LOUISVILLE - Jerry Quiller's ego wouldn't cover the tip of a track shoe's spike. During a nearly 40-year coaching career, it's never been about him. And that is among the characteristics, perhaps even the overriding one, which drew his runners, jumpers and throwers close to him - and has kept them there.

The past three years, he's needed all of them. His many friends, peers, former pupils and family have responded in full, in ways he might not have imagined.

The coach affectionately known as 'Q' is battling multiple myeloma, an insidious cancer that begins in plasma cells and can affect bone marrow. It has forced him to have four titanium support rods, each about a foot long, implanted midway down his back. He also has undergone a stem-cell transplant, had major radiation treatment and chemotherapy, and has routine blood draws that detail the advance and retreat of his battle.