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Imagine; you are 16 years old, a sophomore coming into your athletic prime. You are a starter on your team; you have worked in the weight room and on the field to become an integral part of your team. You’ve played with your teammates since grade school. You’re a leader, you feel as strong as you ever have.
Then one day your knee that you thought you hurt in Football Season is giving you fits, hurting pretty bad. You’re not sure exactly what you did to it but it seems to be getting worse instead of better. You go to the Doctor thinking you may have a sprain, maybe a deep contusion. The Doctor then runs tests, X-rays, Blood work…..
Your parents then get a call, they need for you all to come back ASAP…You go in and the Dr. gently as possible tells you, “You have Osteogenic Sarcoma”…CANCER…You are given one treatment option….Amputation.
This was the scenario thrown at Kenny Knipp in 1988. Having just finished his sophomore season as a member of the Varsity Football Team Kenny went to the Mayo Clinic and had his right leg removed above the knee, but, this is just the beginning of the story.
After amputation, Kenny had to learn to walk again, went through grueling intense physical therapy, dealt with ghost pains from burning toes that were no longer there. There was learning to walk with a cane and a prosthetic and how to drive a car without his right leg. But what really kept Kenny going was a deep hidden desire to play the sport he loved so much again.
Nobody really knew of his desire to play football, it was a secret he kept very guarded and to himself. During the summer between his junior and senior year he told his mother Agnes of his intention of getting back on the gridiron. He told his mom, “I am going to back to the football team Mom.” His Mom encouraged him to help in some capacity maybe as a manager, and that is when he told her ‘not at just some capacity’…He was planning on suiting up and playing…
After the initial shock and worry settled and lengthy discussions with the RH Coaching Staff, Kenny’s Parents, Larry and Agnes Knipp, gave their full support for him to play football. He went through summer conditioning on one leg. While the other football players ran, Ken “hopped’ on his left leg, never skipping out on any reps. He worked extremely hard in the weight room. Any misgivings that the coaching staff, his teammates and family may have had quickly abated once Ken fully suited up for the first day of contact.
On Ken’s first initial hit during the first contact of the 1989 Football Season, #78 Ken Knipp served full notice….He was here to play football. He was not a novelty, he was not someone to be pitied and felt sorry for, because if you did, he would bring you PAIN!!! In that first contact of the season Ken lined up across from the starting RH center in a practice drill and made clear that the center was to do his job or pay the consequences, he then proceeded to break the center’s face mask with 2 years of pent up aggression, rage and just simply wanting to play the game he had come to love…
Kenny would go on to start all 10 games for the Redmen during his senior year on defense playing nose guard. He played on one leg without the use of a prosthetic, hopping on and off the field and from the huddle to his position and would then get into his reverse 3 point stance. He even made double digit tackles in the game vs Fairland that season.
Through his Faith in God, grit, determination, self-confidence and the support of his Family and Redmen Teammates & Coaches, Ken defied the odds to return to the sport he loved for his senior season, defeating cancer resoundingly. He never allowed cancer or its aftermath to define him, but rather used it to continue to shape and mold the person he had always been.
A top scholar, Ken was a Rock Hill National Honor Society Member and finished as his class Salutatorian. He would go on to graduate with Honors from Ohio Northern University with a degree in Pharmacy and recieved his Doctorate of Pharmacy from The Ohio State University. He currently works at Adena Regional Medical Center as a Pharmacist. He and his wife Stacy live in the Chillicothe area with their two daughters Elena and Emma and are very active within their community. Ken has remained cancer free since his amputation!!
We asked Ken what it meant to be a Redman: “It meant a lot to be a part of the Redmen Family. I always felt I had the support of the community, classmates, teachers and my team. I enjoyed the years I wore the Red and White and have many fond memories. I still follow the Redmen, even though I can’t be at many of the sporting events. It is always special when I get to go back and watch the young men and women represent The Hill.” –Ken Knipp RHHS Class of 1990
