Detriot Free Press

Published in Detroit Free Press - September 19, 1997

Webster finds new strength through strangers' gifts

Family has always been important to George Webster, a source of strength in a battle against a weakening body.

Despite massive medical bills of his own in the past seven years, the former Michigan State football star has supported his mother and younger sister in South Carolina, themselves terribly ill. Now Webster, hospitalized in Houston since late July, is the one who needs support.

Perhaps the greatest player in 101 years of Michigan State football is in the greatest fight of his life -- one that has raised one medical obstacle after another.

And his Michigan State family is coming to his rescue.

University supporters are raising money to help payoff a medical tab that has surpassed $250,000 since Webster was diagnosed with throat cancer in 1990. Unable to work, Webster is unable to get full health insurance. Fund-raising organizer Henry Bullough said the effort already has raised several thousand dollars since it began less than two weeks ago.

"Depression is the biggest thing you have to fight," Webster said by telephone this week.

"With everything that keeps happening to me, it would be easy to give up. But knowing how much my Michigan State family is thinking about me helps keep my spirits high. It makes you want to keep fighting." But sadly, the fight seems never-ending. Webster, 51, was diagnosed with prostate cancer in July.