LITTLE ROCK -- Sixty-three years ago this week, Frank
Broyles took his future wife Barbara on their first date. She died
last year of complications from Alzheimer's disease having
forgotten her lifelong sweetheart's name.
The indescribable pain of having a lifetime of memories and
relationships ripped away has inspired Broyles -- the king of
Arkansas football, trainer of future coaching greats -- to make
Alzheimer's advocacy his new "mission in life."
"I'm trying to get an army together to encourage the (Food and
Drug Administration) to push through more aggressive clinical
trials and to get more money from Congress for research right
now," Broyles said in an interview Tuesday with The Associated
Press.
Broyles is scheduled to testify Feb. 2 before a committee of
House Republican leaders in Washington about the proposed Ronald
Reagan Alzheimer's Breakthrough Act, which seeks to increase
funding for research on the disease through the National Institutes
of Health.
House and Senate versions of the Reagan bill were proposed last
June 16, just 11 days after former President Reagan died from a
long bout with the intense form of dementia. They originally sought
an increase of NIH funding to $1.4 billion, but after the bill was
sent to committees, no further action was taken on either.
The Alzheimer's Association has set $1 billion as an annual
funding goal for years and is hopeful a new bill will be introduced
in the coming weeks, said Steve McConnell, the association's vice
president of public policy.
Broyles lost his wife of 59 years on Oct. 13, at the age of 79.
Alzheimer's afflicts 4.5 million Americans and nearly half of all
people 85 and older, but fails to garner attention because those
who have it can't speak up for themselves and caregivers don't have
time, Broyles said.
Already inspired by the story of Reagan and his wife, Nancy,
Broyles went to his congressman, Rep. John Boozman, R-Ark., to seek
help. Boozman connected the longtime University of Arkansas
athletic director with Alzheimer's Association chief executive
Sheldon L. Goldberg. The association believes that Broyles can
raise awareness because of his football fame.
"Coach and I went to Philadelphia for our worldwide convention
and heard speeches by all these top researchers," said Patti
Metcalf, Western Arkansas regional director of the Alzheimer's
Association. "After the speech the speaker was signing books and
coach went up and said his name is Frank Broyles. The researcher
stopped and said, 'The Frank Broyles? I'll sign the book if you
sign something for me."
A national award for the top assistant football coach in the
country is named for Broyles because of the numerous college and
pro coaches who trained under him.
"Coach Broyles is one of the most impassioned people I've ever
met, and I don't think he'll let them walk out of that room without
making them make some kind of commitment," McConnell said. "And
there's something about the competitive nature of the political
process that makes them take extra notice (of) sports figures."
There's another tie-in with Reagan, football and Congress.
In the 1940 movie "Knute Rockne, All-American," Reagan made
his name as an actor portraying football player George Gipp, who
dies telling his coach to "win one for the Gipper." Later in the
movie, Rockne is among coaches testifying before Congress on the
integrity of the game. Now, in real life, another well-known
football coach is heading to Washington to testify about the
disease that took the real Reagan's life.
"He wants them to really win one for the Gipper," McConnell
said.
But Broyles' mission is two-fold: Separate from the Reagan bill,
he also wants to light a fire under the FDA to create a fast-track
for Alzheimer's drug testing.
"The second stage of my mission is to get a czar for the FDA,
to focus efforts on participating in clinical trials to get these
modifying drugs out to the public now, rather than 10 years from
now," Broyles said.
Cancer and AIDS research have had special advocates in
Washington, allowing for more breakthroughs in the fight against
those diseases, Broyles said.
"Every challenging disease that affects a loved one could be
discribed as the worst. Ours is not the only one. But ours is the
most dehumanizing, horrendous disease that has a major affect on
all of the caregivers," Broyles said.
"It took five of us looking after her all the time," he
continued. "She didn't know one thing about her life and wanted to
die. She cried and cried because she couldn't dress herself, eat or
go to the bathroom by herself. It's dehumanizing completely, and
yet there she is, blood pressure perfect, heart like a youth. But
it broke my heart and I'm still grieving."