Unbreakable: Kurt Hester's Relentless Fight Beyond the Weight Room

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Kurt Hester has spent over three decades transforming young athletes into champions. As the director of strength and performance for the University of Houston football team, he was always the high-energy coach ending practices with his trademark Ric Flair "Wooo!" At 61, Hester was squatting 400 pounds and showing no signs of slowing down—until a cracked rib revealed a life-threatening diagnosis: stage IV melanoma. Doctors gave Hester four to six weeks to live without treatment, a year at most with it. But Hester had other plans.

“I wasn’t going to sit around,” he told the Houston Chronicle (Solomon). Instead of giving in, he launched what he called “the biggest game plan of [his] life.”

Hester’s symptoms—fatigue, stomach pain, burping, and rapid weight loss—had been creeping in before the rib injury. When an X-ray for his injury revealed tumors on his lung and liver, the news was devastating. Yet Hester never blinked. From there, he began fighting on all fronts. He underwent chemotherapy, immunotherapy, and adopted a strict holistic regimen that included fasting, red light therapy, a vegetarian diet, alkaline water, and hyperbaric chamber sessions. His supplement regimen alone fills an entire plastic bag.

“Crushing it from every aspect there is,” he said. Despite dropping from 190 to 143 pounds and needing naps under his office desk, Hester continued working. He only shared his diagnosis after a month, during which he told players his weight loss was due to marathon training. When he walks into the facility, his players light up. “He’s a true testament of fighting until the end,” said senior cornerback Latrell McCutchin Sr. Hester’s motivation is personal, physical, and spiritual. An ordained minister, he officiated his son’s wedding and welcomed his first grandchild—all while undergoing treatment.

“If I attack this as hard as I can, I’m disciplined and have faith... I win either way,” Hester told a pastor who visited him. He’s eight weeks past the date doctors said he wouldn’t see. His breathing has improved, and he’s back to lifting weights. His fight is chronicled online, often tagged with #Unbreakable. The team even wears wristbands that say: “I’m in the fight for someone I love.” Head coach Willie Fritz called Hester an inspiration: “How can myself or any of our players whine and moan when you’ve got a guy that has cancer… and is kicking butt?”.

As for Hester, he’s still smiling, still working, and even making jokes about a “Kurt Hester Death Tour 2025” T-shirt. He’s not just surviving—he’s living. And he’s not done yet.