There aren’t many individuals who can look cancer in the face with a smile, but Tucker Williams was one of those people.
Getting diagnosed with cancer is a hard thing to grasp. It’s an even taller task at seven years old, but one Tucker willingly embraced. Every day, he made the most of the situation, making sure to have a smile on his face and that everyone around him had one on their faces too.
Talk to someone who knew Tucker, and they will tell you a personal story that exemplifies his optimistic character. But as their stories come to an end, and they pause to reflect, they’ll always say the same five words: “He was a special kid.”
Now, nearly 11 years after the first Tucker Out Lymphoma game, the Buffalo Bandits will play their first-ever game in the Tucker Out Lymphoma Cup on what would’ve been Tucker’s 19th birthday against the Albany FireWolves and his older brother, Dyson Williams.
“It will be cool to be playing in front of all the fans in Buffalo because I pictured myself playing in the NLL, and for it to actually happen on the NLL’s biggest stage and with all the eyes on you at once, it’ll be very exciting,” Dyson Williams said. “Just the fact I get to play in a Tucker game in Buffalo on Tucker’s birthday of all days is crazy and heartwarming and an emotional thing to think about.”
Eleven years ago on Saturday, nearly a week after being diagnosed with stage three Burkitt lymphoma, Tucker sat in a hospital bed on his eighth birthday watching his dad, former Bandit and current Las Vegas Desert Dogs head coach and general manager Shawn Williams, take on the Toronto Rock.
During the game, Tucker received a FaceTime call from KeyBank Center where Banditland serenaded him with a rendition of Happy Birthday, letting him know that more than 10,000 people were thinking of him.
“It was a tough time for everybody, especially when a child gets diagnosed and especially somebody that is your teammate’s kid,” head coach John Tavares said. “It was tough to see Tucker going through that and Shawn and his family going through it. Tucker was very strong, and he put everybody ahead of himself.”
Then, two months later, Tucker watched from a suite as the first-ever Tucker Out Lymphoma game took place on April 5 against Calgary, the only one that Tucker saw before he passed away on Dec. 17, 2014.
“I remember sitting in the suite with Tucker and family and friends and all of Banditland giving Tucker a standing ovation,” Dyson Williams said. “Tucker was waving into the crowd and the energy in the arena and that Banditland gave Tucker, at that time was incredible and it meant a lot to a young kid that was battling something that we wouldn’t wish upon anyone.”
Little did Tucker know that as much as it meant to him, the impact that he’s had on an entire city 11 years after his passing has been immense.
The game that bears his name has raised more than $150,000 for pediatric cancer and has been one of the most popular games on the Bandits schedule since it started in 2014. The game’s popularity isn’t surprising, given cancer’s widespread impact.
“Everyone at some point, someone in their lives has been affected by cancer whether they had it, or a loved one has had it,” Bandits senior director of lacrosse operations Scott Loffler said. “Unfortunately, a lot of people experience losing a loved one, so I think it’s a very personal game for a lot of people and then you throw in the fact that it was Tucker who was an eight-year-old child and it’s obviously devastating.”
Loffler was the one who came up with the initial idea of holding a Tucker Out Lymphoma game, innovating off a framework that already existed with the Bandits.
For years, the team held a game that helped to raise money to fight cancer. As Loffler learned of Tucker’s diagnosis, he flipped the script and approached Shawn Williams about helping the family with the battle they were about to go through.
“(Loffler) had the idea of doing a game just to help raise awareness, help raise spirits and raise some money for Tucker and his battle as well as other kids and families going through the same fight,” Shawn Williams said. “It was obviously pretty emotional, but we went for it, and it’s been unbelievable ever since with the support from the Buffalo fans and the Bandits themselves.”
After Tucker’s passing, Loffler continued the games in his honor, donating the money raised to other families who were in a similar situation to the Williams’.
Shawn Williams retired from the NLL after the 2014 season and began coaching – first as an assistant in Buffalo and Colorado, then as the head coach in Las Vegas.
With Shawn Williams at the helm, Las Vegas started hosting a Tucker Out Lymphoma game to honor Tucker. Then Dyson Williams, after playing five years at Duke and being drafted first overall by Albany in the 2023 NLL Draft, started his NLL journey this season. Soon, Albany followed suit and decided to hold a Tucker Out Lymphoma game starting this year.
Loffler had the idea to do an in-season tournament involving the three teams, creating the first-ever Tucker Out Lymphoma Cup.
“It was in September where [Loffler and Las Vegas VP of Business Development Jonah Haas] are trying to figure out dates for our Tucker Out games and we said, ‘Let’s just keep an eye on it and see where it goes and see who we’re playing,’” Loffler said. “Thankfully the league gave us Albany which is the team Dyson plays on and it made a lot of sense and it just kind of evolved into well, Albany’s doing a game as well, let’s contact them, see if they’d be interested in doing this little mini-series tournament cup format.”
While the newly minted cup allows Tucker’s memory to live on through a sport he loved, so do the stories that people tell about him. Stories from Loffler of how Tucker “essentially owned (KeyBank Center),” running around the rink and going in and out of the locker room as he pleased.
Or stories like how as soon as he woke up from a three-hour surgery, to remove an egg-sized tumor from his throat, he asked for a bag of chips and if he could play in his hockey game the next day, leading a nurse to say that Tucker was “braver than brave.”
Or stories passed around the locker room about how Tucker, even after scoring 10 goals in a lacrosse game, was the player that was being called on to score another.
Even after almost 11 years, Tucker lives on.
“He was beyond his years and was a special kid and is worth celebrating every year for,” Tavares said.