Cal Football: Ron Rivera Declared Cancer-Free

Ron Rivera got great news on Thursday.

One of Cal’s most popular former football players and head coach of the NFL’s Washington Football Team, Rivera was declared cancer-free by his doctors, five months after announcing he was diagnosed with squamous cell cancer.

Rivera’s wife Stephanie and daughter Courtney announced the good news on Twitter.

“Prayers have been answered. Thx to all the Drs & nurses who “Coached Up” @RiverboatRonHC and me and gave us the winning game plan to defeat cancer,” Stephanie Rivera wrote. “The PAT scan said it all, cancer you lost this fight! #RiveraStrong

Daughter Courtney Rivera, who works as a producer for Washington’s social media, actually shared the results first.

“Thank you for all the love and prayers,” she wrote. “Just got off the phone with mom and dad leaving the hospital. @RiverboatRonHC is officially cancer free!!!”

Rivera, who turned 59 earlier this month, revealed on Aug. 20 that he had cancer and would have to undergo seven weeks of treatment during the season, which included three rounds of chemotherapy and proton therapy five days a week.

He ended his treatment on Oct. 26.

Rivera, an All-America linebacker as a senior at Cal in 1983, never missed a game during his treatments, which left him exhausted at times. He used a golf cart at practice and was given rides home each day by his wife or daughter.

"At times you get nauseous," he said in October. "At times your equilibrium is messed around with, almost a sense of vertigo. And then the nausea. It hits you at any time, anywhere. But the fatigue, going out to practice it limited me, and that bothers me because I can't coach the way I coach.”

Rivera was forced to miss three practices while going through the treatment. He lost 36 pounds, dropping below his playing weight from his days with the Chicago Bears.

Rivera was given an optimistic prognosis from the start, but his doctors were nonetheless impressed by how well he handled the experience.

"I was amazed. Usually our patients, halfway in, stop working," Dr. John Deeken, the oncologist and president of the Inova Schar Cancer Institute, told ESPN in November. "Most of our patients toward the end of their treatment are very close to needing to be hospitalized because there are so many complications.”

In his first season as coach at Washington, Rivera guided the franchise to the NFL East title, albeit with a 7-9 record. Washington lost to Tampa Bay in the first round of the playoffs.

Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo