Dan Waeger, a McDaniel grad and assistant golf coach at Division I Wagner College, is always busy. If he’s not instructing students in the art of the putt, he is taking classes toward his MBA. Waeger also frequently drives from Wagner’s picturesque Staten Island campus to Maryland, in order to undergo chemotherapy treatments for a cancer that baffles doctors.

It began inconspicuously enough – with a simple cough.

“It was May 1, and I was in a golf tournament,” said Waeger, with a matter-of-factness that belies his recent diagnosis with cancer. “I started coughing real bad. I was having respiratory problems, becoming short of breath.”
 
The school nurse diagnosed him with allergies, but the medicine didn’t work. Over the coming days, Waeger’s respiratory problems grew worse. Walking across campus exhausted him.

On May 13, Waeger checked himself into the hospital. Within days, doctors performed heart surgery to remove one-and-a-half liters of fluid that had build up around his heart.

“There are multiple specks of cancer everywhere in my lungs,” said Waeger, draped in a hefty gray hooded sweatshirt sitting on a sofe in Decker Center during a recent visit back on campus.
 
Because doctors could not pinpoint where the disease came from, Waeger’s cancer is called Cancer of an Unknown Primary, or C.U.P. C.U.P. is the diagnosis in 3 to 5 percent of all cancer cases.

While Waeger was undergoing chemotherapy this summer, a friend who owns the Royal Oaks Golf Club in Lebanon, Pa., came up with an idea for a golf tournament to raise money for the treatments. It would be called the Waeger CUP.

This gave Waeger an idea for how to help others. Soon he created the “National Collegiate Cancer Foundation,” which provides need-based financial support for cancer patients who are in college. The Foundation will pay for textbooks, transportation, and other costs that a student fighting cancer may need.

Waeger hopes to make the golf tournament, the Waeger CUP, an annual event.

“I want to raise money for the Foundation,” Waeger said, sincerity and compassion lacing his clear, unwavering voice. “But I want everyone to come together for another reason too – to play golf and have fun.”

The Waeger CUP will be held 11 a.m. Oct. 30 at the Royal Oaks Golf Club, 3350 West Oak St., Lebanon, Pa., 17042.

For more information on the Waeger C.U.P. or about donating to the National Collegiate Cancer Foundation, email Dan Waeger at dwaeger@wagner.edu or call the Royal Oaks Golf Club at (717) 274-2212.