George Mitchell, the man leading an independent investigation of steroid use among Major League Baseball players -- he's also a former U.S. Senate Majority Leader -- has been diagnosed with prostate cancer.

"The cancer is small, low grade and localized, and can be effectively treated and cured,'' says Mitchell's physician, The prognosis is very good for Mitchell, a Democrat from Maine.

Mitchell, 73, said in a statement that he expects his treatment will not interfere with his investigation that began in March 2006 when he was appointed by MLB Commissioner Bud Selig to interview hundreds of people and review thousands of documents.

Texas Longhorns running backs coach Ken Rucker will soon take a leave of absence, following his recent diagnosis of prostate cancer. Rucker will have surgery on August 27. He wll keep coaching until this date.

Rucker, a 33-year coaching veteran, fully intends on returning to coaching this season.

"I plan to be back this season," he says. "No doubt about it; 100 percent."

Rucker's prognosis is good -- thanks to early detection.

Bill Walsh, builder of an NFL dynasty with his 49ers of the 1980s, died of leukemia Monday at his San Francisco Bay. Walsh, known as The Genius for his innovative, pass-oriented attack, was 75.

Walsh was 102-63-1 with the 49ers and won three Super Bowls and six divisional titles in just 10 years. He was named Coach of the Year in 1981 and 1984 and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1993. He served twice as the 49ers' general manager and coached at Stanford after leaving the 49ers.

"His coaching accomplishments speak for themselves, but the essence of Bill Walsh was he was an extraordinary teacher," says NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. "If you gave him a blackboard and a piece of chalk, he would become a whirlwind of wisdom. He revolutionized the game with his offense and will always be remembered as one of the most influential people in NFL history."

Original ABC Wide World of Sports announcer Bill Flemming, also known for broadcasting college football, golf, and Olympic events, died last Friday of prostate cancer. He was 80.

Before sports fans were watching televised football games all weekend long -- and then watching on-going highlights on ESPN -- they were listening to Fleming's Sunday afternoon run-down of the previous day's games. He offered fans a glimpse into matches from other regions, and he traveled all over these same regions if it meant capturing a story. He announced 11 Olympics and more than 600 Wide World of Sports events. He once shuttled from hurling in Ireland to car racing in Santa Monica, California, to a parachuting contest in Bavaria, all in just one month.

Named Norman Flemming on the day he was born in 1926, this man grew up in the Chicago area, moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan as a high school student, and was a member of Ann Arbor High School's state championship football team in 1943. He was also co-captain of the basketball team. He came by athletics naturally. Speech, his eventual college major, was another love. In 1949, he won a campus-wide speech contest and landed the grand prize: a summer job at WUOM, the campus radio station. He worked his way up to sports director. And then his career took off.

More than 90 Penn State football players will compete on July 13 in an event where they plan to tackle kidney cancer. Well, maybe they won't literally tackle kidney cancer -- wouldn't that be nice -- but by raising awareness and funding, they'll surely make a difference.

The strength and conditioning event, called Lift For Life, will benefit the Kidney Cancer Association for the fifth year in a row. In past years, it's generated more than $148,000. In the 2005-06 year alone, $60,000 was raised for this rare disease.

Lift For Life challenges the mental and physical endurance of student-athletes and consists of 11 exercises. Think traditional bench and leg presses and the less conventional giant tire flip and iron cross and you've got an idea of what will take place in just one week.

Jimmy Walker, former Providence College basketball star and first pick in the 1967 NBA draft, died Monday of lung cancer. He was 63.

Walker played three seasons at Providence and held a school record with a total of 2,045 scored points. His record stood for 38 years. Ryan Gomes surpassed his total in 2005.

"He was an amazing phenomenon," says Jim Cox, who played with Walker in 1964. "That he ended up at Providence College was a remarkable development. He was so good, so blessed. He was ahead of his time."

Walker, father of NBA player Jalen Rose -- part of Michigan's Fab Five of the 1990s -- was drafted by the Detroit Pistons and averaged 16.7 points a game in nine NBA seasons. At one time, Walker and Rose held the NCAA Division I record for most career points by a father-son duo.

Major League Baseball and the Prostate Cancer Foundation teamed up this year to form the Home Run Challenge in honor of Father's Day. Their gift to father's across the country: for each home run hit in 60 selected games between June 6 and today, June 17, raised money for prostate cancer, the second most common cancer for men in the United States.

Some fans of this cause made pledges; some posted online tributes to their dads at Dockers San Francisco. For every message submitted, the company donated one dollar. Some messages were even shown in Times Square for all to see.

I just checked the status of the Home Run Challenge on this Father's Day morning and found the most updated total of home runs to be 91. Leading the accomplishment are Ken Griffey, Jr., Alex Rodriguez, and Alfonso Soriano. The current Team Home Run leader: the Cincinnati Reds.

Bill France Jr., the man who helped build Daytona International Speedway and built NASCAR into a nationwide billion-dollar conglomerate, died Monday at his Daytona Beach, Fla. home. France had been diagnosed with cancer in 1999 -- he never publicly disclosed any details about his disease -- and had been in poor health for much of the past 10 years. He was 74.

"He had a remarkable career and an even more remarkable life," said his son, Brian France, who replaced him as chairman in 2003. "Words cannot express how much he'll be missed by myself and the rest of our family and by the NASCAR industry overall."

France spent 31 years as NASCAR chairman and earned himself a reputation as a benevolent dictator. He rarely compromised yet always did what was best for NASCAR. France's passing is a huge loss for the sport.

Former Green Bay, New England, and Cleveland football player Joe Andruzzi has just completed the first of a 12-step series of chemotherapy treatments for Burkitt's lymphoma, a form of non-Hodgkins lymphoma.

Andruzzi, married and dad to four children, was released by the Browns on May 2 so he and his family could move to New Jersey. Then last week, Andruzzi began experiencing abdominal pain and other symptoms. He consulted with the Browns' medical staff, underwent a colonoscopy, learned an abnormality was found, and then headed to Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston where he was diagnosed with Burkitt's.

The cure rate for Burkitt's -- a rapidly growing, rare form of cancer that strikes only 100 people in the United States each year -- is about 80 percent if patients receive intensive therapy, according to the National Cancer Institute. The other patient survival factor is the stage of the disease. Andruzzi's stage has not been publicly reported.

Kelly Jo Dowd, mom of 14-year-old golf sensation Dakoda Dowd, died of breast cancer in her Palm Harbor, Fla. home Thursday night. She was 42.

Dowd spent years battling the disease that had spread to her bones, liver, and brain. She also spent years waiting to see her young daughter play in an LPGA event. Her wish came true last spring.

"I'm prouder today than I was yesterday that my daughter has the courage and strength to play with these LPGA professionals," Dowd said after the Ginn Clubs & Resorts LPGA tournament. "And I feel great right now. I feel great. My dream came true out here."

Here's more proof that melanoma happens -- and to young people too.

Texas A&M second baseman Parker Dalton was diagnosed with melanoma last September and underwent surgery to remove the skin cancer that had surfaced right between his shoulder blades. Five days after surgery, he returned to school and resumed baseball practice. He was declared cancer-free in October.

Dalton's only visible reminder of cancer is a reddish, eye-shaped gouge in the middle of his back. It's the not-so-apparent reminders -- the emotional underpinnings of a cancer journey -- that fill Dalton's mind and offer him his renewed sense of purpose and perspective and a fresh commitment to his religious faith.

Dalton is playing baseball better than ever. He says he feels like if he can beat cancer, he can beat a curveball."

Here's more proof there is life after cancer.

Oakland Athletics center fielder Nick Swisher appeared at Saturday evening's pregame event wearing three ponytails. Prepared to donate his locks to the Pantene Beautiful Lengths non-profit campaign, Swisher said just before his ponytails were snipped, "I feel like Pippi Longstocking. I look so goofy right now. But if I can make a difference in one or two women's lives, it's worth it."

Swisher's father -- major league baseball player Steve Swisher -- did the cutting honors. And it was fitting the two men were in on this endeavor together because Swisher's grandmother -- his dad's mother -- died from brain cancer two years ago.

"The initial idea was out of respect for my mom -- but the second thing is: It's time for a haircut,'' Steve Swisher said. "I'm so proud of Nick. He's bringing attention to a good cause and that's what it's all about.''

Pantene creates free wigs for women dealing with hair loss from cancer treatment.

The Utah Jazz's Derek Fisher finds himself in a whole new ballgame lately as he helps his 10-month-old daughter, Tatum, fight for her life.

Tatum was diagnosed last week with retinoblastoma, a cancerous tumor in her left eye. Fisher, who was excused from his team to begin dealing with his daughter's illness, flew his family -- his wife Candace, Tatum, and Tatum's twin brother Drew -- to New York on Monday to see a specialist.

Fisher and his wife must decide on a course of treatment for their daughter. Their options are removal of the eye or a combination of surgery and chemotherapy. Their most pressing goal is to save Tatum's life. They also want to save her eye. And they think in her case, she should be able to keep her eye.

It's been a rough road for former Boise State basketball player Coby Karl, son of Denver Nuggets coach George Karl. The younger Karl, 23, had his thyroid removed 13 months ago due to papillary carcinoma, a treatable form of cancer. And he returned to the operating room just last week for the removal of cancerous lymph nodes.

Karl's recent surgery, intended to take two to three hours, lasted for seven hours. This worried Dad.

''When it goes longer and longer, you always think the worst, and start worrying about things like being under anesthesia that long and all the nightmares you have about surgeries,'' George Karl said.

But it turns out Coby was just fine -- doctors just wanted to be thorough -- and the ambitious young man plans to play ball as soon as possible.

Coby is expected to remain inactive for 10 days to two weeks. But after that, he is free to do whatever he wants. And what the 6-foot-4 guard wants to do is start working out in hopes of getting drafted by an NBA team.

''He is anxious to get into the NBA thing and celebrate basketball by trying to make it in this league,'' his dad says.

Denver Nuggets coach George Karl missed his team's match-up against the Lakers Tuesday night so he could spend some quality time with his son, Coby, who had surgery for the removal of cancerous lymph nodes on Monday.

Coby Karl, 23, spent seven hours in surgery. It was his second surgery in 13 months -- he had his thyroid removed last year after he was diagnosed with a treatable form of cancer called papillary carcinoma. Chemotherapy followed the first surgery to kill off any remaining cancer cells.

All reports indicate both Karls are doing fine and Coach Karl, who has been surviving prostate cancer since 2005, was back to his coaching duties last night. His team took on the Sacramento Kings -- and won.

Coby Karl is taking it easy for now. He just recently finished his final season with Boise State University where he led the Broncos with 14.8 points per game. He's still a great athlete, but right now, his health comes first.

"He's a young kid, he's a promising basketball player," Lakers coach Phil Jackson said. "The most important thing is his health."