BOISE, Idaho — This article originally appeared in the Idaho Press.
Kent Kemble did not believe he was going to die. At the least, he did not want to believe he was going to die.
Kent was a man of nine lives. He had cancer so often, his brother Steve can only narrow it down to “five or six times.” He fought bouts with cancer that turned into heart failure six years ago and a scary procedure at the Mayo Clinic. He survived it all.
Around a year ago, though, his health really dipped. This was different. Hospital visits became more frequent. At one point, he spent a few months at a rehab facility in Oregon. He was barely able to work, but still kept showing up despite trouble walking. The final diagnosis was organ failure. Hope for another miraculous recovery dwindled.
He checked in to the hospital for the last time on the second Sunday in January. There were restrictions that limited guests, but Kent’s nephew, Keith, and Keith’s wife, Traci, spent that Friday night with him inside the ICU.
The next day, Kent was discharged on hospice care. But not before the doctor ran through all those end-of-life questions no one is ready for.
Kent had the same answer to every question the doctor asked.
“I just want to be home for the basketball game.”
The Boise State basketball team was in Laramie the day Kent left the hospital, playing Wyoming in a late-night conference matchup.
Kent, a longtime Boise State football and basketball season-ticket holder, did not want to believe that would be his last chance to watch his beloved Broncos. In his final days, he was still planning hunting trips his family knew he wouldn’t be around for.
One night soon after the ambulance escorted him back to his home in Ontario, Oregon, his great-nephew, Brody — a long-distance runner on the Northwest Nazarene track team — walked through the door after a practice. Kent was adamant that Brody bring him an NNU sweatshirt. In the midst of hospice care, Kent was thinking about what he might wear the next time he cheered on his great-nephew.
He was the eternal optimist until he passed on January 20 at the age of 67, leaving Earth only days after what his family called “the highlight of his life.”
• • •
Think about your vision of what you hope for your last days.
Some of us have an idea of how we want to spend those last days, thoughts often pulled from some idealistic movie. Some bucket-list odyssey; one final mid-rare filet; or maybe something more simplistic, as long as that something includes a room filled with family and friends.
Then think about this: When push came to shove and Kent Kemble was asked about his final wishes, all he asked was to watch Boise State play.
Traci Kemble is a nurse at St. Luke’s, well aware of the forecast that awaits hospice patients. She knew how important that basketball game — mundane as it may have felt to most — was to Kent, her husband’s uncle.
If it was to be his last game, it was to be special. So on the day before BSU played Wyoming, Traci Kemble reached out to some folks at Boise State, told them of Kent’s health situation, his final request and if anyone at Boise State could help make it memorable.
She emailed Boise State coach Leon Rice, then figured it would be more receptive in the inbox of someone not coaching a basketball team. A member of BSU’s marketing team, Lauren Griswold, forwarded it along, where it eventually made its way to Cody Gougler, a senior associate athletic director at BSU.
Gougler called Traci on Saturday from Laramie and said he’d try and get something sent over. Then someone texted Traci asking her to send over some pictures of Kent — and pictures of him wearing Broncos gear if possible.
“Honest to goodness,” Traci Kemble said, “if there was a picture we could find of Kent not in Boise State gear, it would be a miracle.”
Just before Boise State tipped off at Wyoming, Keith, Traci and their family drove over to Kent’s house in Ontario. Kent was laying on a hospital bed in the middle of his living room wearing a blue BSU shirt and a vintage hat celebrating the Broncos’ 2008 WAC championship.
A scraggly beard covered most of his chin and cheeks. He looked frail and weak, all the hospital visits draining his weight. Kent’s round face had become a leaner oval. Because of jaundice from liver failure, his eyes turned green. But to look into his green eyes was to see a man present.
And then those eyes beamed.
While Kent’s family stood around him, and his sisters watching via Zoom, Kent was shown a video. It was the basketball team standing on the court in Laramie, Rice in the middle flanked by his entire team.
“Kent!” The video boomed. “This is Leon Rice from the Boise State basketball team. We’re so excited to play tonight and we’re dedicating this one to you. You’ve been there for us for 30 years so we’re going to go out and leave it all out there for you.”
“He was on cloud nine,” Traci said.
Making the night even better: A few minutes before halftime, Boise State up by six in an eventual rout of Wyoming, the Fox Sports 1 broadcast came back from commercial break and up on the screen popped picture after picture of Kent.
“We’d like to wish Kent Kemble and his family the best tonight,” Fox broadcaster Tim Neverett said. “We understand that Kent really wanted to watch this game and we’re thinking about you, Kent.”
Tears streamed down the faces of everyone in the room, except for the man of the hour himself, who lay in his hospital bed with only a few days to live and smiled like he won the lottery.
“It’s one of those memories I’ll take with me the rest of my life,” said Kent’s nephew, Keith. “I’m sure it was one of the highlights of his life.”
“I don’t think you could have sent him out any better,” added Kent’s brother, Steve.
• • •
At the bottom of Kent Kemble’s obituary was a line that might’ve been written for the first time.
“If you would like,” it read, “please wear Boise State colors to the Celebration of Life.”
The Christian Life Fellowship in Ontario was covered in blue and orange that day, a fitting tribute to a man who owned nothing more. The Boise State fight song blasted through the room. Then Keith and Traci spoke about Kent’s last few days, about his last request and the joy Boise State basketball brought him.
The pastor that day, Doug Hezeltine, shared a story about speaking with Kent before he passed. With time short and reflection on the mind, he asked if Kent had any regrets. Not any personal regrets, Kent assured him, but he did wish that Kyle Brotzman had made that kick against Nevada.
So much of Kent Kemble’s life revolved around Boise State. It was fitting his celebration of life honored that.
Kent and his late-wife, Donna, would attend almost every game. When she passed, the ritual did not stop, but spread. Kent had to invite others to tag along, and so the man who never had children of his own brought with him friends, nephews and nieces and great-nephews and great-nieces.
At one point in the service, Hezeltine looked out to the crowd and asked all those who Kent invited to a Boise State game to raise their hand.
“It was a lot,” Keith Kemble said.
Kent Kemble showed his love through Boise State. In his final days, Boise State showed Kent Kemble how much he was loved.
This article originally appeared in the Idaho Press, read more on IdahoPress.com.
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