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OLD NORTH
Alumuni Magazine of the University of Central Oklahoma
Page 4
Fall 2002, Volume XXXIX, No. 3

Dan Lutz's Memorial Benefits UCO Program

Gypsy Hogan

For years, people listened to sportscaster Dan Lutz, never realizing that "The Sports Animal" broadcaster was in a wheelchair, that he often waited in the rain and cold for a series of buses to take him to work.

In the spring of 1999, however, Lutz took the UCO driving course for the disabled, and his life changed. For the first time in his adult life, he was driving.

"It gave him his independence, opened a whole new world for him," his sister, Debra Lutz, recently recalled. "He even started dating for the first time in his life. ...He was adamant about that program and what it did for him."

Sadly, the next year he was diagnosed with cancer, a cancer that would spread and finally end his life in March 2002 at the age of only 36.

Once he learned he had cancer, he began to talk on the air for the first time about his disability and the cancer he faced.

"He had no idea of how he touched people," his sister said. "He was so modest and couldn't understand why people looked at him as an inspiration."

Before death, Lutz helped establish the Dan Lutz Foundation at UCO with the help of his employer, Citadel Communication, to raise money for the driving program that had meant so much to him.

After his death, Citadel, friends and sister Debra decided they wanted to do even more. The foundation was renamed the Dan Lutz Rehabilitation Fund.

In just a few months, more than $50,000 was raised. Dr. Tony Cruse, owner of Southwest Orthopedic & Sports Medicine Clinic, gave $25,000.

Newby-Vance Mobility of Guthrie and Independent Driving Systems of Houston donated a fully-equipped van to what's now the Dan Lutz Rehabilitative Driving Program. The vehicle is valued at $130,000 with its special equipment.

Fans are now planning a spring sports memorabilia auction.

"We're getting items donated from pro teams, regional and state teams," Debra Lutz said. "The response has been great."

"This has been such an amazing effort. I've never seen anything like it," said Nancy Mills, executive director of the UCO Foundation.

And so it is that the man born with cerebral palsy, who made it a point to never use his disability to get something, who never realized why people thought he was so incredible, continues to defy the odds and do something else no one ever imagined possible.