as Crohn’s.
“It goes to a great cause,” said Smart, adding that his team includes several players with Crohn’s.
Fighting Crohn’s, an inflammatory bowel disease that causes inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract, also is personal to the Richt family, as Jadyn lives with the condition.
For several years, Richt said, Jadyn was fed through a tube inserted into her stomach, and only with therapy and medication has she been able to adopt a normal diet. Thankfully, Jadyn is doing well. She consumes a diet similar to most of her peers, including “a lot of Chick-fil-A,” said Richt, surely pleased to make mention of the Dawg Bowl’s title sponsor.
“But if she hits a time where this medicine is not effective anymore, you just never know how that might affect her life down the road,” Richt said. “So that’s why, the more research that’s being done for these types of things, hopefully there’ll be more answers as she goes through the rest of her life.”
The inaugural event last year netted $793,517, with 14,000 donors contributing. The goal for this year is $800,000, with 15,000 donors. Donations can be made at richtsdawgbowl.com. While the event at Showtime Bowl is private, it will be streamed live on the DawgNation website.
Given his celebrity, Richt joked that, once he made his diagnosis public, he became “the poster child for Parkinson’s development, for fundraising, whether you like it or not.”
The reality, of course, is that he didn’t have to. He didn’t choose Parkinson’s, and his time and energy are resources with limits. It would have been reasonable for him to respectfully decline the entreaties to join the fight. As with so much of Richt, his Christian faith guided the decision.
“So, truthfully, what happened is a couple years ago, one night, I don’t know if I dreamed this or just God put it on my spirit, but it was kind of like, ‘I need to do this thing,’” Richt said.
He put it off, but the feeling came back stronger a year later.
“I was like, ‘Well, if that’s what he wants, that’s what I’m going to do,’” Richt said. “More of a matter of trying to be obedient than anything else.”
Richt moves far more slowly than he did when he walked the sidelines at Sanford Stadium. He does not often suffer from tremors, a common Parkinson’s symptom, but he does struggle with balance and bradykinesia – slowness of movement – and muscle rigidity, he said.
“I deal with that a lot,” Richt said. “Those are probably my top ones.”
He gives himself an hour and a half to get showered and dressed for broadcasts, knowing his difficulty with tasks like manipulating the buttons on his shirt. He usually needs help with fixing his collar and putting on a jacket. To handle the same routine before Parkinson’s, he said, “I might give myself 20 minutes.”
But he likes the work. Richt has been with ACC Network since its launch in 2019, following his final season at Miami and the end of his coaching career. He has a year remaining on his contract after this season.
“What I say is, once I get in the chair, I do pretty good, but the process of getting in the chair’s a little tougher,” he said.
He lives a life intertwined with his grandchildren. Richt and his wife Katharyn’s Athens home is 10 doors down from son Jon and daughter-in-law Anna, meaning they get a heavy dose of the grandchildren. Jadyn, Zoe and Champ spend the night every Tuesday with Poohpa and Loli. They attend church together and share dinner Sunday evenings.
“Just so convenient to be down the street,” he said.
It must be said that Poohpa is a world-class grandfather name. (Loli isn’t bad, either.) Katharyn’s original plan was for the couple to be Loli and Pop.
“I didn’t want to be Pop,” Richt said. “I said, ‘I’ll be Poohpa and you be Mooma.’”
Katharyn was similarly unenthusiastic about her beloved’s suggestion. Compromise won the day.
Richt was speaking in Butts-Mehre Heritage Hall, resting in an upholstered chair in a space filled with natural light. Back in the building where he led the football program for 15 distinguished years, he greeted a succession of well-wishers, including former quarterback D.J. Shockley.
Richt is at peace with his condition, assured by the eternal promises of his faith. He said that he has never asked “Why me?”
“It’s kind of like, ‘Why not me?’” he said. “I’m a normal human being. I didn’t really treat my body probably the way I should throughout life. But I think a lot of people sometimes focus on what they can’t do. But I like to focus on what I can do.”
Living with a disease that requires daily concessions, Richt moves ahead, his gait slower but no less full of grace.
