Difference-maker

Kenny Greer/The Lantern Jim Tressel was all smiles during the annual Ohio State Spring Game

When Bob Mansfield found out that he needed a kidney transplant to stay alive, his world turned upside down.

"The most shocking thing was that you feel so bad. You're just so sick that you don't know what is wrong with you and you are trying to figure that out," Mansfield said. "They come in the room and tell you that you need to go on dialysis, which eventually means that if you don't have the kidney transplant, you're going to die."

At that time Mansfield realized that he had three choices: "You either could have a chance at a new life, could remain the same or you could die."

Mansfield said he spent two-and-a-half years on dialysis before he got the transplant he needed 12 years ago.

Mansfield, who is an academic assistant for Ohio State football coach Jim Tressel and the football program, has been on staff since Tressel's Youngstown State days.

"He wanted me to be part of his program and I was there (at Youngstown State) for seven or eight years, and when he got the head coaching job at Ohio State, a couple of years went by and he asked me to come down to be part of this, so I have been down here for four years," Mansfield said. "It's quite an awesome experience to be part of this thing."

When the football players whine during practice, Tressel has Mansfield tell them his story.

"Many times when the players are whining and complaining about things, as players do, coach Tressel always calls me and says 'Tell them your story,'" Mansfield said. "Maybe they learn to be grateful and to be more appreciative of what they have."

Tressel thinks Mansfield's story helps players gain a new perspective on life.

"Life is about relationships," Tressel said. "He has such a zest for life and does a great job creating relationships with younger people."

Mansfield recently told his story to a group of students gathered to celebrate the end of an organ donation registration campaign. The Public Relations Student Society of America team members have been credited with registering more than 11,000 new organ donors. PRSSA faculty adviser Dan Steinberg led the group in its five-month effort.

Senior Sarah Wessling was glad to make a difference.

"I was lucky enough to be part of this project," Wessling said. "It's amazing to see the unbelievable difference we made for organ donation."

Mansfield was impressed with the PRSSA efforts to recruit new donors.

"That's amazing because it takes a combined effort to do that, and all these young people here contribute to the fact that if you care about something and you feel strongly about it you can do good things," Mansfield said. "You're willing to overlook your personal goals or agenda and try to help someone out. There's a lot of satisfaction in helping someone."

Mansfield believes that people are not organ donors because they are misinformed about transplants.

"There's a lot of misinformation out there about if you're sick and you have a surgery, they are going to let you die because you are an organ donor," Mansfield said. "That's not true... at all. There's a whole system of rules and guidelines."

During the PRSSA campaign, whenever a student signed up to be an organ donor, they were put in a drawing to have dinner with Tressel and Mansfield. Senior Vincent Bennett was the winner.

"I was in shock and happy," Bennett said. "To meet the coach and meeting everyone who put it together is very great. Meeting a recipient of a transplant really made the whole thing even more memorable."

Tressel was impressed with the students who put this project together.

"It shows you that young people are a caring bunch," Tressel said. "They might not know anyone who needed a transplant, but can understand how critical it is."

There are currently 100,000 people nationally are in need of a transplant, according to Lifeline of Ohio.

One can sign up to be an organ donor at any Bureau of Motor Vehicles or at lifelineohio.org.

"Really, that's what life is all about; serving someone else and making a difference in someone's life," Tressel said. "It just takes signing up on your driver's license and it's pretty simple."

Will Toman can be reached at toman.7@osu.edu.