Jack Hoffman, Nebraska fan known for ‘The Run’, dies of cancer at 19

Jack Hoffman, the young Nebraska football fan who ran for a touchdown during the Cornhuskers’ 2013 spring game and became a catalyst for pediatric brain cancer fundraising, died Wednesday after a 14-year battle with cancer, according to the Team Jack Foundation. He was 19.

Hoffman was diagnosed with a cancerous glioma when he was 5. Doctors told the family that most of his golf ball-sized tumor could not be removed. But his father, Andy Hoffman, did exhaustive research and found a doctor in Boston who removed more than 90% of the tumor.

Jack’s favorite player was Nebraska running back Rex Burkhead, and before the surgery, Andy reached out to Nebraska hoping his son could meet him. Burkhead had lunch with Hoffman and drove him to the field, and the family forged a lasting friendship with the former NFL running back.

In late 2011, when the Cornhuskers trailed Ohio State by three touchdowns, Burkhead fired some of his teammates by mentioning the inspirational kid he had just met. “Hey, Jack wouldn’t give up,” he told them, “so why should we?” Nebraska rallied and Burkhead scored the game-winning touchdown.

A year and a half later, in April 2013, Nebraska’s coaches decided to put Jack in a spring game. Wearing an ill-fitting helmet that bounced as he ran, Jack, then 7, ran for a 69-yard touchdown as 60,000 fans roared. Video of the play received more than 10 million views on YouTube.

Hoffman went to Washington to meet President Barack Obama and won an ESPY Award for Best Moment in Sports. The moment known as “The Run” helped Hoffman’s father launch the Team Jack Foundation. The venture, which started in tiny Atkinson, Nebraska — population 1,245 — has raised more than $14 million to aid pediatric brain cancer research.

In 2020, Andy Hoffman was diagnosed with glioblastoma multiforme, an aggressive brain cancer. He died less than a year later. In ESPN interviews with the family in September 2020, Bri Hoffman, Jack’s mother, said their hope for Jack was to keep the tumor at bay as long as they could.

“For kids and tumors,” she said, “what (doctors) told us is that if you can keep it from growing until they reach like their 20s, a lot of times they just go away.”

With the help of clinical trials and despite the seizures that could come at any time, Jack Hoffman was able to do things that seemed unthinkable in 2011. He went to homecoming and was a lineman for his high school football team in Atkinson . He went tubing, boating and fishing and playing tug-of-war with his dog, Roxy. He was cheering on his Nebraska Cornhuskers.

But brain scans in 2023 revealed tumor progression, and he underwent tumor resection surgery in the summer of 2024. Pathology results eventually revealed that his tumor had progressed to a high-grade glioma, “which is extremely rare,” according to Team Jack’s website.

After receiving 30 radiation treatments, Hoffman began his first year at the University of Nebraska at Kearney in the pre-law program last fall. He wanted to be a lawyer like his father.

In a statement Wednesday, the university called Hoffman “a valued member of our Loper community” and noted that he earned a spot on the dean’s list this past semester.

“Jack was widely admired across Nebraska and beyond for his courageous spirit and dedication to raising awareness of childhood cancer through the Team Jack Foundation,” the school’s statement read. “We extend our deepest condolences to Jack’s family, friends and all those whose lives he touched. His connection to the UNK community was meaningful and his impact will not be forgotten. We are grateful for the time he shared with us. “

In a CaringBridge post from December, Bri Hoffman said it was “heartbreaking” to email Jack’s professors to tell them he couldn’t take his finals because he was too sick.

“He has worked very hard this semester,” she wrote.

In a 2020 interview with ESPN, Hoffman said he had no idea “The Run” would be such a big deal. He thought it was just supposed to be in front of a few people and was scared when he realized it wasn’t. But he changed into an oversized pair of old football pants and his father took him out on the pitch. Hoffman wasn’t sure where the touchdown line was, so Andy told him to keep going until he hit the fence.

Hoffman stuck to that advice when dealing with unknowns.

“If you don’t know,” he said, “just run until you hit the fence.”