Kansas Jayhawks coach Charlie Weis has used his high profile as a football coach to help a lot of others since starting his Hannah & Friends charity in 2003. It took him nearly dying in 2002 to want to do so much good for others, as KUSports.com tells.
Weis was in the hospital and even in a two-week coma with complications from gastric bypass surgery in 2002 after winning a Super Bowl as an assistant with the New Englad Patriots. After he survived, his brush with death inspired him and his wife, Maura, to try and help other people. Hannah & Friends --- named after their own daughter who battles a rare form of epilepsy --- was born.
Weis' high profile as an NFL assistant and head coach at Notre Dame has moved other high-profile names to help out.
"(Quarterbacks) Jimmy Clausen, Brady Quinn … guys like that who have come there and helped out, you can tell how much it means to them," Charlie Weis Jr. said. "It shows that they care — not just about football, but about you and your family."
With Hannah happy and turning 18 soon, the Weis family wants to continue and expand the goodwill. Each year, the Weises host a charity golf tournament, and next June, with Weis now in Kansas to coach the Jayhawks, the tournament will move to Firekeeper Golf Course, north of Topeka.
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