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Updated May 26, 2004
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Ex-NFL great deals with difficulties
By MARK ROBARGE, The Leader-Herald Monday May 24, 2004
JOHNSTOWN - Even at the age of 80, and nearly a half-century after he
hung up his cleats as an all-pro defensive end and wide receiver for
the Philadelphia Eagles, Pete Pihos still looks like a football player.
As people lined up for his autograph Sunday at a sports memorabilia
show at the Johnstown Moose Hall, the Pro Football Hall of Famer offered
a thick right hand for a firm shake while displaying a grizzled smile
framed by a face that looked as if it were carved out of granite. But
while Pihos could pass for someone 20 years younger, even the most casual
observer could observe that all was not quite right.
His mind clearly shows the ravages of the Alzheimer's disease he has
been suffering with for the past four years.
There are the casual comments that don't fit into the stream of a conversation. Or the inability to remember an encounter that happened just one day earlier.
"That's the heartbreaker of Alzheimer's disease," said Cathy Whitehead, interim director of development for the Northeastern New York chapter of the Alzheimer's Association, who was at Sunday's show to help explain the effects of the disease and what is being done to help those who suffer from it, as well as those who care for its victims.
"The person is there, but their personality, their mind, you watch them slip away, little by little, piece by piece, over what is often a long period of time."
Seated at Pihos' side for most of the show, however, was his ex-wife, Donna Pihos-Howell. The 63-year-old high school librarian now acts as his caretaker and is right there to guide him through the day's tasks with a smile and kind words spoken with a gentle Southern accent. Pihos-Howell is used to these difficulties, and so much more.
She still clearly remembers the day she got the call from her ex-husband, whom she met in 1971 - the year he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame - and married one year later.
"When he called four years ago, he was very, very confused and wanted to come stay with me for the rest of his life, he said," Pihos-Howell recalled.
She didn't even give it a second thought, immediately agreeing to take him into her home in Winston-Salem, N.C., and care for him.
"I didn't ask any questions," she said. "It's just an unusual bond. We always remained friends, where most people don't.
"Even after the divorce, we remained very good friends. We had a beautiful daughter that he helped to raise. He would always fly down for dance recitals and gymnastic meets. He was very supportive. He always called two or three times a week. He always took great care of us."
Now, she is returning the favor, helping him with even the most basic of daily tasks like shaving, which Pihos simply has forgotten how to do.
"There are just a lot of little things through the day that you take for granted, but he just can't remember anymore," she said.
And while Pihos is usually oblivious to his plight because of the effect the disease has had on his mind, his ex-wife is there to deal with it all, including the financial hardships they have incurred because of his illness.
"Alzheimer's is a family journey," Whitehead said. "It's a very slow progression into regression. It can sometimes go on for 10 years, 15 years, and each day has its own troubles and dilemmas that the caregiver has to face."
It was in trying to deal with those money problems that Pihos-Howell first met a man who passed himself off as Dr. James Hart, a New York City pediatrician who was looking to open a sports museum. Hart offered to pay $30,000 for several mementos of Pihos' career, including jerseys, equipment and a football autographed by 25 members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
What Pihos-Howell didn't know was that Hart was actually Shawn Stevens, a 26-year-old Gloversville man, and that the three checks he gave her for the items were phony. When she found that the checks were fake, what had been a difficult journey quickly turned into a nightmare.
"I felt so alone having to deal with this daily," she said. "And then, when Shawn came down, I really felt alone and devastated."
On Sunday, though, Pihos-Howell was full of smiles, thanks to people like Mike Hauser, who not only helped police track down Stevens and get Pihos' memorabilia back, but also organized Sunday's show to help raise money to pay Pihos' medical expenses.
"Words can not describe the wonderful people here and the money that Mike raised," she said. "Their are no words to describe it."
Hauser had worked with Stevens on a pair of shows in 2002 and 2003 and saw his reputation suffer because of that brief association with Stevens, who is considered a pariah in the sports memorabilia industry because of a history of alleged shady practices. When he was approached to help in identifying Stevens and learned of the difficulties Pihos and his ex-wife were facing, Hauser said he thought he had to do more.
"I'm proud to say I was able to step up and do something, and I did it," he said.
Hauser took his half of a $5,000 reward offered by the Pro Football Hall of Fame Players Association and invested it in Sunday's show, which also featured Hall of Famer John Mackey, who also suffers from Alzheimer's disease. Though final figures weren't available Sunday, Hauser said several hundred people attended the show, and he expected to raise several thousand dollars for the Pihoses.
Just as importantly, though, Hauser said he hoped to raise their spirits
after the ordeal Stevens put them through.
"We turned a bad situation into something very positive," he said. "And this really wasn't about the money. This was about lifting the human spirit. I know I feel really good about it, and I know the Pihos family is just thrilled."
And Pihos-Howell said Hauser had done what he set out to do, and so much more.
"Since [the encounter with Stevens], I've met so many kind people out there," she said. "Mike was a complete stranger, and look what he's done. I don't feel so all alone anymore. I really feel the support."
And Whitehead said she was pleased Hauser invited her to the show to help spread information about Alzheimer's disease.
"People don't really know a lot about Alzheimer's disease," she said. "[People think] it just affects old people, and it really doesn't. John Mackey is very young, and he looks great. It affects people in their 40s, their 50s, their 60s."
As the busy Sunday drew to a close, Hauser took a few moments to reflect on the past few months and the effect he had on a couple he had never met until they landed at Albany County Airport just 24 hours earlier.
"I've never felt better about myself in my life," Hauser said. "This
was a fun, fun event. We really were able to turn around a nasty situation
that put a lot of black eyes on a lot of institutions, one being Gloversville
and Fulton County, another being the sports memorabilia industry, and
just human nature, the trust that was betrayed between two people."
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