Three days after the University of Virginia football team completed one of its most thrilling wins in years, a Cavalier player produced a milestone victory of a different kind.
On Sept. 29, the Monday following UVA’s wild, 46-38, double-overtime stunner over eighth-ranked Florida State University, Robbie Engelberg, a reserve safety and special teams contributor, was laid up in a Washington-area hospital bed after a lengthy procedure to donate his stem cells to a 65-year-old man battling a rare blood cancer.
Engelberg holds his stem cells after going through a donation procedure at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital. (Contributed photo)
The recipient of Engelberg’s donation, due to privacy laws, remains anonymous for now. All Engelberg knows about him is his gender, age and diagnosis, myelodysplastic syndrome. But he hopes there will be a day in the next year when the fourth-year student can connect with the man whose life he may have saved.
“I would love to get to know him,” Engelberg said.
Ann Henegar is the executive director of the nonprofit Project Life Movement organization that co-sponsored the drive in March 2023, held on Grounds, where Engelberg swabbed his cheek and joined the stem cell and bone marrow registry. She envisions a first meeting between Engelberg and his recipient – assuming the transplant was successful – celebrated in a way that rivals how Wahoo fans toasted that Sept. 26 win over Florida State.
“We could even do it at a football game,” Henegar said. “Witnessing a patient meet their life-saving miracle match is an amazing experience.”
Engelberg, a two-time Atlantic Coast Conference Honor Roll member, is on track to receive his media studies degree in May, but plans to return to Grounds in the fall and use his final year of NCAA eligibility.
He said it was a “no-brainer” to proceed with the donation after receiving an email from the Gift of Life Marrow Registry last spring, alerting him that – against 1-in-500 odds – his genetic markers lined up with a sick patient seeking a transplant.
It would require additional blood work, a series of injections, and the actual donation procedure, all taking place during the football season to align with the patient’s needs.
Engelberg, a safety and special teams contributor for the Cavaliers, defends a Virginia Tech player during UVA’s 27-7 win over the Hokies on Nov. 29 at Scott Stadium. (UVA Athletics photo)
UVA head coach Tony Elliott was on board with Engelberg following through, telling the 22-year-old, “I completely support you,” while often checking in on him throughout the process.
The Cavalier program has a history of making an impact in this area. From 2010 to 2015, former head coach Mike London, who saved his daughter’s life with a bone marrow transplant in 2003, hosted community drives on Grounds, which led to matches and donations from then-Wahoo football players Trevor Grywatch, Chris Hinkebein and David Marrs.
These are “life-changing” acts, according to Kelli Pugh, UVA’s senior associate athletics director for sports medicine and a member of the football team’s training staff since 2002. In Engelberg’s case, Pugh served as a guide, working with team physicians, managing appointments and ensuring his lab work was sent on time.
On the day of the Florida State game, Pugh drove Engelberg from the team hotel – the DoubleTree off U.S. 29 – to the Hardie Football Operations Center. There, Dr. John MacKnight delivered a required round of three injections into Engelberg’s shoulders ahead of the Sept. 29 operation.
