My allegiance to the University of Oregon is not a secret to anyone who knows me, so you’d suspect that my favorite sports story of the year would have a tie in to their sports program. However, it’s not so much a story of success, but the story of a couple of the team’s football players getting involved with a 17-year old kid who was on his last days due to brain cancer.

Register Guard columnist George Schroeder has two columns that tell the story. Here’s the first, and the second. Enjoy, it’s a touching read .