SEATTLE — On August 4, 2017, at 7:07 p.m., Seattle Kraken broadcaster Eddie Olczyk got a call that changed his life and his family’s lives forever. He was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer.
Olyczyk went through six months of chemotherapy – every two weeks he received a 48-hour treatment.
“I think it tests your will to live. It plays a lot of mind games,” he said.
Olcyzk is grateful during that time for many of the people around him, including the “unbelievable” support of the Chicago Blackhawks, where he was working as a broadcaster.
But he said it was thanks to his wife Diana of more than 30 years that he didn’t quit.
“The challenge of going through this disease, not only physically, but mentally it broke me down,”
When he was at his lowest, he said, Diana gave him the greatest inspirational speech he’d ever heard, even after years of being in locker rooms.
“My wife told me, ‘You’ve got to fight. You gotta fight for me. You gotta fight for our kids. You gotta fight for all the people that love you,” said Olcyzk.
At the time he had just finished his second treatment and still had 10 more to go, so he shifted his focus to taking it one step at a time.
“Okay, I'm just gonna try to get through today. And then when I get through to today, I'm gonna get through tomorrow. So that was kind of my approach.”
Now, six years cancer-free, Olcyzk wants to be an example for others.
He recommends that people know their own bodies, pay attention to how they are feeling and advocate for medical help if something is off.
“Get the test early, if you can… If you know that you're just not feeling right, get peace of mind,” he recommended.
Another thing that was important to him – making sure that his family and friends knew that he loved them.
“Let the most important people in your life know how you feel about them. Tell them you love them. Send them a text. Pick up the phone. Go see them. Give them a hug,” he said.
Doing that gave Olczyk peace during his cancer journey.
Though he won his battle, Olcyzk still deals with the mental effects of his disease, including in the form of survivor’s guilt.
“That is something that I am getting help on and know that it is something that is very real,” he said.
He said it’s hard to absorb why he made it, but others didn’t – especially when he has people reach out who are personally battling cancer or have family members who are.
Cancer will be something he deals with for the rest of his life, and Olczyk returns periodically to Northwestern Hospital for checkups. Those visits can be triggering.
“When I go back into the hospital, I just have that feeling of going back to a place that was really difficult,” Olczyk said.
But he did make it and hopes to pay forward all the support he received to others around him dealing with hard times.
“I would not have made it. I would not be here today if it wasn’t without my family and friends,” he said.
Olczyk’s journey to the Seattle Kraken
At 56 years old, Olczyk made a big career decision to leave an unbelievable job in his hometown of Chicago to join his borther and son in Seattle – a rare opportunity to work with his family.
Family was important, but so was knowing who he’d join in the broadcast booth.
Olczyk had known JT Brown since he was a teenager who played juniors with Olczyk’s son in Iowa. He’d also known John Forslund, who he calls “our captain” for a long time.
“There is nobody better that calls the games in the game of hockey than John Forslund,” he said.
Olczyk said he, Forslund and Brown take pride in trying to be the best while entertaining fans.
“We feel we can be the best and we try to be the best every night.”
Long before he worked in Chicago or Seattle, Olczyk got his start at the racetrack. In 1994, when a work stoppage postponed the start of the NHL season, racing executives at Meadowlands racetrack asked him if he was interested in calling races.
Years later, after he landed a job with NBC as a lead analyst for hockey in 2014, Olczyk returned to horse racing, too, and ultimately got to cover the Kentucky Derby in 2015.
That year, American Pharoah won the triple crown for the first time since the early 1970s and horse racing has become a passion project for Olczyk since.
“It’s always been my release to get away from hockey over the years and I just love being a part of it,” he said.