Courtesy Miami Herald

(April 4, 2010) Popular sportscaster and former Miami Dolphins player Jim Mandich, battling bile duct cancer, said Friday he received an encouraging report from doctors Thursday and is optimistic about returning to the Dolphins broadcast booth this upcoming season.

Making his first on-air appearance since January, Mandich told WQAM-560's Joe Rose that his battle "has been quite an ordeal'' but his spirits are high. Mandich fielded emotional calls from listeners who wished him well and told him how much he means to them.

"Still have a long road ahead of me," said Mandich, who felt a stabbing sensation in his diaphragm in December and was diagnosed with cancer in February. "This is a tough fight. But I'm up to the challenge."

Mandich, 61, has been receiving chemotherapy for six weeks, and said the hope is that the treatment shrinks the tumor enough to remove it. A transplant also has not been ruled out, he said.

"I got a positive review yesterday from my doctors, which was very uplifting," he said. "You've got to be cautious that you don't seize on these things. It was spirit lifting." Mandich will be reevaluated in another month after more chemotherapy.

Mandich said he has received well-wishes from numerous former teammates, as well as Dolphins free agent linebacker Jason Taylor and Dolphins coach Tony Sparano and his wife (who sent a gift basket).

"The response from people has been unbelievable," Mandich said. ‘‘Couples coming up hugging me, saying we're praying for you. It really boosts your spirits. . . . It's been just overwhelming. I can't tell you how important my family has been to me. You trust in your physicians and you trust in God, and you go that way."

Mandich, who weighed 215 pounds last December, dropped to 180 pounds several weeks ago (‘‘I was a ghastly bag of bones,") but has put on about 12 pounds since then. He gave up his daily talk on WQAM last month but remains president of Lotspiech, a South Florida-based construction company.

"I'm leading an active, vigorous life over the last three weeks," he told Rose. "I go to the office four or five hours a day. I hit the Shula's fitness club just about every day. Appetite is there. All of these things are good signs. Day by day, I'm going back to a little more of normalcy."

February was difficult, he said, "because of complications. I developed something called ascites and bile started backing up on me. I spent about 24 days in February on my back with 30 pounds of fluid in my belly coming out to the tune of three or four liters a day in a pleurx catheter."

When he sat alone in recent weeks, "You go through all your thoughts. Gee, I wanted to live the fourth quarter of my life and wanted to see my children get married." But when he sees young people in the hospital, "you quickly lose that ‘Woe is me' and you look at somebody else's situation and you go, ‘Wow!' You say, ‘Lord, pick me. Don't pick this kid.' You know that whole ‘Why me?' It quickly disappears."

Mandich said he will meet with the Dolphins soon and would like to continue to announce the team's games, which are moving from WQAM to WINZ-940. The Dolphins have said they would like to have Mandich back in the broadcast booth. "His chair is sacred,'' said Jim Rushton, a Dolphins' senior vice president.

Mandich said he will attend The Masters for a 20th consecutive year next week and will call WQAM's Sid Rosenberg, on air, on Tuesday.

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