Dimitrious Stanley has passed away after a four-year battle with prostate cancer.
The death of the former Ohio State wide receiver, who was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2019, was announced Thursday morning.
Today our Buckeye family mourns the loss of Dimitrious Stanley. May he rest in peace. pic.twitter.com/PuCASfXXal
— Ohio State Football (@OhioStateFB) February 9, 2023
Stanley played for the Buckeyes from 1993-96, catching 63 passes for 1,136 yards and 13 touchdowns. He was the Buckeyes’ leading receiver during his senior year when he caught 43 passes for 829 yards and eight touchdowns and led the Buckeyes to an 11-1 season that culminated with a 20-17 win in the Rose Bowl over Arizona State.
Following his Ohio State career, Stanley played in the Canadian Football League and Arena Football League. He later went on to a career in home health care and worked in television and radio as an Ohio State football analyst. After his diagnosis of prostate cancer, Stanley started a foundation, Brave Men Inc., to raise awareness about prostate cancer and funds for others fighting the disease.
Stanley told Eleven Warriors in 2020 that he wanted to share the message that “Real men talk about health.”
“You don’t have to get to the point where I did if you get yourself to the doctor,” Stanley said. “All the stuff that I’m going through, I hope people are looking at me and saying, ‘You know what, this could happen to me, but I don’t necessarily have to go through what Dimitrious is going through because I decided to go see the doctor regularly.’ And if something changes in my body, instead of as a man, we go, ‘Oh, it’ll just go away, whatever,’; go get it looked at, just in case. And that’s kind of what I want people to get from my experience.”
Throughout his battle, Stanley received support from many of his fellow former Ohio State football players including Tyson Gentry, who started a GoFundMe to raise proceeds for Stanley and his family to help them pay for his cancer treatments. Gentry told Eleven Warriors on Thursday that the GoFundMe, which has raised more than $32,000 to date, will continue to raise money for Stanley’s wife, daughter and stepdaughters.
