Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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16 SEPT. 9, 2023 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED BY TYLER HORKA J adarian Price was summoned to the Denison (Texas) High School library one day early in his time as a student there. He wasn't in trouble. Now a sophomore running back at Notre Dame, Price hardly ever was. Hardly ever is. He simply had somebody waiting for him. Somebody, but not just anybody. Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy. Denison is just a few miles from the Red River. It's about as far north in Texas as you can go before reaching Oklahoma. Stillwa- ter sits three hours north, closer to Price's hometown than Texas Tech, Texas A&M or the University of Texas. Gundy, OSU's head coach since 2005, is a big deal around those Big 12 parts. But not a big enough deal for Price to step out of his usual routine. Not a big enough deal for Price to be anybody other than himself, an "amazing" person per his mother and "a man of character" according to coaches and Rotarians in Denison who have been a part of the community for several years. A collection of 60 students and faculty members beat Price to the library to get a glimpse of Gundy. When Price entered, the room erupted. Before getting to Gundy, Price gave the school's librarian a greeting and a hug. He had to walk well out of his way to get to her. The extra steps were well worth it to Price. They always were. Every day. "Good morning Mrs. Rogers, how are you?" He couldn't re- ceive the recruiting treatment from Gundy and his guys until that was taken care of. It wasn't an upstaging of one of the most suc- cessful Power Five head coaches of the last two decades, either. It was just Price being Price. "He was showing who he is," said Chad Rogers, the librar- ian's husband and Denison's head football coach at the time. "It's not about him. And he understands that." One doesn't have that level of humanitarianism at such a young age without life-changing experiences. Price has plenty of them. PUTTING OTHERS FIRST Realization of selflessness as a necessary virtue came quickly for Price. Price's mother, Jessica Butler, was diagnosed with breast cancer when he was 12. That's the same age he first got to know his father. He grew up in a single parent household with Butler taking care of him and younger sisters Kzaria Butler, 17, and Lyricah Coleman, 13. "They're my rock," Price said. "I've seen how strong women can be, and that's affected the way I treat women. I'm really big on that — treating women right." Butler had Price when she was 17. It didn't work out with Price's father, so he was never around until the diagnosis. At that time, Price's father, grandfather, grandmother and even his uncle entered the picture to help take care of the kids dur- ing Butler's 16 rounds of chemotherapy. It was all hands on deck. Children aren't always receptive to change when there are foreign sets of eyes looking after them. Sudden alteration is often too much to process. For Butler, the modifications were a result of a life-or-death matter. That was way too much of a burden to place on a trio of children ranging ages 6 through 12. So, she didn't tell them why their worlds had been turned upside down. "I was devastated," Butler told Blue & Gold Illustrated. "I didn't want them to worry, and I didn't know what was going to happen. At that moment, I tried to teach them everything I could think of because I didn't know if I was going to live or die. "I was just thinking, 'Oh my gosh, I'm going to die.' I had to be strong enough to not worry and not let the kids see I was sick. I didn't let them see when I was down." Price was the only one old enough to get a sense of the situ- ation. He saw enough grade school programs pushing support for breast cancer survivors to know his mom would either be among them or remembered as a fighter who ultimately died because of the disease. Price got through the toughest days of his mom's life via two outlets: taking care of his sisters and playing football. "He was my main supporter for the simple fact that he helped me with the girls," Butler said. "He had to babysit a lot. And cook. And I think he took all of his emotions out on sports. He was always there, and I was always there with him. That's what got it off his mind." It got it off Butler's mind, too. She doesn't know if she'd have ever rang the bell signaling a cancer-free road ahead on RUNNING RUNNING FOR A CAUSE FOR A CAUSE Jadarian Price made it to Notre Dame despite experiencing tumultuous times with his mother's cancer diagnosis