When the Rams take the field this afternoon, they will be playing for more than just a win.
Fordham’s inspiration this week against Lafayette will be the memory of Ty Campbell, who passed away last month at the age of 5 after a two-year battle with a rare terminal cancer.
”Ty was our teammate, we’d love to get this one for Ty,” Fordham senior offensive lineman Andrew Milmore told The Post. “He was a fighter. He was this great inspiration. We go to practice and we are football players but then we see this 5-year-old boy who is fighting terminal cancer.”
Milmore and the Rams first met Ty last season, when he came to visit the campus and made an immediate impact on the team.
“Ty got to meet all of us, he got all excited,” Milmore said. “If we can go out and win the game and say ‘This is for Ty,’ it’s something that’s important for us.”
The Rams will be sporting gold in addition to their normal maroon and white today, in memory of Campbell and serving as a reminder to all in attendance of the battle many families face when they have a child with pediatric cancer.
”We’re going to be wearing gold shoelaces, because gold is the color for pediatric brain cancer, like breast cancer is pink,” Milmore said. “We’ll also be wearing gold wristbands, gold towels. I know for a lot of guys on the team, Ty was really important to them. They’ve been writing ‘Ty’ on their wrist tape and stuff. “
In addition to playing for Campbell, the Rams put their unbeaten home record on the line in what has been an impressive first season under head coach Joe Moorhead.
“[Moorhead] has been really supportive of everything, but it’s also a huge game for us,” Milmore said. “We’re 5-4, we’re fighting for everything. Hopefully we can use it to our advantage.”