Nick Bell, Mississippi State DE, Passes Away At 20 Following Battle With Skin Cancer

Mississippi State’s website has confirmed the terribly tragic news: Nick Bell, the program’s 20-year-old defensive end, has died following a battle with skin cancer. The school’s athletic department has announced that it plans to establish a memorial fund in Bell’s honor.

Mississippi State personnel have issued statements in the wake of Bell’s passing. From the program’s head coach, Dan Mullen:

His family and friends had been summoned to University of Alabama-Birmingham hospital after his conditioned worsened in the past three days. Mississippi State coach Dan Mullen visited yesterday with several members of the Mississippi State football team, and discussed Bell’s condition publicly at a Mississippi boosters club meeting in Birmingham.

Bell started two games this year before his diagnosis. He played in parts of 12 games in 2009 as a redshirt freshman, and was starting on the Bulldogs defensive line in 2010 before headaches and hand weakness prompted him to visit doctors who found a mass on his brain causing the symptoms, a tumor thought to be related to a lesion removed from Bell’s forehead two years prior. A surgery at Vanderbilt Medical Center in October removed the tumor, but the cancer had metastasized to the rest of his body after the surgery over the course of just one month.

Bell had a second, emergency operation performed at UAB hospital on Monday, and is currently in intensive care, listed in grave condition. He was visited by a group of several dozen coaches and teammates, and according to the Bulldogs’ beat writer for Scout, family and friends are saying their goodbyes: