Noah Welch says he never wavered with his response to the strange request.

October 2, 2008

Noah Welch says he never wavered with his response to the strange request.
The heady Panthers defenseman, who graduated from Harvard three years ago, was already an organ donor. His brain? Sure, he told fellow Harvard alum Chris Nowinski, he’d be willing to donate that, too, after he died.

“I really didn’t give it much thought,” Welch said. “It was something that could help out research. When I’m gone, I’m gone, so it can help someone.”

Welch is one of 12 athletes - half are NFL players; he’s the only one in the NHL - who have agreed to give their brains to the Sports Legacy Institute and Boston University School of Medicine for examination after their deaths. Most have a history of concussions.

All will be examined periodically until their deaths so their concussion histories and any related cognitive decline will be documented. Welch said he has suffered only one concussion.

“It’s more the fact I play a contact sport as opposed to I’ve had a concussion,” Welch said. “Even if I didn’t have a concussion, they would still want my brain because I play a contact sport. You get blows to the head, and they want to see how much even a small blow damages the mind.”

SLI founder Nowinski, who played football at Harvard in the late 1990s, became a professional wrestler and retired in 2003 because of multiple concussions, said that of the six dead former NFL players’ brains examined so far, five have been found to have chronic traumatic encephalopathy. All died between the ages of 36 and 50.

The 26-year-old Welch agreed to be a brain donor this summer after Nowinski approached him during a charity event in Boston. Welch said he was troubled by the suicides of former NFL players Andre Waters and Terry Long, whose brains were among the six studied.

“I’ve actually seen pictures of guys’ brains who have passed away,” Welch said. “Half of it is black with all dead brain cells. It’s crazy.”

While Welch is the only hockey player so far willing to donate, Nowinski said Oilers forward Geoff Sanderson and former NHLers Pat LaFontaine and Jeff Serowick recently joined the advisory board Welch is part of. Welch said once the regular season starts, he will encourage other NHL players to donate their brains.

“Hopefully more people will end up coming forward,” Welch said. “It can help the research and keep guys safe - make sure that after they stop playing their lives are better.”

MacIntyre claimed

The Oilers claimed defenseman Steve MacIntyre, one of 23 players in the Panthers’ organization reassigned to AHL Rochester on Sunday, off waivers. If the Oilers choose to send down MacIntyre rather than keep him on their NHL roster, the Panthers would have first rights of any team to grab him.